5 GOLD stars (or possibly 10!)
On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads
How I discovered this book: the series is an all-time favourite of mine and I haven't read it for years - during a short hospital stay the time was right to return to it!
In a Nutshell: Family saga and chronicle of social change over 6 centuries.
This wonderful trilogy starts with the tale of Martin Reed, born the son of a serf in 1381, the year of the Peasants' Revolt. Freed from his bonds, circumstances take him and his beloved, Kate, to the Suffolk town of Baildon, where they live in dire poverty and squalor. In time, Martin builds a house. This is the story of that house, and Reed's descendants, each new chapter told by one character further down the line.
Throughout the books, ghosts appear in the form of family characteristics (though sometimes in actual manifestations, too). Cold fingers on the neck of the old man who hears his grandson saying that he longs to be a travelling musician, while knowing nothing of his ancestry. The cunning trickery of a small girl is mirrored two centuries later. The beauty, of course, is that we know more than the characters, which means that their innocent statements are often more pertinent than they realise.
I have several favourite characters in these first two books (I'm still re-reading #3); one which interests me a great deal is that of Ethelreda, a young girl who survived the flooding of the Fens during the land reclamation of the 17th Century. All she knew, until she was found near death in her boat, was her life on a little island with her father. Nothing else existed. Every chapter is an utter gem, though. I recommend this trilogy with every molecule of my reading brain!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment