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Now is the Time

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About this listen

 At the end of May 1381, the fourteen-year-old King of England had reason to be fearful: the plague had returned, the royal coffers were empty and a draconian Poll Tax was being widely evaded. Yet Richard, bolstered by his powerful, admired mother, felt secure in his God-given right to reign.

Within two weeks, the unthinkable happened: a vast force of common people invaded London, led by a former soldier, Walter Tyler, and the radical preacher John Ball, demanding freedom, equality and the complete uprooting of the Church and State. They believed they were rescuing the King from his corrupt ministers, and that England had to be saved. And for three intense, violent days, it looked as if they would sweep all before them.

In this gripping novel, Melvyn Bragg brings an extraordinary episode in English history to fresh, urgent life on both a grand and intimate scale, vividly portraying its central figures. It is an archetypal tale of an epic struggle between the powerful and the apparently powerless.

(P)2015 Hodder & Stoughton©2015 Melvyn Bragg Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction England Royalty Middle Ages

Critic reviews

A gripping historical novel . . . his moving portraits of Tyler and Ball, their utopian hopes for England betrayed and destroyed just as they themselves are doomed to be, give Now Is the Time its real backbone and intensity. (Nick Rennison)
Bragg lifts the bare facts of England's largest uprising and transforms them into a high-speed adventure, told from the alternating perspectives of the key players. Readable and pacy
A beautifully written novel, combining modern insight with historical authenticity, and it is spellbinding.
Bragg excels at conjuring the wealth and squalor of late 14th-century London . . . it's impossible not to be caught up.
Bragg brings his historical characters vividly to life and conveys a real sense of the appalling disparity in living conditions. The novel gathers unstoppable pace as the original poll tax uprising hurtles towards its brutal and unedifying conclusion.
A vivid and surprisingly tender tribute to one of the wildest moments in Plantagenet history.
Fast and entertaining - the excitement of a city about to blow up like a barrel of gunpowder is more than palpable - and the period brought to life with visceral minutiae.
All stars
Most relevant
I had only a hazy knowledge about the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 led by Wat Tyler, but knew that it was triggered by a Poll Tax levied on all to pay for Richard II’s foray into European Wars. Melvyn Bragg has enlivened the historical record with his imaginative conjuring up of the day-to-day interactions of the main players in the dramatic events of the period. It is surprising how near the rebels were to over-throwing the government and it appears that only their supine devotion to Richard II reversed the tide of insurrection. Sadly, Richard II was not worthy of their respect.

The story contains long passages of political and religious discourse that could be tedious but the author’s strong character development, lively style of writing, and the excellent narration make it a worthwhile listen.

History enlivened by a novelists imagination

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A historical novel on a part of history I knew nothing of. Pleased I read/listened. Narrator was appropriate and one of the best in the business. Read/listened before a talk by the author, who disappointed by largely recounting the novel without development. The novel was much better than the talk.

A Novel

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Bragg filled in much of the real detail of the events for me, with the addition of the thoughts and lives of some of the key characters, actual and fictional. I thought he went a bit heavy on the disembowelling though.

The characters

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