Stephanie Jane reviewed Killers of the King by Tim Bruce
Dull initially, but gets much more engaging
3 stars
I had this audiobook awaiting listening for several years before I actually steeled myself to get all the way through it. The problem for me is that Spencer initially rushes through a great long list of names and battles, most of which were unknown to me, in order to give an overview of the lead-up to the execution of Charles I, the act itself and the following Commonwealth Republic years until the demise of Oliver Cromwell. I struggled to kind my mind from wandering during the first third of Killers Of The King, eventually having to restart the narration three times over in my determination to hear the whole book! Other reviewers had said it got more engaging later on and I wanted to find out for myself that this is indeed the case.
Once Spencer begins to talk about the individual names as real people, Killers Of The King …
I had this audiobook awaiting listening for several years before I actually steeled myself to get all the way through it. The problem for me is that Spencer initially rushes through a great long list of names and battles, most of which were unknown to me, in order to give an overview of the lead-up to the execution of Charles I, the act itself and the following Commonwealth Republic years until the demise of Oliver Cromwell. I struggled to kind my mind from wandering during the first third of Killers Of The King, eventually having to restart the narration three times over in my determination to hear the whole book! Other reviewers had said it got more engaging later on and I wanted to find out for myself that this is indeed the case.
Once Spencer begins to talk about the individual names as real people, Killers Of The King became a much interesting listen, albeit a frequently gruesome one! He investigates the lives and deaths of as many of the sixty-odd men who had signed Charles I's death warrant as he could find, describing them in fascinating detail. Over a period of two to three decades England swung from one political extreme to another and back again with, it seemed, practically every man of note absolutely determined that whatever cause he had chosen to support was also that chosen by God. The degree of religious fanaticism shown by most of these men is terrifying, especially as their violent actions in the name of God are rooted in Old Testament vengeance. Only those with the foresight to keep switching sides seem to have maintained or accumulated any degree of wealth (and kept their heads) including one George Downing, called a 'perfidious rogue' by Samuel Pepys, whose rewards from Charles II enabled him to buy up swathes of London - including the street that now bears his name!
Tim Bruce is an excellent narrator, admirably portraying a range of accents from across Europe and as far afield as the New England colonies. I would listen to more of his audiobooks although I am not sure I would attempt another Charles Spencer history volume.