The Peasants’ Revolt with Melvyn Bragg

Critically acclaimed author and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg returns to Bath to discuss his latest novel Now is the Time, a rich and compelling tale set in the heart of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381.

As a virulent plague grips England, Richard II’s counsellors bring news of growing resistance to his crippling new taxes. When the fourteen-year-old king sends armed commissioners to claim his money, the commoners revolt, throwing his sovereignty into serious jeopardy.

Leaving his beloved family at home in Kent, Wat Tyler leads tens of thousands of rebels in an impassioned march on London. But Wat and his followers will soon learn that passion may not be enough to secure the outcome they desire. Wat will have to tread the precarious path of high politics and combat the stammering, vain boy-king Richard and his manipulative mother, Joan.

Masterfully blending fact and fiction in a tale of power and justice, religion, loyalty and ethics, Melvyn Bragg brings alive the momentous episode in English history that saw our island’s first democratic uprising.