The Dreadful Judgement by Neil Hanson
This is a detailed and in parts graphic telling of the backdrop and story of the Great Fire of London, a must for anyone interested in a more in-depth insight into this piece of history. It is helpfully written in the style of a novel to make it easier to follow and visualise.
The title of this book makes me wonder whether perhaps people think it was some sort of supernatural punishment, an act of God…..who knows!
Did you know:
The great fire started in a bakery shop.
The great fire took place in the year 1666.
The most well known building to be destroyed by the fire was St Paul’s Cathedral.
The great fire is meant to have burned hardest for five days straight. Unimaginable when you think of London today.
Thatched roofs were banned after the great fire, for obvious reasons (but at least we still have the lovely Cotswolds).
The main method of fighting the fire was to demolish buildings in order to stop it spreading (no luxury of wonderful firemen with automatic hoses). 
To make matters worse, it had been a very dry hot summer with limited water supplies, talk about unfortunate timing. Then again, there’s never a good time for an entire city to catch fire!
The change in wind direction also helped to control the fire, eventually. 
The world’s very first insurance company came about after the great fire. Well if this wasn’t a good time to start I don’t know what time would’ve been, crikey!
Over 100,000 people were left homeless as a result of the fire. 
A French watchmaker falsely confessed to starting the fire and was executed for it (the death penalty, torture etc was all the norm back then) but the man was later found to be innocent.
History buffs and the ‘generally curious’ will enjoy this book.
Other than pictures of and from the book – all other photographs in this post were sourced from Unsplash, Pixabay and Stocksnap.
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Karen Walder
Fascinating story…..i would like to read more about it!
Cherryl
Definitely fascinating
Philip Underwood
Great blog post, very interesting!
Cherryl
Thank you 💛
Mary H
This sounds so interesting! I’d love to learn more about it.
Cherryl
I very much agree with you 😊
Natalie Crossan
This looks really interesting x
Vicki Hill
This looks like a really interesting book
Cherryl
👌 Definitely 🙂
Cherryl
Such an interesting story 👌
Kirsty Hosty
This book sounds fascinating
Cherryl
It really is 📖👌
Adrian Bold
Looks like a great book. I’m always looking to try out new authors who I haven’t read before.
Cherryl
It’s available on Amazon, and a really interesting read 📖
Kevin Minihane
Incredible what fire can do
Cherryl
It boggles the mind to really comprehend it, and imagine what it must have been like to witness 🔥 🔥 🔥
Sue Price
Does sound very Interesting, I’m sure my partner would love to read this
Cherryl
Might make a nice little gift! 🎁
Empress2976 (@Empress2976)
I like a fun and light read, this book doesn’t sound like it, more my hobby’s type of read!
Cherryl
This definitely isn’t a light read – much more educational, informative and in-depth for those with particular interest in learning more the history of the great fire – from start to finish. 📚
Caroline Signey (@Cazhow33)
Would love to learn more about this fascinating subject
Cherryl
History didn’t interest me much at school, but now I’m older I appreciate it more 📚
Ray Becker
love to read this 4 free
Karen Richards
What a dreadful fire. Sounds like an interesting read. Can’t believe how many people were left homeless
Cherryl
It’s hard to imagine, such a tragedy 🔥
Anonymous
This book looks a really interesting read, just had a look, and it’s not on kindle. A real shame, I do prefer to read on my kindle these days.
Judith Allen
Sorry, didn’t mean to leave that anon, that was me!
Cherryl
It is a shame – maybe the author might publish on kindle if people start requesting it.
Maya Russell
It’s interesting to read about the Fire of London. It was only when the wind died down that the fire eventually went out.
Cherryl
Yes, it’s hard to imagine really, very scary.
gemma raines
Intresting read I didnt know that St Paul’s Cathedral was destroyed wish we could have done this in school
Cherryl
Yes, we only scratched the surface at school…
claire mudie
really interesting information and background reading-thanks
Cherryl
Yes, it is quite fascinating really, thanks for reading x
Candyfloss
I teach a lesson on the Great Fire and this book would really help. Thanks for the giveaway (@Natterjacktoad7)
Cherryl
A great topic to teach about x
Ruth Harwood
love reading about the great fire – its a shame that those owning the buildings surrounding the fire refused to pull them down – could’ve been stopped so much sooner!!
Cherryl
Good point x
Catherine Thomas
Looks like an interesting read 🙂
clairew137
I remember learning about this at school.
Kirsty Woods
Looks like a good read
janine atkin
id love to read this 🙂
Cherryl
It makes for a very interesting/educational read x
serenityyou
Wow!! absolutely stunning photos!! they are just gorgeous
Cherryl
Thank you – the one’s of St Paul’s Cathedral are my own – it is a beautiful building – though I’ve yet to see inside.
Patricia Dewey
This sounds intriguing. I love in-depth books about events that in reality I know very little about.
Cherryl
Me too, I find history more interesting the older I get!
isis1981uk
It’s a fascinating story and one my son will be studying at school this year so I’ll probably learn more about it!
Cherryl
This book definitely goes into a lot of interesting detail x
Sandra Lane
I’m not sure if this is entirely true but I read that after the Great Fire there were no more major outbreaks of bubonic plague because all the rats had been destroyed.
Cherryl
I’ve read similar things – it definitely helped to bring it under control.
Annabel Greaves
I did a history degree so learned about the incredible destruction this fire caused in London
Ruth Harwood
Done a little reading about the fire for my degree and I feel for the baker blamed for it! Interesting that even the King got his hands dirty fighting it 🙂
Cherryl
I guess in a time of crisis, ‘status’ eventually goes out the window and simple ‘humanity’ kicks in, which is a warming thought. x