“A gripping family saga. . . . Page-turners are rarely written by scholars of the 15th century, but Castor wears her learning admirably lightly. Blood and Roses is nothing less than a ripping yarn.” — The Indepedent (London) The Wars of the Roses tore England asunder. Over the course of thirty years, four kings lost their thrones, countless men lost their lives on the battlefield or their heads on the block, and others found themselves suddenly flush with gold. Yet until now, little has been written about the ordinary people who lived through this extraordinary time. Blood and Roses  is a gripping, intimate story of one determined family conducting everyday business against the backdrop of a disintegrating society and savage civil war. Drawing on a rare trove of letters discovered in a tumbledown stately home, historian Helen Castor reconstructs the turbulent affairs of the Pastons through three generations of births, marriages, and deaths as they single-mindedly worked their way up from farmers to landed gentry. It is a remarkable chronicle of devotion, ambition, and survival that brings a remote and hazy era to vibrant new life. “A gripping family saga … Helen Castor uses her formidable knowledge of 15th-century local politics, and a rich variety of sources, to illuminate their background, and to bring wives, daughters, sons and lovers vividly to life. She skilfully allows the story to unfold without warning of coming events, so the family’s dramatic ups and downs become thrilling soap-opera. … Page-turners are rarely written by scholars of the 15th century, but Castor wears her learning admirably lightly. Blood & Roses is nothing less than a ripping yarn.” - Independent “A master of every weapon in the modern historian’s arsenal... Castor has made the whole century live again .” - New York Times Book Review “Dynamic... Persuasive… The tensions and affections binding the family shine across the centuries.” - Boston Globe “Remarkable...Castor has put the letters to magnificent use here, combining scholarship with humor and clarity in a marvelously readable book.” - Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times (London) “Castor has done a remarkable job in giving us, against the complicated backdrop of warfare, changes of allegiance and interminable legal squabbles, a vivid insight into what it must have been like to be a member of this gutsy, determined family. . . . Castor has put (the letters) to magnificent use here, combining scholarship with humour and clarity in a marvellously readable book.” - Miranda Seymour, London Sunday Times “Ssharply written, impeccably documented, structured with the grip and pace of a good thriller.” - Daily Telegraph (London) “Beautifully paced and splendidly retold, Castor’s tale. . . is popular history at its best.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Castor has brought the Paston family to life in an accessible and fluid narrative.” - Library Journal The Wars of the Roses tore England asunder. Over the course of thirty years, four kings lost their thrones, countless men lost their lives on the battlefield or their heads on the block, and others found themselves suddenly flush with gold. Yet until now, little has been written about the ordinary people who lived through this extraordinary time. Blood and Roses is a gripping, intimate story of one determined family conducting everyday business against the backdrop of a disintegrating society and savage civil war. Drawing on a rare trove of letters discovered in a tumbledown stately home, historian Helen Castor reconstructs the turbulent affairs of the Pastons through three generations of births, marriages, and deaths as they single-mindedly worked their way up from farmers to landed gentry. It is a remarkable chronicle of devotion, ambition, and survival that brings a remote and hazy era to vibrant new life. Helen Castor is a historian of medieval England and a Bye-Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Her first book, Blood and Roses , was long-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize and won the English Association’s Beatrice White Prize. Her second book, She-Wolves , was selected as one of the books of the year by The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Independent, Financial Times , and BBC History Magazine . She lives in London. Blood and Roses One Family's Struggle and Triumph During the Tumultuous Wars of the Roses By Helen Castor Harper Perennial Copyright © 2007 Helen Castor All right reserved. ISBN: 9780007162222 Chapter One A wise man of the law Paston Village, Norfolk. 1400. Against the immense East Anglian sky stood the imposing silhouette of a newly built church, its flint walls bearing witness to the prosperity, as well as the piety, of those who worshipped there. Beyond the churchyard lay a settlement of smallholdings, with barns, byres, and sturdy timber-framed houses of two or three rooms under roofs of thatched straw, their wattle-and-daub walls coated in plaster and lime. Their inha