

With epic courage and ferocity, Godwin and Edmund repel the butchering Danes in three great battles. Godwin must traverse the meadows, wintry forests and fogbound marshes of Saxon England, raising armies of monks, ploughmen and shepherds against the Viking invader. When Ethelred's son Edmund takes the throne, determined to succeed where his father failed, he plucks Godwin from domestic peace to be right-hand man in his loyal shield wall. One man lives to bear witness to the upheaval: Godwin, barely out of boyhood and destined to become one of his country's great warriors. King Ethelred lies dying and the England he knew dies with him the warring kingdoms of Mercia, Wessex and Northymbria tremble on the brink of great change. superbly evoked the wordplay of the period's poetry as it unfolds a compelling story of Earl Godwin's battles against the Norse' The year is 1016 and England burns while the Viking armies blockade the great city of London. Women were getting all kinds of freedoms and this comes across in (his writing).A Sunday Times Book of the Year 'Justin Hill's Shieldwall. Now, at this point in history, Wang Dulu might appear very traditional, but he was writing just after the Quing Dynasty had fallen, a time when China was throwing off traditional practices, like binding women's feet. (The women characters) are definitely one of the great things about the stories.


Please talk a little about the strong women characters in Dulu's work. I wanted to bring as much of the material from the original books that I could, and I wanted to be honest to the writer. What was your main concern while writing? The agent for (Wang Dulu's) family contacted my editor. I saw the film in 2000, but it was April 2014 that I was approached to write the book. When were you first introduced to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ? I'm also reading A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel. She's masterful, like she's pulling off all kinds of things, and I've enjoyed getting a sense of her writing. I'm reading it because I heard an interview when she was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Hill is also the author of The Drink and the Dream Teahouse, Shieldwall and Passing Under Heaven, a historical novel inspired by the life of poet Yu Xuanji.Īnne Tyler's A Spool of Blue Thread.
