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Ken Follett’s Kingsbridge novels, a sprawling chronicle of life and times in a fictional English town, have sold millions of copies. With the publication of “The Armor of Light,” the fifth volume in the series, the saga now spans more than 800 years and encompasses well over 4,000 pages of suspense and high drama, presented in simple, down-to-earth prose. The books feature characters of all stripes – villains, victims, avengers, innovators, economic geniuses and high-born men and women who find love and unbridled passion in the lower classes. As well as being good stories in the grand old style, each volume opens the door to a crucial period in English history and is rich in material and technical description, not least of the mysteries of civil engineering.
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The first and still most famous part of the series, “The Pillars of the Earth” (1989), is set in the 12th century, during the “Anarchy”, a time of political chaos and violence that led to the struggle for succession to the United States accompanied the English throne, whose poisonous effects can be felt even in Kingsbridge. “World Without End” (2007) jumps to the 14th century and becomes embroiled in the turmoil of the 100 Years’ War and the Black Death. “A Column of Fire” (2017) moves forward to the 16th century and the blood-spattered reigns of (Bloody) Mary I and Elizabeth I, on to the reign of James I and the prevention of the Gunpowder Plot. Follett then traveled back six centuries to the turn of the 10th century in The Evening and the Morning (2020), when Anglo-Saxon England is ravaged by Viking raids and the future Kingsbridge is still the muddy little town of Dreng’s Ferry.
Ken Follett’s latest epic is one of this month’s best audiobooks
Now, with The Armor of Light, we find ourselves in Kingsbridge and the surrounding area in 1792, the year that marks the beginning of the French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic War. At the same time, constant advances in industrial mechanization are quickly leading to the destruction of traditional ways of life. In Kingsbridge, a center of wool textile production, work is moving from the homes of handcarders, spinners and weavers to factories equipped with far more productive machinery. Combined with the inflationary effects of the wars and the government’s crackdown on “riots” – usefully interpreted by the propertied classes as associations of working people – the survival of workers has become a very grim matter.
The story begins in a field belonging to the landowner of Badford, a village outside Kingsbridge. Men dig turnips under the brutal supervision of Will Riddick, the squire’s arrogant, wasteful son. Impatient and ruthless as ever, Riddick causes a cart to be overloaded and a man, Harry Clitheroe, to be crushed underneath and die after hours of torment. If you think young Riddick will take responsibility and make proper amends to the man’s family, you don’t know Ken Follett, a virtuoso in portraying injustice. Instead of compensation, Harry’s wife Sue receives a pittance and their 6-year-old son Kit is ordered to work in the mansion. It doesn’t take long before the boy comes into conflict with Will and ends up being kicked in the head by Will’s shy horse and almost dying. In time, Kit’s mother Sue, a powerfully built woman, appears on the scene and takes down the vile Will with a real haymaker. As punishment, she is banished from the village, moves to Kingsbridge and luckily finds a job as a spinner in a new, modern factory owned by one Amos Barrowfield, a rare decent industrialist.
Amos is himself a survivor of the vile machinations of another of Follett’s bad actors, the greedy, merciless Alderman Hornbeam, who had hoped to take over Amos’ late father’s woolen cloth business by taking out a large loan. And with that lies another story that culminates in thwarting villains. Be that as it may, Amos is far from satisfied and devours his heart over the beautiful but ambitious Jane Midwinter, who has her sights set on a bigger prey. Meanwhile, Elsie Latimer, the daughter of the bishop and his wife Arabella, longs for Amos – while Arabella harbors a forbidden desire for a weaver. In the past, Kingsbridge was simply full of passion, whether it was rewarded or not.
This is only to mention the desires and actions of some of the many characters who populate this busy book. The story continues into the 19th century and presents technological innovations, fighting on the continent, labor unrest in Kingsbridge sparked by the newly passed Combined Act banning workers’ organizations or meetings, or just about anything that could be construed as such. Follett’s compassion is primarily for the workers; Nevertheless, he and history make their lives difficult, giving them long hours and pay cuts, hanging, a cruel flogging, time in the camps, imprisonment and transport to Australia.
The story is driven forward by acts of self-aggrandizing cruelty that are answered by the ingenuity and courage of their victims, a dynamic so predictable that we know that in most cases it is only a matter of time before good triumphs and comeuppance come about occur – whereupon the cycle repeats itself. Yes, we are being manipulated, but we can’t stop turning the pages: what now? What next? Beyond this, however, it is Follett’s generosity and skill in handling historical detail and deft exposition of technical matters that elevates this book, like its predecessors, beyond mere historical melodrama.
Katherine A. Powers reviews audiobooks for The Washington Post every month.
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