Place of Repose

The year is 875, and the Danish king of York, Halfden Ragnarsson, is carrying fire and sword across Northumbria, burning churches and monasteries and killing their inhabitants. The once-great Christian country is at the mercy of the heathen. The monks of Lindisfarne flee, taking the relics of Saint Cuthbert and the Lindisfarne Gospels with them. Their journey in search of a new home for the Saint lasts for seven years, and changes the lives of the men who bear him for ever. It is a tale of violence and intrigue, revenge and reconciliation – and for the youngest of the brothers, of true love lost and found. This gripping novel makes a distant world vital, vivid and appealing to the contemporary reader. An extraordinary story combines with the skilful and engaging recreation of characters and relationships at this fateful moment in the survival of Northumbria. Always in the background is the mysterious presence of the Saint, as the threads of destiny that will bind heathen and Christian, Dane and Saxon start to weave together. This gripping novel makes a distant world vital, vivid and appealing to the contemporary reader. An extraordinary story combines with the skilful and engaging recreation of characters and relationships at this fateful moment in the survival of Northumbria. Always in the background is the mysterious presence of the Saint, as the threads of destiny that will bind heathen and Christian, Dane and Saxon start to weave together.