I enjoyed the first half of Ken Follett's A Column of Fire more than I did the second. Don't get me wrong, it's a good read from start to finish, keeping up pace and energy, but I couldn't quite buy into the main characters' close involvement in just about every key event of Elizabeth's reign, and the treatment of the gunpowder plot in the final segment struck me as a coincidence too far. But a great way for a young reader to get acquainted with the period.
Funnily enough the Parisian segments struck me as having some of the raw power of The Pillars of the Earth. The chapter on the St Bartholomew's Day massacre generated a real sense of dread - and dreadful loss. I suppose not knowing all that much about the episode was helpful in my case. For some reason I kept having flashbacks to a very early episode of Doctor Who which had a considerable effect on my younger self. Strong stuff for an eight-year-old. The BBC didn't hold back in those days.
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