Please see below for info about giveaway!
Set in the turbulent midst of 16th century Scotland the book takes you deep inside the daily lives and loves of three young women who as childhood friends and rivals will face wildly different fates as they grow older. From unwanted marriage, to being mistress to the king or being chosen to be prioress of an abbey, their struggles and triumphs are recorded in a growing tapestry of emotion and colour conveyed through a masterful use of Scots and English language, which perfectly captures the atmosphere of the time.
What I particularly enjoyed about this tale is that the author has not attempted to create a rose-tinted version of this historical Scotland but rather portrays a warts-and-all depiction where the poor can be trampled into the mud by the wealth of church potentates with as little thought as standing on a snail. Life is cheap!
A recurring theme throughout the book is just how little control any of the characters have over their lives. One girl will be married, one will become prioress of Haddington's St Mary's Abbey on orders from her uncle! Family duty must come before all else!
It is only with the introduction of John Knox as he grows from infancy to teenage years that this predetermined, unchangeable fate is challenged. Appalled by the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, where salvation can be purchased wholesale from priests, which he has been chosen to serve (again, choices made by others forcing people to follow a pre-ordained route in life), young Knox starts to be drawn towards the 'heretical' ideas of the Protestant reformers. When the Church responds to the challenge of reform by becoming ever more entrenched in blind dogma and lashes out in a frenzy of show trials and public burning of heretics, Knox, along with more and more of the common folk is drawn further and further from the control of Rome until Knox turns from the church completely.
Having rejected his assigned fate of being a priest, he is reluctantly at first persuaded into preaching the reformed Word of God with a fiery passion which dismays those who love him. His public defying of Church authority cannot go unpunished and so it will prove to be. For Knox, who has rejected all notion that he must follow a course laid out for him by others, and wishes to spread the truth of the Reformed Religion, he knows he must 'dree his weird'!
Marie Macpherson has produced one of those books which once you start reading, sinks its hooks deep in you and won't let go until you reach the end. I look forward with anticipation to reading the next instalment of this fine tale. This book is but the first blast of the trumpet for what looks sure to become a triumph.
Available for purchase at Amazon and Amazon UK.
Marie MacPherson has so graciously made available TWO copies of First Blast of the Trumpet, and all you have to do to get your name in on the draw is comment below~~simple as that! Facebook users may also comment on this review's associated thread.
Available for purchase at Amazon and Amazon UK.
About the author...
Marie Macpherson (nee Gilroy) was born in the Honest Toun of Musselburgh, six miles from the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. After gaining an Honours Degree in Russian and English, she spent a year in Moscow and Leningrad to research her Ph.D. thesis on the work of the 19th century Russian writer, Lermontov, said to be descended from the Scottish poet and seer, Thomas the Rhymer.
The rich history of East Lothian - especially the Reformation period - provides the inspiration for her first fictional work, based on the early life of the Scottish reformer, John Knox.
Prizes and awards include the Martha Hamilton Prize for Creative Writing from Edinburgh University and 'Writer of the Year 2011' title awarded by Tyne & Esk Writers.
She is a member of the Historical Writers' Association.
