The Forest, Part 2 of 2

by Edward Rutherfurd

“. . . A sprawling tome that combines fact with fiction and covers 900 years in the history of New Forest, a 100,000-acre woodland in southern England . . . Rutherfurd sketches the histories of six fictional families, ranging from aristocrats to peasants, who have lived in the forest for generations. . . . But the real success is in how Rutherfurd paints his picture of the wooded enclave with images of treachery and violence, as well as magic and beauty.”
–The New York Post

Genres: British Literature

Audio Cassette

Published March 29, 2000

About the author

Francis Edward Wintle, best known under his pen name Edward Rutherfurd, was born in the cathedral city of Salisbury. Educated locally, and at the universities of Cambridge, and Stanford, California, he worked in political research, bookselling and publishing. After numerous attempts to write books and plays, he finally abandoned his career in the book trade in 1983, and returned to his childhood home to write SARUM, a historical novel with a ten-thousand year story, set in the area around the ancient monument of Stonehenge, and Salisbury. Four years later, when the book was published, it became an instant international bestseller, remaining 23 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. Since then he has written five more bestsellers: RUSSKA, a novel of Russia; LONDON; THE FOREST, set in England's New Forest which lies close by Sarum, and two novels which cover the story of Ireland from the time just before Saint Patrick to the twentieth century. His books have been translated into twenty languages.

Edward has lived in London, New York, New Hampshire and Ireland. He currently divides his time between New England and Europe. He has two children.

Edward Rutherfurd is a Life Member of the Friends of Salisbury Cathedral, the Salisbury Civic Society, and the Friends of Chawton House, which is located in Jane Austen's village and dedicated to the study of women writers. He is also a Patron of the National Theatre of Ireland (the Abbey Theatre) in Dublin.

In 2005, the City of Salisbury commemorated his services to the city by naming one of the streets leading off its medieval market place 'Rutherfurd Walk'.

Reviews

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will serve as my opinion ( not qualified to review) of Mr. Rutherford's works. I have read every book he has written to date and he is one of my favorite writers. He is similar to Michener in that he begins his books with the formation of earth and the first inhabitants of the area his writes about. The characters in Rutherford's books became so familiar to me that I felt lonely after finishing the them..wishing the book had been longer. I recommend that anyone interested in historical fiction indulge in reading Rutherford, you will not regret it,