The Siege of Londonderry

Piers Wauchope

"The first thing to say about Piers Wauchope's The siege of Londonderry is how beautiful the writing is. Although it looks and smells like a heavy academic tome — and it is important to emphasise that the scholarship is fresh, impeccable and ground-breaking— the prose is so clear and stylish that you are caught up immediately[...] It's almost an adventure story. [...] In truth the siege was one long horror — whatever about the fighting, typhus killed almost half the population and all of the children— and Wauchope, who in the real world is a London barrister, never loses sight of that. He tells the human story with compassion and understanding, but also with a knowing irony and some dark humour. And he is a fine guide through the labyrinth of the period's complex politics and vacillating allegiances." Joe Culley, History Ireland, May/June 2023.