Bücher von Diane Calton Smith

The Charter of Oswy and Leoflede, by which in times past the Manor of Wisbech was gifted to Ely Abbey, has been lying forgotten and gathering dust for centuries. Now suddenly, it seems, everyone is interested in it. In 1190 a wave of fire and theft begins to spread through Wisbech, bringing death in its wake. The seneschal for the Isle of Ely arrives to investigate, but the harder he searches, the more elusive the truth becomes. And everywhere heturns, the legend surrounding the ancient charter seems to follow. The vast wilderness of the medieval Fen is still untamed, and for local folk the horrors of the Norman Invasion have never quite gone away. Beneath the town that lies in the shadow of the great Norman castle runs an undercurrent of tension, where the old world battles with the new. The seneschal is about to discover how badly those old wounds fester.

It must truly have been a night to remember, when the ancient tower of St Peter’s came crashing down.But that was just the beginning of all that would befall the people of Wisbech and the Fens in the Tudor and Stuart eras. They were about to enter a time of such upheaval that the way they behaved, prayed, even the way in which they were expected to think, would be turned upside down.‘Plague, Flood and Gewgaws’ follows the progress of Wisbech and the Fens through two hundred turbulent years, witnessing the perils of religious Reform, flood, plague, fire and civil war.And it is the ordinary people who take centre stage here. Not the kings, bishops or burgesses, but the folk who laboured, fought and rebelled; the cottagers, ploughmen, dykers ... and the Fen Tigers themselves.

Sometimes the truth lies hidden for years.Sometimes it is merely mislaid. Joshua Ambrose, poet and merchant of the Georgian town of Wisbech, rubs shoulders with some very interesting neighbours in his everyday life. Among them are the anti-slavery campaigner Thomas Clarkson and the Quaker banker Jonathan Peckover. In 1799, with its wealthy merchants and prosperous port, Wisbech is enjoying its heyday as a centre of progress, vitality and trade.Yet none of this helps Joshua with the choices he has to make. Their repercussions will still be creating havoc more than two centuries later.Monica Kerridge, in her battle to save her beloved Poet's House Museum, has only a few flimsy clues to guide her. Her search for the truth leads her from the Fens to Corfe Castle in Dorset, as she follows in the footsteps of the poet.But neither Monica nor her small team, nor even the Poet's House itself, can change the past, however much of its mystery they unravel.They can only hope to escape it.