Crisis in Capelburgh: Volume 4 - Tapa blanda

As George Crandall tries to rebuild Capelburgh he is faced by one crisis after another. First the community is threatened by an attack from a company of runaway villeins led by men who call themselves the "True Witnesses" and lay claim to apocalyptic powers. It takes a bloody - but one-sided - battle to defeat them and unlock the secret of the silver reliquary Margaret could not resist buying. Then comes the greatest crisis of all: a new lord appointed by the king. Like so many mediaeval nobles, the new man is arrogant and cruel but George and his people have no choice but to submit - until, that is, the new lord wants to burn Lady Lucy alive. Then the full power of the silver reliquary must be unleashed to set matters right again.

Law and order is a tenuous thing and we live constantly on the cusp of chaos. Back in the 1960s I travelled through Afghanistan several times and found the people charming and friendly. Yet how quickly that land descended into lawlessnessm once government had been removed! The Black Death was the greatest catastrophe ever to hit England and it is no wonder that mediaeval society reeled. Contemporary descriptions and personal experience have gone into my depiction of the aftermath of the great plague as it affected the little world of Capelburgh.