An Accidental History of Tudor England

Author Steven Gunn and Tomasz Gromelski
Narrator Simon Slater
Publisher John Murray Press
Publish Date 19 June 2025
Run Time 10 hours and 56 minutes
Format Audio
Genre History and Archaeology, History: plagues, diseases etc.

Listen to a sample

What to expect

'Brilliant, unpredictable and endlessly fascinating' IAN MORTIMER

'I love this book' TRACY BORMAN

'Gunn and Gromelski cast a brilliant light into a lost world' SUSAN BRIGDEN

A unique new window onto Tudor life, told through ordinary people's untimely deaths.

How did ordinary people live in Tudor England? This unique history unearths the ways they died to find out.

Uncovering thousands of coroners' reports, An Accidental History of Tudor England explores the history of everyday life, and everyday death, in a world far from the intrigues of Hampton Court Palace, Shakespeare's plots and the Spanish Armada. Here, farming, building and travel were dangerous. Fruit trees killed more people than guns, and sheep killed about the same number as coalmines. Men stabbed themselves playing football and women drowned in hundreds fetching water. Going to church had its dangers, especially when it came to bell-ringing, archery practice was perilous and haystacks claimed numerous victims. Restless animals roamed the roads which contained some potholes so deep men could drown, and drown they did.

From bear attacks in north Oxford to a bowls-on-ice-incident on the Thames, this book uses a remarkable trove of sources and stories to put common folk back into the big picture of Tudor England, bringing the reality of their world to life as never before.

Critics Review

With remarkable imagination and ingenuity, the authors conjure a vivid history of everyday death, and life, in Tudor England . . . Every variety of misadventure that humans suffered, and still suffer, is revealed here. Gunn and Gromelski cast a brilliant light into a lost world

Susan Brigden, historian

I love this book. The fascinating - and ill-fated - cast of characters it contains are not kings and queens, nobles or diplomats, but the ordinary people who lived and died in the England of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and their ilk. By exploring Tudor England from the bottom up, it gives us a completely different and endlessly surprising perspective

Tracy Borman, author of THOMAS CROMWELL

Brilliant, unpredictable and endlessly fascinating. Many of us think of social history as showing us different ways of living in the sixteenth century but this extraordinary study shows there were just as many different ways of dying. In so doing, it does what all great history books do: it reminds us of what we have in common with our Tudor ancestors as well as what makes us different, and thereby causes us to reflect on life itself - and dying - in all ages

Ian Mortimer, author of THE TIME TRAVELLER'S GUIDE TO MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

Brilliantly vivid insights from coroners' reports into the last few days or hours of some 10,000 mostly ordinary Tudor men, women and children involved in fatal accidents. Drawing on sworn testimony from witnesses and neighbours, Gunn and Gromelski combine these stories of lives cut short to create an enthralling social history. Nothing here comes second-hand: daily lives and activities are observed as never before. Fresh, illuminating and wonderfully readable. A surefire bet for 2025's History Book of the Year awards

John Guy, author of MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS

A fascinating window into the lives of Tudor England's ordinary people - and victims. By unearthing the details hidden in coroners' reports, Gunn and Gromelski have written a sensitive and brilliant account of how people lived, loved, hated, died, and grieved in the sixteenth century. The academic expertise is as obvious as the authors' empathy for the people they are studying and bringing to light for the first time

Gareth Russell, author of THE PALACE

Consistently compelling and often surprisingly moving. From the neglected accounts of thousands of tiny tragedies, Gunn and Gromelski have painted a fascinating picture of how ordinary Tudor people lived, played, worked and travelled

Peter Marshall, author of HERETICS AND BELIEVERS

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