Reviews

Excerpts from Reviews for 1066 Turned Upside Down
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David's Book Blurg
Book reviews from a guy up north (UK)

What a brilliant book this was. I just love the idea that the authors have taken a period in time and let their creative juices flow. 1066 is a fascinating period to read about and to have these authors explore the “what if” was refreshing

I’m a big fan of collections like this, I find then fun to read. Not only do they flow easily since they are self-contained short stories but you also get introduced to some authors you might not previously have heard of. I’ll admit I’ve only read books be three of these authors.. that will soon change.

The book starts with a forward by C.C Humphreys. I’m the first to admit I’ve never really understood the need for these in a book but this one has changed my mind. This forward was witty and fun and perfectly set up the book for me as a reader

One of my favourite stories had to be the tale by Richard Dee, the perfect mix of science fiction and historical fiction, where the butterfly effect is explored and that if you could travel back to the past even the slightest change could mean big changes to the future

Each story was well written and allowed the author to play with the events of history and I enjoyed every one of them. I also really liked at the end of each story the reader is given discussion suggestions which raise some interesting thoughts


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Jaffa Reads Too

'Whilst I am familiar with some of the authors who have contributed, others are new to me, but what convinced me about the combined quality of this book was just how seriously these committed authors take their craft. They make history come alive, and with real conviction turn fact into fiction and fiction into fact, cleverly manipulating events so that everything you read becomes totally convincing and in some cases you wish it had happened just so.'

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Historical Novel Society

As a student of the Norman Conquest, I am well versed in the histories that these short stories challenge, and they present the most tantalising glimpses into what England could have been, had things happened differently. We could now be ruled by Danes, or by Anglo-Saxon descendants of Harold or Edgar the Atheling.  We see what happens if just one tiny thing changes, the butterfly effect of time travel, and we meet some wonderful characters as we go. One story is set entirely in the present and near future; another has the potential to have been entirely true because we do not know enough to argue that it couldn’t be. The rest are glorious re-imagining by their authors, revelling in doing what I think most students of the era want to do – dispose of William of Normandy.  And, let’s face it, if in the Game of Thrones you either win or you die, any revision of those events is going to lead this way, so I don’t think I’ve given the game away!
In those moments, when the injustice of the Norman victory on that blood-soaked field of Senlac grates, at a distance of nearly a thousand years, even a descendant of one of William’s soldiers can pick up this volume and retreat back into ‘what if…?’ and indulge in what might have been.