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Touring Great Britain, one is impressed by the old buildings, particularly cathedrals and churches, and their beautiful stonework. It took a large number of highly-skilled craftsman many years to create this stone art. All those workers had to be trained, as well. Complicated stone work is not just something you can briefly read about on the Internet and then carry out skillfully, even if the Internet existed in the Middle Ages! The training at that time was controlled by guilds, which set standards for the training of apprentices, who after years of experience became journeymen, and eventually masters of their craft. The Book of Hugh Flowers is an historical novel focused on this aspect on the Middle Ages. The year is 1410, and the story is about sixteen-year-old Hugh Flower, a journeyman mason who comes to the city of Lynn in England to work on the church of St. Nicholas. The novel helps bring to life the mason’s craft and shows the kind of rivalry and jealousy, resulting in mystery and danger, that can happen on a job as the story unfolds.
This is a very nice medieval historical novel that doesn’t involve knights fighting in battles or political rivalry between mighty lords. Instead, it shows the drama and interest that can take place in another, quieter, but just as important part of medieval life. The knights in shining armor have all gone, but the stonework remains.