Christopher Wren, who plans a new London from the ashes. Īs a reluctant government informant, he is brought into the world of a woman who dreams of architecture and Dr. He supports the two of them on his salary as a minor clerk, but someone has an eye on him and knows he can be frightened or blackmailed. Marwood is a pauper, his father's printing business ruined by the Restoration and his father imprisoned and then released to his custody. Meanwhile, a man is dead, possibly murdered, in the charred ruins of the cathedral. Paul's and thus opens the door to a very different future. James Marwood saves a boy from certain death in a fire in St. There are continuing fears of plague and then comes the conflagration.
Religion still holds the country in thrall.
It's 1666 and the charm of the Restoration is wearing thin. This is a book which quite clearly provides a richly detailed backdrop on which to hang its tale of freedom and murder, and I cannot wait to unravel what happens next.The Great Fire of London forms both the opening and the backdrop of this brilliant historical mystery by Andrew Taylor ( The American Boy, The Scent of Death), one of Britain's best authors.
Paul’s is captured so vividly – the heat and the flames and the ash falling from the sky – that you are instantly transported to the terrifying and chaotic Great Fire of London of 1666. The opening paragraphs of The Ashes of London are an incredibly evocative start to the book. Half of London, from the King and the Duke of York downwards, had turned out to watch the death throes of St. He made a movement as if to run away but we were hemmed in on every side. He was swaying, on the brink of collapse. It came from a boy in a ragged shirt who had just pushed his way through the mass of people. Otherwise I shouldn’t have heard the whimpering at my elbow. The sound stunned the crowd into a brief silence. It was the voice of the Great Beast itself. Not the crackling of the flames, not the explosions and the clatter of falling buildings, not the shouting and the endless beating of drums and the groans and cries of the crowd: it was the howling of the fire. Historical Fiction | 496 Pages | Published by Harper Collins in 2016 Welcome to Friday Firsts – a weekly meme created by Tenacious Reader.
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