"Broken-down walls and crumbled stones seemed to possess a secret language all their own. What stories would they tell, if she finally listened? Ellie Carver arrives at her grandmother's bedside expecting to find her silently slipping away. Instead, the beloved old woman begins speaking. Of a secret past and castle ruins forgotten by time. Of a hidden chapel that served as a rendezvous for the French resistance in World War II. Of lost love...

After gentle Henry VI takes the throne and is promised a royal bride from France, the rival royal line, the House of York, begins their quest to oust him. In 1437, after years of regency, the pious and gentle Henry VI, the Lamb, comes of age and accedes to the English throne. His poor health and frailty of mind render him a weakling king; Henry depends on his closest men, Spymaster Derry Brewer and William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, to run his kingdom....

After his sons are killed at the Battle of Hastings and his family and farm are destroyed by the Norman invaders, Buccmaster leads a group of fighters on a quest of revenge. Written is what the author describes as "a shadow tongue" --a version of Old English updated so as to be understandable to the modern reader.

"1062, a time many fear is the End of Days. With the English King Edward heirless and ailing, across the grey seas in Normandy the brutal William the Bastard waits for the moment when he can drown England in a tide of blood. The ravens of war are gathering. But as the king's closest advisors scheme and squabble amongst themselves, hopes of resisting the naked ambition of the Norman duke come to rest with just one man: Hereward. To some a ruthless...