This is the first work by Melvyn that I have read; and it is simply outstanding. This episode of English history has traditionally been passed over with scarcely a glance; and Bragg presents a quietly polemical study of ‘haves and have-nots’ building to a devastating climax, inevitable in its tragic outcomes.

‘Now is the Time’ is a fascinating retelling of the Peasants’ Revolt that took place during just a few extraordinary weeks in May and June of 1381.
Years of unsuccessful wars on foreign shores, combined with the excesses of a court considering itself far superior to the general population have left the royal coffers bare. The commoners of England had been brought to their knees by merciless taxation and seemingly endless recurrences of plague, bound together within the misery of serfdom. They resent the all-too-visible luxuries of the ruling elite and the church. The introduction of a Poll Tax of 4 pence per head, compounded by its ruthless and criminal enforcement, was the final straw.
The people fought back, fuelled by the sermons of preacher John Ball and steered by the leadership of former soldier Wat Tyler. Nothing like it had been seen in England before. The full weight of the revolt was felt with such a force, an almighty flood on the heels of its leaders, an enormous cry for justice reverberating around Richard II’s palace walls.
The Peasants’ Revolt forced its way into London, even inside the Tower of London, destroying the houses of the lords and masters, burning their possessions in the street, casting their jewels into the Thames. Their demands were simple but went to the heart of medieval feudalism – they demanded the end of serfdom as well as death for the traitorous advisers of the boy king Richard II. As the rich and the powerful battened down their hatches, it would seem that nothing could turn the tide. And, for a time, it even looked as if Richard might be listening.
Contemporary sources emphasise the courage of the young king Richard II in the face of brutal, thuggish and violent rebels. While using the sources carefully, Bragg presents a new interpretation. These rebels are not all peasants. Many are artisans, many educated, many from the mercantile classes of the newly rich. None of them, however, belong to the ruling Anglo-Norman nobility. What Bragg gives us, at times literally, is the voice of the people, a voice which opposes privilege and exploitation.

The narrative technique is artfully simple, carrying the reader along in shocking events of the three days of revolt.
The people at the heart of the affair are brought to the fore. The king’s mother, princess Joan, careful of privilege and wealth; the 14 year old king Richard II, beloved of the people, who betrays their trust; his various advisors and supporters in all their flawed humanity; the remarkable Walter Tyler, soldier and reluctant leader, whose abilities are tested and proven; and John Ball, maverick priest, remembered for his rhyme, ‘When Adam delved and Eve span/who was then the gentleman?’.
While the author has obviously taken some dramatic license in a few places, the result is a book that carries the reader along on a tide, just as the Revolt carried so many in its time. ( )