Sarum (novel)

1987 novel by Edward Rutherfurd

Sarum (also titled Sarum: The Novel of England) is a work of historical fiction by Edward Rutherfurd, first published in 1987. It is Rutherfurd's literary debut. It tells the story of England through the tales of several families in and around the English city of Salisbury, the writer's hometown, from prehistoric times to 1985.^[1]

Characters

The main families of Sarum include:

• Forest
• Wilson
• Porters
• Mason
• Shockley
• Godfrey

Synopsis

The story covers major points of British history. The following chapter listing parallels major periods and events :

Old Sarum

• Journey to Sarum (prehistoric Britain, 7500BC)
• The Barrow (the arrival of agriculture in Britain, 4000BC)
• The Henge (the building of Stonehenge, 2000BC)
• Sorviodunum (the arrival of the Romans, 42AD)
• Twilight (the fall of the Roman Empire/arrival of the Saxons, 427AD)
• The Two Rivers (arrival of the Vikings/uniting of England, 877AD)
• The Castle (Norman England, 1139AD)

New Sarum

• The Founding (the founding of New Sarum/building of Salisbury Cathedral, 1244–1310)
• The Death (the Black Death, 1348–1382)
• The Rose (the Rule of Lancaster, 1456)
• A Journey From Sarum (1480)
• New World (The Reformation, 1553–1580)
• The Unrest (The English Civil War/ the Exclusion Crisis, 1642–1688)
• The Calm (the eighteenth century, 1720–1779)
• Boney (the Battle of Trafalgar, 1803–1830)
• Empire (the British Empire, 1854–1889)
• The Henge II (World War I/the selling of Stonehenge, 1915)
• The Encampment (World War II, 1944)
• The Spire (Salisbury in 1985)

References

1. Quilligan, Maureen (13 September 1987). "OLDER THAN TEXAS, BIGGER THAN ISRAEL". New York Times. Retrieved 25 April 2019.