Reviews of Aefled & Eleanor: A Poet’s Tale
“Thoroughly researched and powerfully written….”
“This novel, set in East Anglia in 1081, deals with cultural clashes, cruelties and incipient friendships between Normans and the English. Thoroughly researched and powerfully written, it imagines the rural life at that time, including murders and childbirths, prophetic ‘seeings’ and secret bardic singings reconnecting people to the ancient dignities of language and land….The book’s subtitle is important. The talented Aefled –who has learnt much from a wandering Jewish scholar – dreams of composing an epic poem about her own experiences of the Norman conquest; her inspired writing of poetry makes for some of the novel’s greatest passages. I strongly recommend this book to everyone interested in literature, history and the spirit of survival.”
Angela Livingstone, Professor Emeritus, Department of Literature, Essex University,
Poet and Translator. Winner of the Rossica Translation Prize 2014
“arresting and original…”
“Aefled & Eleanor: A Poet’s Tale is arresting and original. I like in particular the whole conception of a female poetry and the way this is matched in images coming out of and dealing with the womb of things, the weave of life as lived from day to day and apprehended from a woman’s consciousness. A fine book.”
Robert Nye, prizewinning poet and novelist
‘An extraordinary achievement…’
‘Emotionally compelling and convincing…’
‘Clearly stands on a firm base of extensive research and broad historical learning…’
‘Beautifully written, it has the narrative drive of the best kind of mystery thriller…’
Herbie Butterfield, academic and literary critic, author of studies of Hart Crane and Robinson Jeffers and numerous essays on other American writers, including Melville, James, Bierce, Cather, Hemingway and Fitzgerald. He has also edited a collection of essays on Modern American Poetry.