Wivenhoe
and the Earthquake, by Peter Kay
A
Book Review by
Peter Kennedy It may seem perverse, at a time when the
world is still reeling from the devastation and human suffering caused by
the recent Asian earthquake, to publish a book about the relatively
insignificant, indeed the tiny, Essex
earthquake of 1884, but this must have been just an unfortunate
coincidence for Peter Kay's Wivenhoe
and the Earthquake. But,
after all, it is true that the Essex earthquake of a hundred and some
years ago was the strongest ever experienced in England
in modern times, and Peter's book is of great historical and local
interest. The earthquake was very likely due to
movement along a fault in the ancient Palaeozoic rocks, deep beneath the
Peldon-Abberton-Wivenhoe axis. Now,
you don't get any such geological or seismological analysis in the book,
but no matter, the book does what it says on the lid; it relates in words
and pictures the immediate effects of the quake on the village
of I am relieved to know that some clerics
"disputed the commonly expressed view that the earthquake was a
punishment from God for the sins of
Note: This review was first published in Wivenhoe News, Winter 2005 edition. |
