Selected reviews
Among His Personal Effects and An Early Fall are historical novels set in pre-Reformation Scotland, written by a wonderful teacher and lover of literature. Although the stories are intricate, the writing is neither dry nor obtuse, reflecting the setting of the novels, medieval Scotland, earthy, severe-and faith-filled.
Among His Personal Effects is the story of Master Robert Henryson, the ‘Scottish Chaucer’ and four of his students. The story, located in the events of late 15th century Scotland, unfolds around Henryson’s adaptation of Aesop’s fables. Early Fall tells of the fortunes of a Scottish nobleman, a priest, a traveling musician, and a maid in the nobleman’s household as their lives intersect with the battle of Flodden in 1513. Faith and power, choices and providence, truth and especially forgiveness, unravel and interlace through the reflections of the characters.
In both novels, through the events and characters, God’s grace surfaces. Grace is not cheap for any of them. Although nobles, abbots, lawyers, and others remembered in standard histories and on monuments play their part, it is the ‘small people’ who have their ‘monuments carved in the heart of God’ wh0 come to life here and live the ‘mystery of Providence.’
I said that these books were gifts, but I must also say that the author is a friend and former colleague, and they were sent to me out of our friendship. Having read them, however, they became gifts in another sense, in that wonderful way of books that open a world with thoughts that delight, provoke, and affect the reader.
These are tales worth telling and well told.
I enjoyed the historical setting not just because he is good at giving the mood of people in a rural community in feudal times (the local lord calling the people to fight with him and feeling responsible for them) but because of the Christian undertone and setting.
This is by no means a religious book, but it is clear that these were religious people. So at a surface level there are priests in the battle line, the place of prayer before conflict, the importance of the Priory at Coldstream and an accepted awareness of the life hereafter. But, more than that, underlying the story is the deep-held faith of some of the characters, their day-to-day struggle with their beliefs, and themes of betrayal and forgiveness and mercy.
This is a gripping novel about the variety and difficulty of people’s lives and about the lasting effects of the apparently small choices they make and about the grace that can still be present in even the worst of them.