Felicity Heal is an emeritus fellow of Jesus College and was a lecturer in History at the University of Oxford from 1980 to 2011. She is the author of numerous books and articles on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Britain, including Reformation in Britain and Ireland (2003), The Gentry in England and Wales 1500-1700 (with Clive Holmes, 1994),and Hospitality in Early Modern England (1990). In recent years her research interests have focused on gifts and social exchange, and also on Tudor chronicles and the history of the early Church in England. She is a Fellow of the British Academy.

This is scholarship of a high order, written with a precise sensitivity to terminology and a verve which carries the analysis along. Heal's achievement is one to savour and enjoy.

• PART 1: SOCIETY AND ITS GIFTS; PART 2: THE POLITICS OF GIVING

Felicity Heal is an emeritus fellow of Jesus College and was a lecturer in History at the University of Oxford from 1980 to 2011. She is the author of numerous books and articles on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Britain, including Reformation in Britain and Ireland (2003), The Gentry in England and Wales 1500-1700 (with Clive Holmes, 1994),and Hospitality in Early Modern England (1990). In recent years her research interests have focused on gifts and social exchange, and also on Tudor chronicles and the history of the early Church in England. She is a Fellow of the British Academy.

This is scholarship of a high order, written with a precise sensitivity to terminology and a verve which carries the analysis along. Heal's achievement is one to savour and enjoy.

• PART 1: SOCIETY AND ITS GIFTS; PART 2: THE POLITICS OF GIVING

Felicity Heal is an emeritus fellow of Jesus College and was a lecturer in History at the University of Oxford from 1980 to 2011. She is the author of numerous books and articles on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Britain, including Reformation in Britain and Ireland (2003), The Gentry in England and Wales 1500-1700 (with Clive Holmes, 1994),and Hospitality in Early Modern England (1990). In recent years her research interests have focused on gifts and social exchange, and also on Tudor chronicles and the history of the early Church in England. She is a Fellow of the British Academy.

This is scholarship of a high order, written with a precise sensitivity to terminology and a verve which carries the analysis along. Heal's achievement is one to savour and enjoy.

• PART 1: SOCIETY AND ITS GIFTS; PART 2: THE POLITICS OF GIVING