Sarum

My interest in history once again comes to the fore in this book by Edward Rutherfurd. It is an epic saga that takes readers into the lives of five families in Salisbury, beginning in the Ice Age to 1985.

It follows two rival families who sought revenge on each other for over 400 years, whilst a stonemason’s family’s constructions spanned from the creation of Stonehenge to Salisbury Cathedral. It touches on the family of an exiled Roman soldier and an aristocrat who fell from grace, taking many generations for the family fortune to be revived.

This is a fascinating read,… show more.

Sarum is an epic historical fiction novel, taking one through the history of England from the ice age to modern times.

Edward Rutherfurd weaves the story of several families throughout, showing as generations go that heroes and villains, saints, and culprits may appear, but family characteristics and traits linger on. Stonehenge, the Vikings, the Normans, the Church, the building of the great Salisbury Cathedral, all walk across this grand stage.

I admired the scope and precision of this read, fascinated as connections are drawn between current and past events.

No one pens a historical fiction saga as boldly, or as adroitly, as Edward Rutherfurd. Sarum is a multi-millennium epic of the lands around Salisbury Plain and the peoples who settled there, as told through the twining branches of five family trees. The stories (for that is what this book really is, a collection of tales woven around this ancient plateau) are chocked full of drama, tragedy, love, and pathos. But the strand running through the novel that I found most intriguing was the theme that new gods—whether they’re the sun god, the gods of the Celts, the pantheon of… show more.

Sarum is an incredible work that charts the history of the British Isles from the end of the Ice Age to modern times. It sounds like too much to pull off, but Rutherford does a wonderful job of it by restricting the story to the area around 'Sarum’ (Old Sarum) the name of the earliest settlement of the historic city of Salisbury. The story charts the progress of six local families as they march through the centuries, from their origins as Stone Age hunter-gatherers, though the building of Stonehenge, the arrival of Rome, the Norman Conquest, the creation of Salisbury… show more.