Longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2004. A guilty secret, an old faith or a respect for law can all prove equally lethal in Ronan Bennet’s 17th century England, rife with religious extremism.
The time is the early 17th century, as the quarrel between Royalists and Parliamentarians turns toward civil war, and that between Catholics and Protestants leads toward bloody religious tyranny; the place is a town in northern England, set in a grim landscape swept by crop failures, plague and rumours of war, in which rigid Puritans have taken over government and imposed their own rules.
Ronan Bennett
About the Author
Ronan Bennett was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2004. This caused controversy: as a young man he was twice imprisoned, once for involvement with the IRA and once for anarchist terrorism offences.