Reviews and comments

I'm flabbergasted... Can't put it down. Readers

I think it's superb. I read many local histories, but rarely one as good as this on appearance, price, lack of typographical errors, clarity of exposition, quality of research... clarity of illustrations, usefulness of footnotes, etc. A reader

I with I was a Witham man. Braintree man

I have rarely read a book so well written and illustrated and so comprehensively indexed and referenced... a pleasure to read. A reader with Witham ancestors

Too big to read in bed. A small reader

Should attract a wide range of readers... skilfully laid out... a delight to read and to use. EF: News sheet of the Essex Federation of the W.E.A., Spring 1997

Definitely a 'good buy'. Local Historian, November 1997

An awareness of historical debates... Packed with information... difficult terms are explained with great clarity... illuminating detail... its main asset is to make the realities of early modern everyday life more accessible to the reader - any reader, from those with no historical knowledge to the professional historian. History, 271, July 1998