Novels set in the 17th century are rather thin on the ground, apparently because it is not such an interesting era as what came before or after. I’ve always wondered at this considering what happened in this period, and surely the main event was the English Civil War. Lindsey Davis has turned her back on Ancient Rome for a while and instead plunged her readers into this conflict, telling the story of Gideon Jukes and Juliana Lovell, who are on opposing sides. They are going to have a rocky journey through the war and afterwards, both together and apart...

No, this is not a romantic novel but more a large-scale work of historical realism, painting the era, warts and all, for us. At over 700 pages it could stand a fair bit of editing, but not too much or it would lose the epic scale, which is such an important part of the book. If you are expecting something like Davis's other books then I can tell you now that this is nothing like them at all. There is a certain dry wit, but as you can imagine, a straight historical novel about this war and its rocky aftermath is not going to be a barrel of laughs. Nor would I want it to be; and if you are keen on this period (this won’t appeal if you are not) then I cannot name another novel that goes into it in such depth and leaves the reader feeling perhaps wrung out emotionally, but satisfied historically. All rather impressive in fact, and a must read for anybody who wants to find out what most other historical novelists are missing out on.