5 out of 5 stars
On Goodreads
How I discovered this book: one of my favourite authors, I shall eventually read them all!
The Blurb, from Amazon
When the Normans come, the people of the New Forest are persecuted, evicted from their homes and forced to live in exile from the lands Saxons have inhabited for generations. Life is hard. The Norman interlopers are hated.
Twelve years after the invasion, three Norman soldiers molest a forest girl who is fairer than any they have ever seen. Leo stops the attack in the only way he can ...violently.
His actions that day trigger a chain of events that will end only with the death of a king.
The format of this book was not what I expected, in a very good way. The story is told from the point of view of several of the characters starting with Ælf, younger sibling of Leo. The first half takes place over a short period of time, with much detail, and then about half way through it moves swiftly on. This took me by surprise but I soon understood that the earlier time period had to be told in more detail to make the broader view of the second half work so well. From about a third of the way through I was dying to know who killed William Rufus and why - when the answer arrives, it's a beautifully thought out take on a question discussed by historians for centuries.
I loved the detail about Saxon life, especially about the forest dwellers themselves. Made me long to time travel even more than usual. Suffice to say I was engrossed all the way through. My favourite characters were Leo, Thurrold and Tyrell.
This is one of Judith Arnopp's earlier books, but it's all still here. The way you know the character immediately he or she opens his mouth, the flowing storylines, the research and love for the time, the accessibility of her writing style. Highly recommended!