Historical novel set in Somerset and Dorset in the 10th century, sequel to the author's Flesh and Bones (2017). King Athelstan is dead. Long live the new king, Edmund, his half-brother. The cobbled-together nation of England must react to the challenges of the times: threats from Northumbria and Ireland, resentment from Mercia, pressure from a Church flexing its powerful Catholic muscles. Reformation is in the air. The House of Wessex is weakened by a cliff-top promise and suffers a shocking assassination. Was it intended or was it provoked?
There are the usual court intrigues which any king will have to deal with. Closely-kept secrets, which, if known, could destabilise the state, may come to light. Edmund's England must use its spies and protective relics intelligently. The Church's remit is to increase its power over the king and people. The concept of Purgatory shapes the medieval mind as the end of the first millennium approaches. Dunstan continues on his path to power and sainthood.
Slaves and women of the court have their part to play in this story of Wessex in the mid-tenth century, set in the landscape of Shaftesbury, Frome, and Cheddar. Drawing on historical and archaeological sources, this novel, the second in the Kings of Wessex series, attempts to put flesh on the bones of early medieval England, illuminating the pre-conquest period and revealing its chief protagonists.
