LONDON, A Historical Novel

London by Edward Rutherfurd
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I wish they had taught history in high school like this. Mr. Rutherford takes the people and their stories through time. The stories are fiction, but the history is real. After I read Sarum I wanted to go North and read London. He moves the reader through different time periods, updating the families with stories of the descendants of the original families. A ancestral chart is included along with maps from the different eras. The chart was of the fictional families. I wish he had included a chart of the different kings and queens during each era*. If you are interested in English history from a personal perspective, I highly recommend London.

*As I read the book, I made my own chart of Kings and Queens that appeared in the book  and some events that occurred in each era by chapter. An accurate list can be found at this link: 
Kings and Queens of England & Britain.

The River: BC 54 
Druids, Celts, Caesar/Rome King Canute
Londinium AD 251
Romans
The Rood 604
Christian Church planned. Rome/Pope
Anglo Saxon
The Conqueror 1066
King Edward, the Confessor
The Tower 1078
King William I
The Saint 1170
Henry I. Henry II. St. Thomas Becket. Plantagenet's
The Mayor 1189
King Richard I, The Lionheart. Crusades. Knights Templar. Magna Carta
his Son, John ruled, but died. Then, his baby son and the Council lead by The Mayor ruled.
The Whore House 1295
Henry III. His son, Edward I, Edward II
London Bridge 1357
Edward III. Richard II (10 year old son)/Guardian, John of Gaunt. 
First Bible in English. Geoffrey Chaucer. Henry IV, Henry V,
Civil War of the Roses (two Houses of the Plantagenet's): 
    Red-House of  Lancaster  and  White-House of York (Tudor)
Hampton Court 1533
Henry VIII-Anne Boleyn-Elizabeth
                      Catherine Parr-Mary Seymour 
Printing Press, Lutherans,Protestants-Cranmer 
The Globe 1597 (Theatre)
Elizabeth I
Agri Economy, Spanish Armada, Protestant Church, 
70 years since Columbus discovered America,
Drake and Raleigh, English explorers
God's Fire 1603
King James/Scotland-Oliver Cromwell-Richard Cromwell-Charles I 
Mayflower, Idea of Government Debt introduced
Virginia, Massachusetts, Harvard
London's Fire 1665
Charles II
London burns, The Plague, Restoration of House of Commons and Lords 
St. Paul's 1675 (Christopher Wren)
Charles II, James II, William III of Orange/Mary Anne
Tories and Whigs,  London Rebuilt after the fire, Bank of London
Astronomy, Greenwich Mean Time, 
Gin Lane 1750
George I, George II
Bonnie Prince Charles/Jacobite cause died, Catholic
Bow Street, house numbered for 1st time. Hanovers/Protestant
Lavender Hill 1819
George III, Prince Regent/George IV, William IV
Buckingham Palace, Industrial Revolution (Coal-Fog)
Bank of England, Options trading/Stock Exchange
Small Private banks.
The Crystal Palace 1851
Queen Victoria
The Great Exhibition, Steam, Railroads, Passenger Trains,
Crimean War-Florence Nightingale
The Cutty Sark 1889
Queen Victoria
Telephone, Electricity, Jack the Ripper
The Suffragette 1908
Queen Victoria, Edward VII, Edward VIII, George V
Selfridge's Dept. Store, Halley's Comet, Motor Car
The Tube (Subway)
The Blitz 1940

George VI, Elizabeth II

WWI, Russian Revolution, Gone With the Wind

Women to vote.

The River 1997
Elizabeth II
Clean River Thames, Tate Gallery
Museum of London, Huguenots


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