My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I thought this was an excellent read from start to finish. There were some very impressive descriptions of landscape scenes and journeys across the sea to Wales. The author writes from a very believable viewpoint as Strongbow’s wife, Aoife. For example when she is still a young girl, and she notices the muscular oarsmen rowing their craft. The inclusion of expressions like ‘lambs leaped’ and ‘calves capered’ in a later section was quite lyrical in my opinion. Parker has a very pleasing writing style giving this historical novel a place apart from others.
The trials and tribulations of Aoife’s turbulent life as she develops from a young innocent to become a mother and a leader of people: men and women, soldiers and schemers, is handled so well by Parker it became difficult to believe that this was one of his earliest books. Knowing little about this early history of the Irish, Welsh or English this book was a wonderful way to discover more. The protagonist marries Richard de Clare (Strongbow) as the choice of her parents when help is needed to restore her father’s kingdom, Leinster, in Ireland. Her father is Dermot MacMurrough and Aoife’s opinion of him swings to and fro as she matures and grows wiser with experience. The author deals with this so well it is difficult not to believe that he knew his fictional Aoife in reality.
There are references to the dispute between the King of England, Henry II, and his archbishop, Thomas a Becket. Aoife ponders about this when she asks for guidance from her uncle who is also a bishop. This is all very relevant to the story and the amount of research done by the author must have been considerable. For me it inferred that the authority and counsel from titled women such as Strongbow’s Wife, even in those times, a hundred years after the Battle of Hastings, was surprisingly significant. Not only is Aoife also a caring mother. She begins to show clever tactics during warfare, as well as ability for business. When endeavouring to gain more wealth for her family’s future and the land they will rule over, she begins to set up training schemes for workers in wood and carpentry, using wood from their own forests for the products to be sold abroad.
The times and places; emotions and conversations in this exciting tale are extremely well done by a talented writer. This is a historical novel that I am pleased to recommend whether it is a genre you like or not.
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