Resurrection - Softcover

Boast, Philip

Softcover

ISBN 10: 074725379X ISBN 13: 9780747253792

Publisher: Headline, 1997

Synopsis

From the last Ice Age to the Industrial Revolution London had at its heart a holy place. Five cathedrals were built on its site, four were razed to the ground. Beneath the foundations rested a secret, a legacy passed on through generations of women, that could hurt and heal in equal measure.

About this title

From the Author

The epic of London's holiest place
I love St Paul's Cathedral in London and walked past it so many times I couldn't resist writing this novel about the cathedral and the holy place it's built on. The story, and title too, came complete into my mind while I was driving my children to school - one moment I was telling my young son Harry how everything we saw had once been buried deep in an ice age, and the next instant I could see this novel Resurrection in every detail and knew I wanted to write it. Resurrection starts in the last ice age (when the melting waters of the Thames tore a deep chasm past the hill where St Paul's now stands) and a holy rock tended by one surviving woman. As the years pass her descendants, the tribe of women who tend the place, keep the secret even from the priests who come - first the Romans who build a church on the place, then even from Bishop Mellitus who builds the first cathedral to St Paul on the hilltop. The novel follows their story and the women's instinctive relationship to the place - only they know they way that leads deep underground, and know of the great treasure hidden there by Ellen as the Saxon armies besieged London: the lost gospels of the apostles, the eyewitness accounts of Christ and His Ministry. Including the black scroll, the Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot. It is the duty of the women to keep their great treasure secret from thieves and looters, even scientists and priests; but Elizabeth, wife of the Dean, cannot keep Sir Christopher Wren discovering her secret - or from loving her. I loved writing this book because the history of London and the women is so full and interesting and goes together so beautifully. And the different cathedrals, Roman, Saxon, medieval with its vast aisles and spire, always burnt down and always rebuilt, and now finally (we hope) Wren's dome, makes a constantly interesting backdrop. My favourite character is William the monk who falls through the ice into the river and loses his underwear. After reading the story, I guarantee you'll never look at St Paul's Cathedral in the same way again.

About the Author

Philip Boast lives in Devon with his wife Rosalind and three children, Harry, Zoe and Jamie.

About this edition

• Publisher: Headline
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 074725379X
• ISBN 13: 9780747253792
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 473