Winner of the Georgette Heyer Historical Novel PrizeSweeping through fifteen centuries of life in the heart of southern England, this epic novel records the lives of the ordinary folk of Britain from the end of the Roman occupation through to the late 16th century. The author has brought to life a colourful range of characters, from serfs to kings, from slave girls to bishops and from honest working families to murderers, to illustrate what it must have been like to live through some of the most challenging periods of English history, including the attacks of the hated Viking marauders, the French defeat of the English at Hastings, the arrival of the despised Norman invaders and the dissolution of the monasteries. The hardship and terrible cruelty our ancestors had to endure are vividly described.