Friends in Youth - Choosing Sides in the English Civil War

''An outstanding dual biography... Dinshaw-s book is profoundly entertaining, startling in its depth, and a necessary cautionary tale about the human cost of political division'' - Daniel Brookes, The Telegraph

Two old friends end up on opposite sides of the English Civil War, in this dazzling history from the acclaimed author of Outlandish Knight

At the Inns of Court, the intellectual, literary, and social heart of early 17th century London, many pivotal friendships were forged: few closer than that of Bulstrode Whitelocke and Edward (Ned) Hyde. Both young men were lively characters, industrious, well-connected, principled and optimistic. They dreamed of reforming the government of Charles I, a young court with age-old problems, by restoring the traditional harmony of Crown and Parliament. This is the story of how their hopes climbed, overreached, and fell into an abyss of relentless civil war.

This highly original, vivid and engagin