Wilson, Derek. A Tudor Tapestry: Men, Women, and Society in Reformation England. Pittsburg, PN: University of Pittsburg Press, 1972.

Derek Wilson Spent the first part of his life in Harrow, and later moved to Cambridge in 1956. As he studied theology and history in college, he developed a great interest and appreciation for the Reformation and also European life during that time period, and because of his background of the two related by different areas of study he had been a part of, he could see the Reformation from a uniquely balanced point of view. In 1964 he was awarded the University’s Archbishop Cranmer Prize for post-graduate research in Reformation studies. The work he submitted for that competition had been used in part to create this book. He has written several different textbooks on a wide variety of themes, and he taught history for years in both Kenya and England.

This book, A Tudor Tapestry, being taken from the author’s previous work and expanded upon, talks about the great upheaval that happened in England during the Protestant Reformation and the working through of the events that followed. In a fifty year period, the people of England went from being predominantly Catholic to predominantly Protestant, and the author makes two theories about the study of those times. First, that in order to grasp the feeling of the time, it is necessary to look at the effect on the lives of the individuals of the time, people from different age groups, social status, and religious beliefs. Second is that in order to understand the drastic change of a country from Catholic to Protestant, a person must understand the real power and influence a large middle class had. This book gives life stories of many individuals, whether they be largely memorable or not, and explains why each had an influence on the vast “tapestry” that is called the Protestant Reformation.