It is the year 500 CE, and in post-Roman Britain Isla, her sister Blue, and her father, a famed blacksmith, are exiled to an island in the River Thames. They all have dangerous secrets and when their father dies suddenly the sisters’ security – already fragile – is threatened. Should they look for mercy from their cruel and unyielding tribe, or take their chances in the lawless hinterland of the Thames?
Or perhaps there is a third way? On the north bank of the river is the “Ghost City”, the looming remains of Roman Londinium. Evil spirits are said to lurk in the forbidden ruins, but what Isla and Blue find is a hidden colony of fugitive women. This is a community of smallholders and craftswomen, augurers, and abandoned children. But can Isla and Blue find a long term future here?
Dark Earth is set in the “darkest corner of the dark ages”. This is a period of history about which little is known, a time when reason battles with superstition, when new-fangled Christianity is trying to supplant the native religions, and to overturn a culture of religious tolerance.
It is not always easy to understand such an unfamiliar culture (I occasionally had to resort to Google to find the meaning of an unknown word or concept). But Rebecca Stott weaves a credible story from what we do know. This is a world of casual violence, where everyone is in need of protection, where laws are made and enforced at the whim of the most powerful. Yet it is also a place where love and loyalty can thrive, where art and creativity can flourish. The detailed descriptions of metal working and the production of decorated swords act as a reminder that humans have always sought beauty, even in the darkest times.
But what sets this book apart is that women are at the forefront. If the men of this period are little-known, the women are invisible. As Blue says, the male leaders have a genealogy, but “where are the women? Who is going to remember them?” There is a passing reference to a boy king named Arthur: in their way Isla and Blue and their community of wise women are a female counterpoint to the court of King Arthur and Merlin, his magician.
In the end, however, “no city can stand for ever”. As the Ghost City represents a vanished civilisation, so too will the world of Isla and Blue disappear, to be mostly forgotten but leaving tantalising clues for future generations to interpret as they will.
Dark Earth, Rebecca Stott, 4th Estate, 2022, 9780008209223
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