Sarum

In a novel of extraordinary richness, the whole sweep of British civilisation unfolds through the story of one place, Salisbury, from beyond recorded time to the present day. The landscape — as old as time itself — shapes the destinies of five families: the Wilsons and the Shockleys, locked in a cycle of revenge and rivalry for more than 400 years; the Masons, who pour their inspired love of stone into the creation of Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral; the Porters, descended from a young Roman soldier in exile; and the aristocratic Norman Godefrois, who will fall to the very bottom of the social ladder before their fortunes revive.