i am reading cadfael

[eleanor2]

any cadfael fans out there.when i was away not long ago we went to shrewsbury one day.the next we went driving around to all the little villages.in one village i bought a book from a second hand book shop.it was an encyclopedia of all the people and places in all the cadfael stories.some were a fact some are fiction.it was very interesting.i couldnt put it down as it was telling all the history of all these local people and places from hundreds of years ago.the beauty was that the book was signed by the author robin whiteman and counter signed by ellis peters who had done the introduction for the book.obviously with me buying the book in cadfael country someone local had been to a book signing. it says to sarah and andrew with best wishes robin whiteman.then underneath Ellis peters.how can some-one give such a fantastic book away. i am at the moment reading an excellent mystery. i really get into these books.

[Gentian]

I used to enjoy it on TV when David Jacobi played the detective monk, always got his man. Never read the books

[eleanor2]

the books are really good reads.

[souter girl]

Lovely!!I love the books and have them all I think - that inspires me to start on them again - it'll be like finding old friends again! But lucky you, what a find!

[eleanor2]

the thing is souter i bought the book as a christmas pressy for my mum.but it is such a brilliant book i am tempted to keep it.but then again i know my mum will absolutely love it.she is a big cadfael fan.i think it will end up going to mum.but i am going to finish reading it first.arnt i naughty.i tell you what sometimes i could just go and sit and have a cup of wine with cadfael .on a nice summers evening,when all is quiet and the smells of the herbs are wafting around in the air.i would have lots of questions to ask......it is only since reading this cadfael companion book that i realise just how much history ellis peters incorporates into her stories.not just the actual history but the background to all the ways of life.

[eleanor2]

see these books can be good for the mind.i have just got to a bit where i have worked out by how the tale is unfolding that a monk helping another injured monk.well this is what i think.is actually a woman who this knight bethrothed himself too before he went to the holy land,she was only a child then.this knight came back badly injured especially in the private parts.so he dissolved his bethrothel and became a monk.the said child by now is a young woman.so she decides to become a nun.only she never turns up at the nunnery.no-one finds this out for three years.by now they think there has been foul play.but they find the man who escorted her to the nunnery.he swears he took her to a mile of the nunnery and then she insists on going on alone.when the accused is taken to explain all this to the injured monk who disolved his bethrothel.the young mute monk who has spent the last three years caring for this injured monk.covers his head with his cowel.suspicious eh.if it does turn out to be this lady in disguise i will cry.what love and devotion.

[annie fenbug]

Hi Eleanor - If you're enjoying Cadfael you might like the earlier Heaven Tree trilogy by the same author, Edith Pargeter (Ellis Peters was a pen name) and set around the same period, in the Welsh borders. Unusually for historical fiction, there's a good strong older woman character - and, as usual, I preferred the villain to the hero! Might be a bit difficult to get hold of as I doubt it's been reprinted in a while, but the library may be able to help.

[eleanor2]

hi annie i'm not sure but i may have rad one of these books years ago.my mum lent me a book by ellis peters not cadfael.i will ask her about it.cus i have run out of cadfaels.i think this one i am reading now is the last one i havnt read.

[dragonfly]

I haven't read any Cadfael books but I have seen most of the TV stories and enjoyed them. Your book sounds interesting Eleanor, make sure you give it to your mum when you have read it.

[eleanor2]

i know d.f i must give it up to who it was intended for.

[eleanor2]

it was as i thought.the young lady on hearing her betrothed had been seriously injured and was entering the monastry for the rest of his life.she had obviously liked him from there once only meeting as a child.cus she wore his betrothal ring on a chain around her neck from then on.instead of looking for another husband.she pretended to enter a nunnery.but in reality.she sold her own personal possesions.to finance mens clothes and then she disguised herself as a man.to enter the monastry of her betrothed .she bacame a mute monk.who dedicated herself to looking after the injured sir guy mascombe(betrothed)he hadnt seen her since she was a child.so he didnt know who she was at first.she tenderly loved and cared for him.untill he died.arrrrrrrr it is another sphere of love we are shown. a very good read.

[eleanor2]

I have picked up a caedfael book for a bit of good light reading.I am realising soem good points of her writing.She describes everyone she writes about in good detail,there physical and personality traits.This then helps you to make a better picture.As i am reading i have a good picture of the people and surroundings.