The War of the Roses turned England upside down. Between 1455 and 1485 four kings lost their thrones, more than forty noblemen lost their lives on the battlefield or their heads on the block, and thousands of the men who followed them met violent deaths. The letters of the Pastons, an ambitious nouveau riche Norfolk family striving to establish themselves among the landed gentry, offer us a unique and fascinating insight into the tumult of that age. Helen Castor explores the Pastons' experiences of birth, marriage, love, death, and the realities of daily life, and unravels the turbulent politics of the family's affairs against the backdrop of civil war between York and Lancaster.