The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)

"A lot of people were surprised by The Pillars of the Earth,including me,"admitted Ken Follett,bestselling author of The Eye Of The Needle and a long list of successful Thrillers."What's more,"he went on"I don't believe in God.I'm not what you would call a spiritual person."

This statement was the fruit of reflection from a childhood spent in a puritanical religious sect.However,religious buildings would ,nevertheless, become his great passion,"cathedral visiting" his chief hobby.After several visits to great British Cathedrals in Canterbury,Winchester,Peterborough,Salisbury,Gloucester and Lincoln,a question presented itself that would not go away-why were these great buildings created?

He found all the books he read on the subject unsatisfactory until he discovered The Cathedral Builders by Jean Gimpel which centered on the real life builders-"dirt-poor hovel dwellers"-according to Follett-of which a significant number proved to be female.A further work by Gimpel,The Medieval machine,portrayed the Middle Ages as :"A time of rapid high-tech innovation ,during which the power of watermills was harnessed for a wide range of industrial applications."The medieval builder certainly had the means,then,but Follett concluded that "a network of influences operated:Scientific curiousity,commercial interests,political rivalries,and the spiritual aspirations of an earthbound people.It seemed to me there was only one way to map that network:by writing a novel."

The result was an Epic book,spanning a forty year period in the twelth century,which the author sums up in the following way:

"This was a word-of-mouth book.It's a truism of the book business that the best advertising is the kind you can't buy:the personal recommendation of one reader to another.That was what was selling Pillars ...It seemed like the wrong book;I seemed like the wrong writer;and I almost didn't do it.but it is my best book...."

I personally,agree.