David Picken studied history at university but has spent many years in software development. He was writing short stories in the mid-1980s but then had to concentrate on his career. The Covid lockdown allowed him time to write and this novel is the first to emerge from that time.
Edmund Carpenter is born on the lowest rung of society in late 15th century England, and yet his mother has told him that his father was an Earl. His confusion is compounded by having had a privileged, lonely childhood growing up in a monastery, learning to read and write.As he reaches his twentieth...