The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett

After watching Channel 4's dramatisation of Ken Follett's novel World Without End, I decided to read its prequel The Pillars of the Earth after coming across it in a charity shop. Set in the fictional village of Kingsbridge during 'the Anarchy' (a civil war in England and France), The Pillars of the Earth, follows the turbulent lives of the villagers, and the changes to England in the mid-twelfth century. There are a number of central characters including a dedicated monk Prior Phillip, who dreams of transforming Kingsbridge by having a cathedral built; William Hamleigh, a spoilt earl controlled by his mother Regan; Jack, son of the mysterious Ellen and step-son to Tom, the builder of Phillip's new cathedral; and the beautiful Aliena, daughter of the deposed Earl Bartholomew. 

The story centers around the building of a new cathedral in Kingsbridge and throughout the book we get an insight into many of the characters personal feelings about the building of the cathedral, and their various relationships with each other. The characters relay their thoughts and actions through an alternating subjective narration. The narrative switches and we read different characters 'sections' throughout, which are not split rigidly into chapters. This allows the reader to fully understand multiple characters' emotions in certain scenes, and also means that we don't have to read a full chapter to know what is happening elsewhere in the story - for example, in 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series the reader could go through a whole book without finding out what happened to Jon Snow (it was a worrying few weeks...), whereas in The Pillars of the Earth we are never left wondering for long. The reader is able to fully understand the motives of the various narrators and this enables us to develop relationships with characters and root for favourites. 

My favourite character was Aliena, a strong female lead. She defies the stereotype of a weak and helpless maiden, and her character develops into a independent and self-reliant woman. I also enjoyed reading Prior Phillip's sections. His narrative give a great insight into life in a monastery in Medieval England - it's a lot more interesting than it sounds! 

The story has everything, from romance to murder, and is compelling throughout. For those of you who love history, this book is definitely for you, but for any non-history fans out there, I would still recommend The Pillars of the Earth, just for Follett's story-telling ability and writing style, which is amazing. I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel, World Without End, which is set in Kingsbridge 157 years later.