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The Forest
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A magnificent, sweeping history in which Rutherfurd captures the essence of the English heartland.

About the Author

Edward Rutherfurd was born in England, in the cathedral city of Salisbury. Educated locally, and at the universities of Cambridge, and Stanford, California, he worked in political research, bookselling and publishing. After numerous attempts to write books and plays, he finally abandoned his career in the book trade in 1983, and returned to his childhood home to write Sarum. Four years later, when the book was published, it became an instant international bestseller, remaining 23 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List.

Since then he has written seven more bestsellers- Russka, a novel of Russia; London; The Forest, set in England's New Forest which lies close by Sarum; two novels which cover the story of Ireland from the time just before Saint Patrick to the twentieth century; New York; and Paris. His books have been translated into over twenty languages.

Reviews

Hugely impressive
*Mail on Sunday*

Exerts a hypnotic charm
*Daily Mail*

Fresh, exciting and insightful
*The Independent*

Charting an entire millennium in his newest saga, Rutherfurd continues to pursueÄin meandering prose and at tedious lengthÄhis fascination with nugatory events in English history, picking up loose threads from his sprawling bestselling novels London and Sarum. In this volume he expands his Chaucerian tapestry to include the chivalrous past of the storied New Forest bordering the south coast near the Isle of Wight. Beginning in 1099, the story is divided into seven uneven parts: "The Hunt," "Beaulieu," "Lymington," "The Armada Tree," "Alice," "Albion Park" and "Pride of the Forest." Intermingling real and fictional characters, the narrative traces the lineage of several families, mostly unknown outside rarified circles of Anglophiliacs. A segment that opens with a romantic version of the death of Rufus, son of William the Conqueror, in which he is shot by a wayward hunting arrow from the bow of Walter Tyrrell, introduces a Druid-like presence in the character of Puckle, a gnarled old man who darkly personifies the Forest. The introduction of other characters is similarly quixotic. Following a droll chapter on the ill-fated Spanish Armada, the next segment dramatizes the beheading of Alice Lisle for her role in the 1685 Monmouth uprising, and there is a mention of Leonard Hoar, an infamous early president of Harvard. Though the geographic landscape is rich, Rutherfurd rarely generates enough focus and excitement to sustain interest in the mundane anecdotes he strings together, and longwinded passages of exposition and description overwhelm his ambitious narrative. $300,000 ad/promo. (Apr.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Hugely impressive * Mail on Sunday *
Exerts a hypnotic charm * Daily Mail *
Fresh, exciting and insightful * The Independent *

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