''If only stones could speak.''

Often, when we visit historic towns, churches, castles, or old family mansions, we wish that the people who were once connected with those places could step out of the shadowy walls and tell us stories about their distant past. This book aims to do just that, combining the history of the great city of Norwich with revelations concerning the lives and labours, the lamentations and loves, of rich and poor, the great and the ungodly, throughout the last 1,000 years.

Drawing on information derived from historic documents, tomb inscriptions, parish records, diaries and newspapers, Norwich: The Biography conjures up a vivid panorama of life in one of Britain’s most warm-hearted and fascinating cities.