There were some nice touches in this story: the loose affiliations of nascent monastic settlement, the keen observations of nature. However, I was left unsatisfied by the protagonist Wulf, his unresolved tensions with his brother, his embryonic vocation...It seemed to me K CH was too eager to take us on a trip through Anglo-Saxon England - we meet Hild, there's a nod to Sutton Hoo - and while I loved Joanna Troughton's depiction of Saxon Lastingham, and the monks' journey onto the N York moore to get there, I did find some of the 70s artwork grated a little.