Sarum - Edward Rutherfurd

"Sarum" is an ambitious book to say the least. Weighing in at an impressive 1300 pages, it represents an epic historical novel, several years of research and writing and a good many hours of reading. (Or listening - Sarum is also available on audiobook, with a running time of some 47 hours!) Rather than focussing on one era of history as most authors chose to do, Edward Rutherford has rather traced the entire course of English history from the Mesolithic to the present day (or at least 1987; the present day at the publication of the work) of one region over the course of this book. It was both this ambition and a number of personal recommendations that led me ...

Sarum certainly isn't a book you pick up lightly. That applies quite literally since it weighs in at 1400 pages, certainly longer than your average debut novel, but of couse I'm talking about the subject matter. The basic premise is that this is a book about the history of the bowl in the chalk ridges of the West where 5 rivers flow together and present day Salisbury is situated (Sarum is the ancient name for this area) told from the time of the first human settlers up to the present day (a span of over 10,000 years) through countless events, not least the construction of both Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral. The book is told from the ...