If the Verneys had been just another family in England with a country estate and a seat in Parliament, they would have faded from memory long ago. But they had a remarkable habit: for four centuries, they and their descendants saved every piece of paper that came into their possession, some 100,000 pages of documents and letters. as a result, they amassed the largest and most complete private collection of correspondence in the world.In this book, author and historian Adrian Tinniswood draws a sweeping portrait of the Verneys and the world among Buckinghamshire gentry in which they lived. In vivid detail Tinniswood focuses on the Verneys who lived during the seventeenth century, bringing them to unforgettable life, and in the process giving us a unique perspective on one of the most tumultuous periods in history.In The Verneys, we meet three generations of this family, including: Sir Edmund Verney, who died on the battlefield during the English Civil War, clutching Charles I's standard; his brother Sir Francis, a Barbary Coast buccaneer; Ralph, Sir Edmund's eldest son and heir, who alone in his family supported the Parliamentarian cause, prompting his siblings' anger; Mary, Ralph's beautiful and intelligent wife, who saved the family fortunes; Ralph's brothers Mun, a professional soldier and a hero, and Tom, a lying petty criminal; their sisters Mall, who had a child out of wedlock, and Bess, who ran off with a clergyman; and Ralph's sons Jack, who went to the Middle East and made a fortune, and Edmund, a serial adulterer whose wife went out of her mind with jealousy.We watch the Verneys as they plot and scheme, hold silly grudges and forgive too easily, endure unhappy marriages and suffer the tragic deaths of children. We follow them around the world as they fight in France, seek their fortunes on the plantations of Barbados and in the forests of colonial Virginia, and endure exile in Italy. Read Less