Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Bring out your dead
It's all in the words. And Leslie Wilson likes the way Ann Turnbull uses them in Forged In The Fire:
Throughout, the quality of Turnbull's writing gives the maximum impetus to the story. It has utter, unaffected simplicity and enormous power. Take this passage: "A hooded figure went by carrying a white staff, and I saw how the mass of people parted around this person, like water around an island, and none came near. An apothecary, I supposed, or a searcher, some such that dealt with plague sufferers. I shivered." Sleek and streamlined, the words deliver their menace straight to the reader's imagination.The research, clearly meticulous, never laborious, is part of the muscle and sinew of the narrative. This is a superb book, one to love, read and re-read till the pages fall apart.
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