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GST Rate Finder-Tax Rate of Goods & Umang Services

Book and Business

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App

Goods and Services Tax is a destination-based consumption tax on supply of goods and services, set...

London Real

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Podcast

London Real is the video talk show that introduces you to the most fascinating people on the...

In the Club

Richard Bean

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Book

Hapless MEP Philip Wardrobe has a busy day ahead of him, balancing his less than irreproachable...

A History of British National Audit: The Pursuit of Accountability

David Dewar

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Book

The core theme of the book is the importance of an independent state audit to ensure that the...

Deborah (162 KP) rated The Day Parliament Burned Down in Books

Dec 21, 2018

Now somewhere in the back of my mind I did know that the current Houses of Parliament weren't quite the same thing as the ancient Palace of Westminster, I just really didn't know what happened and when. Caroline Shenton's first book gives us a blow by blow account of that October day in 1834 when fire managed to take hold of the building and reduce much of it to ashes.

I admit that I actually found it more interesting than I had expected. It's quite unusual have have a whole book on a single, short event (the sinking of the Titanic would be one example I have seen) where events are laid out hour by hour. The quote on the cover from Mary Beard says that it is "Micro-history at its absolute best" and I have to agree. I'm only surprised that such a major event - the burning of both houses of Parliament and the destruction of many public records - isn't more well known!

Shenton has obviously done her homework and uncovered a wealth of detail about the events and the people involved. It's a story of what happened to a majorly important building, but it's also the story of the people involved, some of them very ordinary - right down to Chance, the mascot dog of the London firemen!