Two huge points in this book’s favour, well three, if you count the TV series but for the other two, firstly it’s telling English history from one place which gives the history great strength, a backbone if you like. Secondly it is involving the people who live there so that this history is not static on the page it is being rediscovered and reinterpreted by the people of the village. And really, there is a fourth point in its favour, it’s a project led by Michael Wood who manages the balance between popular and academic history so expertly.
The village of Kibworth in Leicestershire lies at the very centre of England. It has a church, some pubs, the Grand Union Canal, a First World War Memorial - and many centuries of recorded history. In the thirteenth century the village was bought by William de Merton, who later founded Merton College, Oxford, with the result that documents covering 750 years of village history are lodged at the college. Building on this unique archive, and enlisting the help of the current inhabitants of Kibworth, with a village-wide archeological dig, with the first complete DNA profile of an English village and with use of local materials like family memorabilia, Michael Wood tells the extraordinary story of one English community over fifteen centuries, from the moment that the Roman Emperor Honorius sent his famous letter in 410 advising the English to look to their own defences to the village as it is today. The story of Kibworth is the story of England itself, a 'Who Do You Think You Are?' for the entire nation. It is the subject of a six-part BBC tv series to be shown in autumn 2010.
Michael Wood is the writer and presenter of many critically acclaimed series on television, including Art of the Western World, Legacy and In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great. He is author of over sixty TV films which have been shown worldwide and of several best selling and highly praised books.
He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Oriel College Oxford where he did postgraduate research in Anglo-Saxon history. Since then he has worked as a journalist, broadcaster and film maker.
Indian civilisation has long been a special interest: Over the years Michael Wood has made a dozen visits to India and in addition to his films, Darshan and Legacy, he has written The Smile of Murugan, about a small town inTamil Nadu and its annual pilgrimage.
His academic background was in early medieval English history; among his publications are In Search of the Dark Ages and Domesday. He published a recent series of medieval essays as In Search of England.
Michael Wood lives in North London with his wife and their two daughters.
