Description

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A dazzling history of the Tower of London, one of the world's busiest tourist attractions, and the people who populated it.

Castle, royal palace, prison, torture chamber, execution site, zoo, mint, home to the crown jewels, armory, record office, observatory, and the most visited tourist attraction in the UK: The Tower of London has been all these things and more. No building in Britain has been more intimately involved in the island's story than this mighty, brooding stronghold in the very heart of the capital, a place which has stood at the epicenter of dramatic, bloody and frequently cruel events for almost a thousand years.

Now historian Nigel Jones sets this dramatic story firmly in the context of national—and international—events. In a gripping account drawn from primary sources and lavishly illustrated with sixteen pages of stunning photographs, he captures the Tower in its many changing moods and its many diverse functions.

Here, for the first time, is a thematic portrayal of the Tower of london not just as an ancient structure, but as a living symbol of the nation of Great Britain.

About the Author

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Nigel Jones is a historian, journalist, and biographer, covering subjects ranging from Nazi Germany to the lives of British writers.  He has written for the Cambridge Evening News, the Press Association News Agency, and has been an editor on BBC and independent radio, as well as for History Today and BBC History magazines. He is the author of Tower: An Epic History of the Tower of London.

Praise For…

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“Heads roll throughout Jones' pages, frequently under the dynasty that endowed the Tower with its most sinister associations, the Tudors. . . . This is popular history well arranged and well written.” —Booklist

“Historian and journalist Jones enlightens and delights in this history of the London Tower. A historian's history that deserves pride of place in every library.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A marvelous, authoritative, and entertaining history of England, tightly focused and richly detailed.” —Publishers Weekly