A Twisted Cross - Softcover

Russell, J. R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0957567308 ISBN 13: 9780957567306

Publisher: Skycat Publications, 2013

Synopsis

This is a story told by a child of a great crime committed in the name of God. In this it is signal but not unique, in these days almost a commonplace. A Christian crusade called by Pope Innocient III in 1199 to redeem the holy city of Jerusalem ended five years later in the siege and occupation of the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. An army of devoted men enlisted in an honourable cause was diverted to a desperate and dishonourable action ending in robbery, rape and murder, and the destruction of a culture and an empire. The great cathedral of St Sophia was desecrated and despoiled, churches and libraries were ravaged, statues, monuments and mosaics were shattered, precious relics of ancient Greece and early Christianity were stolen and scattered throughout Europe, the vast wealth of a thousand years of empire was seized and squandered, a whole population was dispersed, a whole civilisation was destroyed.

About this title

Review

A TWISTED CROSS by J.R. Russell. A Review The sacking of cities always releases the worst of human frailties. The savage sins that follow the overcoming of brave but foolish resistance always remain a stain on whatever belief fostered their atrocities. Titus much regretted the remorseless and needless sacking of Jerusalem for the sake of Roman hegemony and Hitler had good cause to regret his failure to defeat the brain washed peasantry of Stalingrad. But Pope John Paul II was still apologising to the Orthodox Church in 2004 for the, 'greatest crime in humanity', committed by the Fourth Crusade in 1203 in Constantinople. This incompetent, corrupt and greedy band of military opportunists from the Western half of Christendom were heroes in the eyes of Kitty, an orphaned French child of her times. Without hope, without education and without sin, she turns to impersonation of a boy so that she could gain absolution, purity and Godliness by fighting for the Home of Jesus. Kit's naiveity, innocence and desire to do the right thing by her creed sees her as a close witness to the Byzantine manipulations of friend and foe as the Crusaders find themselves hoist by their own religious petard in the awful destruction of the finest temples to Christ ever erected in His Name. As in his previous novels, A.R. Russell displays an uncomfortable familiarity with his subject matter that goes beyond that of an academic and into the realms of the psychic. Russell was witness to the events. Such is the reality of his writing, I am prepared to believe he was there. The destruction of Constantinople and its corrupt combatants is also paralleled by Kit's loss of innocence. In the aftermath of bloody victory, Russell describes Kit's awakening in the most devastating and shocking of emotions, 'It was a trick. The crusade had been honeycombed with falsehood, sweet and empty. As the blood in the chapel was false, so the lies of the priest,and the promises that were never meant to be kept. He brooded in the dark corner of the stable and began to hate himself for being tricked into going on crusade; his stupid childish belief he could help Christ. Christ did not help himself. Kit felt guilty: the dupe is guilty of being duped. He felt defiled by being." This powerful reckoning pulsates with your own emotions as your adventures with Russell's lovable tyke close in on this end of The Fourth Crusade and the last of the major forays by Rome into Islam. But, it's not an easy read. Byzantine moves and mazes require concentration and an over imaginative mind. It is, however, immensely rewarding.

Edition details

• Publisher: Skycat Publications
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0957567308
• ISBN 13: 9780957567306
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 125