Tales from the Tower of London

Contemporary Review, April, 2005

Tales from the Tower of London. Daniel Diehl and Mark P. Donnelly. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]20.00. xvii 205 pages. ISBN 0-7509-3496-4. The Tower, a mighty for-tress built by William the Conqueror to over-awe his Anglo-Saxon subjects, has been used as a royal palace, a military garrison, a royal treasury, an arsenal, the home of the Royal Mint, a government office building, a museum, a home of the Crown Jewels and a zoo.

Rather than retelling the history of the Tower, the authors have concentrated on stories of some of the people who lived and died there and they carry their readers along through a colourful history which is divided into four parts. The first describes the building of the Tower, the Peasants' Revolt and the murder of the Princes. The second is concerned with the Tudors, people such as: Queen Katherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey, Bishop Bonner, Francis Walsingham and Anthony Babington. The third, from 1603 to 1800, includes those imprisoned in the Tower, such as Guy Fawkes, Colonel Blood, the Duke of Monmouth, Lord and Lady Nithsdale and the American, Henry Laurens. The final part (1900-50) has the stories of Sir Roger Casement and Josef Jakobs (a Nazi spy and the last man executed in the Tower).