Unlike
my previous novels, the three books of The Crucible
take place in this world, although in a slightly
distant (and slightly parallel) time. Fourteenth-century
Europe was both a fascinating and a dreadful age:
fascinating because of the renaissance in art, culture
and scholarly activities; dreadful because of the
crises that wracked the region's peoples.
I
had been fascinated with this period ever since teaching
a course on it at university - I couldn't get enough
of the endlessly intriguing period in European history.
The Crucible remains my personal favourite
series among all those I have written, and The
Wounded Hawk my favourite book that I've written.
The age, the characters of Hal Bolingbroke and Tom
Neville, the assumption behind the plot ... I just
adored it, and maybe one day I'll come back and do
another like it.
For
an outline of the entire trilogy, see a shortened
synopsis;
also see an explanation of the parallel
world of The Crucible.
See
also my page on medieval time.
