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Stuart Jennings: "These Uncertaine Tymes"

One of the University's Chaplains, Reverend Dr. Stuart Jennings has attracted the interest of critics and academics alike with the publication of his book "These Uncertaine Tymes: Newark and the Civilian Experience of the Civil Wars 1640-1660".

The book details the many difficulties and hardships faced by the civilian population of Newark during the English Civil War of the seventeenth century, from the cramped living conditions, to the spread of diseases such as the plague. Other books on the subject of Newark and the Civil War have tended to ignore this angle in favour of discussing battles and royalty.

Dr. Jennings said: "People knew the material was there and some of it had been catalogued but it was mainly out of curiosity rather than any research so no one had been through them. Newark is unique because few places have this quality of information about a town that has been besieged."

Professor Martyn Bennett of Nottingham Trent University said: "Acting as an unofficial guide Dr Jennings takes the reader through these papers and integrating their details with the town’s surviving churchwarden's accounts, parish registers, Council Minute book and a rare set of surviving military accounts produce a valuable insight into everyday life within the town over the period."

Following the release of the book, Dr. Jennings appeared on Radio Nottingham as part of the John Homes afternoon show. A feature on the book has also appeared in the Nottinghamshire County Council paper and the Nottingham Evening Post.