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A brilliant five star history book which I only read 150 pages of because, in that very unlovely phrase, I bit off more than I could chew � WAY more. And this is where the rating system breaks down � giving 5 stars to a book I didn’t even read half of seems ridiculous. I skimmed the rest but still.

My favourite period of English history is 1640-1660 � civil war, revolution, chopping the King’s head off, religious nutjobs all over the place, what’s not to like. The end of it all, after Oliver Cromwell died, is fascinating � how could a fierce antimonarchical republic turn in the space of two years into a collection of supine rascals who could think of no more feeble solution to their politics than to invite the son of Charles I to take his place upon his father’s throne, if it please your Highness, which of course it did.

It's an exciting and bewildering tale which I wanted to think about in detail. But THIS amount of detail was just too much. What was I thinking � a 440 page book about a two year period, yeah, it’s going to be extremely detailed! Detail in the extreme!

Henry Reece inches forward, backtracks, discusses, debates, provides a zillion backstories, and best of all quotes many delicious snippets from the writings of the participants � the wonderful lopsided somewhat drunken picturesque piquant prose of the 17th century. All great, just too much for me.

So this is for specialists not us quailing lightweights.