Press
Reviews of Devil-Land
“Any account of the events and personalities of that tumultuous century requires history on a gigantic scale, and Jackson rises ably to the challenge… The book is a big historical advance. Epic in scale, briskly paced and elegantly written, it reveals just how much of the momentum driving the rollercoaster of 17th-century English politics flowed from the religious, cultural and military revolutions that were transforming Europe. Ours, it turns out, is a very un-insular “Island Story”. And its 17th-century chapter will never look quite the same again.”
“The story of the rise and fall of the Stuart dynasty in England, as seen through the eyes of our often confused European neighbours… Wonderfully clear and original.”
“Fascinating. This Stuart-centred view from across the Channel of the years 1588-1688 offers a fresh, provocative and highly readable take on one of the most formative centuries of English history.”
David Reynolds, author of ‘Island Stories: An Unconventional History of Britain’
“Wonderful… So vivid, plunges you into the chaos and the uncertainty, and inevitably has echoes of now. It reminds us that states are not inevitabilities, and that they’re formed out of chaos and may go back to the conditions of their formation.”
Fintan O’Toole
“Jackson reappraises Stuart England in two distinctive ways… The result is a richer picture not only of England under the Stuarts and as a republic, but also of its neighbours… The research is impressive, the writing lucid and every page thought-provoking. It is also tremendously entertaining.”
Jessie Childs, London Review of Books
“Extraordinary… one of those perception-changing books of British history which only come along now and then, every few decades, and this is really one of the big ones.”
Andrew Marr
“A book to be savoured by students, history aficionados, and anyone who enjoys seeing a scholar at the top of her game diving into stories we think we know well, only to emerge with all manner of surprises.”
Steven Veerapen, Aspects of History
“Devil-Land eloquently retells the story of our island’s most turbulent century… England, Jackson shows, was a pariah state, feared, distrusted and ridiculed on the continent.”
Ruth Scurr, Times Literary Supplement
“Clare Jackson offers some acute insights on an era of failure and ferment, weaving together an impressive narrative of a time when the English seemed suddenly to have lost their minds.”
Gerard DeGroot, The Times
Other press and reviews
Lockdown and luxury: the court of James I
Clare Jackson: In Conversation
“The Stuarts: is it still possible to make a ‘British’ TV programme on the history of Scotland?”
Mark Lawson, The Guardian
“The Stuarts doesn’t give light, sideways glances. These are history lessons.”
Grace Dent, The Independent
“For all the BBC’s great roster of factual specialists, from Sir David Attenborough to Brian Cox and, lately, the historian Clare Jackson, watching the oeuvre of this great American documentary maker does raise the question: “Where is our Ken Burns?”
Ian Burrell, The Independent
TV & Radio
The Stuarts
Presented by Dr Clare Jackson of Cambridge University, this three-part series argues that the Stuarts, more than any other, were Britain’s defining royal family.