It draws you in as if you were living the story yourself. We get all the historical detail we’ve come to expect from Philippa Gregory that brings the period and the scenery to life. There is of course the background story of the fall of King Charles I and rise of Parliament and the new religion, but it’s the poor people who are the stars of this story. Tidelands is very much a romance story – historical of course, but unlike the lavish stories of royal ladies I’ve become used to from this author, the main female character is literally dirt poor. That is going to change very soon after having read this newest offering. I am a big fan of Philippa Gregory’s historical novels, although I have never read any of her romances. They are ready to take lethal action into their own hands. This is the time of witch-mania, and Alinor, a woman without a husband, skilled with herbs, suddenly enriched, arouses envy in her rivals – and fear among the villagers. Suspected of possessing dark secrets in superstitious times, Alinor’s ambition and determination mark her out from her neighbours. She shows him the secret ways across the treacherous marsh – not knowing that she is leading disaster into the heart of her life. Instead, she meets James, a young man on the run. The struggle reaches every corner of the kingdom, even to the remote Tidelands – the marshy landscape of the south coast.Īlinor, a descendant of wise women, crushed by poverty and superstition, waits in the graveyard under the full moon for a ghost who will declare her free from her abusive husband. Midsummer’s Eve, 1648, and England is in the grip of civil war between renegade King and rebellious Parliament. A dangerous time for a woman to be different… REVIEWED BY BARBARA BEATON England, 1648. Subscribe to our magazine for more great content

Tidelands book summary