Kin

Wicked stepmothers. Troublesome single mothers. Bloodthirsty step-siblings. Family can be a complicated business. But where do our assumptions - and particularly our belief that the nuclear family is best - come from?

Before the Reformation, families were sprawling, multigenerational and bound by ties that weren't exclusively defined by blood. Step-siblings and step-parents were common; so was adoption and guardianship. But the rise of the Tudors, a new dynasty that would remake Britain in its image, transformed the family in ways that still shape our understanding today.

In Family History, Emma Whipday blends history with memoir, literature, mythology and cultural analysis to shed a fascinating light on a rapidly changing social institution at the heart of all our lives.