English Battlefields - by Michael Rayner (Paperback)

About the Book

A comprehensive A-Z guide of information on every battle fough on English soil

Book Synopsis

"Fascinating" --The Sunday Telegraph

England has been fought over for centuries, by invaders and in civil wars. The sites of these desperate struggles are as varied as the reasons they were fought over, be they fields, towns or fortresses, by land, sea or air. These haunted acres are places of commemoration, memory and, above all, history. These are the places where history was made, and as such they form a crucial part of the historic environment.

By 'reading' them like any other form of historical evidence, much can be learned about the events which took place there. Through stripping away later features and land use with an eye for the ground, the battlefield historian can, with the use of contemporary accounts, archaeology and military history, reconstruct the events which have shaped the present.

In this ground-breaking volume, covering over 500 battlefields, Michael Rayner unravels these various strands and weaves them back together to give clear, concise accounts of the battles which shaped England.

Review Quotes

'A painstaking survey of English battlefields ... expunges myths, illuminates facts, and puts these haunted acres into their proper context. A first-rate book.' --Richard Holmes

'A fascinating and, for all its factual tone, an atmospheric volume.'

'A painstaking survey of English battlefields ... expunges myths, illuminates facts, and puts these haunted acres into their proper context. A first-rate book.'

'It may come as a surprise to some just how many battles have been fought on English soil ... An authoritative work.'

'The most comprehensive reference book on English battlefields ever written.'

About the Author

Michael Rayner is the coordinator of the Battlefields Trust, a Heritage Lottery-funded charity dedicated to protecting battlefield sites across the UK. He has been at the forefront of battlefield preservation and interpretation in the UK for 20 years. His other books include Battlefields: Exploring the Arenas of War, 1805-1945.