Plenty of people get the urge in old age to root through their family history. But few can match polar explorer Ranulph Fiennes, who is a cousin of the current owners of Broughton Castle, near Banbury (pictured). His latest book, Mad Dogs and Englishmen (Hodder, £8.99), tells the history of his family.
Before writing the book, he knew of the secret tower room at Broughton where Parliamentarians plotted against Charles I, and he knew that the 1st Lord Saye and Sele had been beheaded by Jack Cade, leader of the Peasants’ Revolt.
He decided to plough through family documents and tell the history of England through his family’s past. Research was finished at Everest Base Camp, where a huge pile of documents was transported by yak. The result is a romp through history, which comes alive in the last two chapters, about the war service of his father, whom Ranulph never met.
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