Novel Relationships

My nephew gave me this book for Christmas knowing that I am a devoted reader of historical fiction and perhaps too that I specialized in the Crusades for my MA degree. I was taught (amongst others) by the late wonderful Michael Maclagan.

Acland’s story is set at the time of the First Crusade and tells the tale of a monk turned knight called Hugh de Verdon. Many of the characters are real people (the saintly Hugh of Cluny and Baldwin King of Jerusalem to name two).

Interspersed with the drama of de Verdun’s participation in the First Crusade is another story set in an Oxford College in the present time showing the politics and rivalries that sadly typify that great institution. This works very well as a plot device.
If you are looking for an entertaining page turner like the Shardlake novels of C J Sansom then the Waste Land is for you. Much more exciting and entertaining than the oddly best-selling Wolf Hall book which I found as dull as ditchwater.

Not only does Acland write extremely well, his research is meticulous. With George W’s inane remark about the Crusades, this topic is now fashionable again and anyone who wants to understand the politics of the middle east should spend a bit of time learning about them. The Waste Land makes for an excellent light introduction.

I would have liked more on the Lazarus heresy. As a non-theologian, I was left wondering why it was quite so shocking but perhaps more on that in Acland’s sequel?

Rather brilliantly, he includes very helpful maps and a list of the real characters both of which helped me navigate the excellent and compelling plot.

Acland describes the book as ‘an entertainment’ and that it is.