Michael Jecks

Author's NoteOne aspect of my books which has caused upset to some readers, I know, is my depiction of the attitudes and behaviour of religious men and women in the early fourteenth century.For many people (myself included when I first began to research this period) it is hard to believe that those...

PrologueIt was an unnaturally cool morning in this part of northern Spain, when the youth who had got there first gave a whoop of triumph fi-om the top of the rise which men called Montjoie, the Mountain of Joy. At least in those last moments before he died, the youngster knew absolute pleasure of...

Chapter OneWhen he halted his wagon, he grunted with the effort of clambering down from his perch, then winced as his sleeve caught on a splinter and the cloth ripped. The short, chubby man stood by his horse inspecting the tear disconsolately. That, for his wife, would be the last straw, he...

Author^s Note For those readers unfamiliar with my two earlier novels featuring Sir Baldwin Furnshill and Simon Puttock, a quick guide to early fourteenth-century history may be useful. The late 1200s and early 1300s were years of massive change for Europe's population. Conflict over the papacy...