'An immersive, engrossing, and epic journey of a woman's soul, finely researched and beautifully written.'
-- Margaret George, author of The Autobiography of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I
'I loved this book from the very first page, for the poised lyricism of the writing and for the fascination of the story. Agnes Peppin, the butcher's daughter, is an enchanting witness to turbulent times, and the cataclysmic events that shape her life become newly urgent and thrilling as seen through her eyes. This is a wonderful novel - sometimes tragic, sometimes redemptive, always thoughtful and wise.'
-- Margaret Leroy, author of The English Girl
'The novel that chronicles the human cost of Henry's edict is well written with wonderfully rendered descriptions of place and period and an evocative mix of fiction and fact... at once immediate and intimate... The author has created an interesting and observant narrator whose actions and reflections are in the main consistent with her circumstances and the period in which the story takes place... The setting and scene tease like any bodice ripper... With each episode in Agnes' journey, the author deepens a malleable canvas of reactions to the edict that punished thousands of women and men formerly confined in religious life, but Agnes Peppin's rock-bottom motivation is to survive... In a world ruled by men cowed before a fickle tyrant, Agnes's decisions are not only pragmatic but authentic to her time and place which, after all, has to be the guiding principle for historically based fiction.'
* New York Journal of Books *
"As the butcher's daughter reflects on all she sees, Glendinning makes this tale exhilarating, lending Agnes a candid, eccentrically lyrical voice."
* Jean Zimmerman, New York Times *
'An absolute pleasure... assured, quietly gripping, surprising and educative, with a terrific central character, it pins down the precarious nature of life in 16th-century England'
* Daily Mail *
'A beguiling, affecting tale of dissolution and redemption set in a changing - and beautifully wrought - Tudor landscape. Gloriously authentic and refreshingly unromantic, this one got under my skin'
-- Jessie Child, historian and award-winning author of Henry VIII's Last Victim and God's Traitors
'Glendinning writes with a vivid immediacy about a fascinating, dark moment in our island story... a refreshing and original tale [about] the underside of Henry's religious Reformation.'
* The Times *
'Marvellous.... heart-breaking and unforgettable... a by times humorous, by times tragic but always compelling picaresque tale.'
* The Irish Times *
'A brave girl, a powerful tale, a world on the brink of change - and how the past leaps into life!'
-- Fay Weldon
'A powerful and very immediate picture of another age. It is full of violence and loss, and yet it is also a testament to survival, courage, pity, and the eternal beauty to be found in small things'
-- Anne Perry
'A touching, vivid and sometimes deeply shocking depiction of the lives of ordinary people whose world was shattered by Henry VIII's policy to dissolve England's monasteries. A must for anyone interested in the Tudor period'
-- Elizabeth Fremantle, author of Queen's Gambit (The Tudor Trilogy)
