Gallows Wedding - Rhona Martin

Date of Reading: 16/06/2007

Author: Rhona Martin

Publisher: The Bodley Head

Place: London

Year: 1978

Summary:

          Marked as an outcast from birth, Hazel loses her mother at the age of thirteen and is driven from her home by the fear and superstition of her neighbours. They consider her as a witch whom to be burned alive. There is no sanctuary at the monastery she seeks refuge in, for the King's commissioners have been there before her; the monks are scattered and the great empty buildings house only a colony of beggars and criminals.

          Tim Kettle, the man who gives her refuge, rapes her and she gets pregnant. She saves Black John, the outlaw from hanging on May Day by the gallows consenting to marry him. It is a tradition that a man can be saved from the gallows by marrying, though it is not as legally binding as Hazel thought it to be. She gives birth to a boy with John acting as the midwife, and names him Angel.

          Black John's real name is John Pengerran; he was a lord once but cheated by his cousin he loses even his wife, Lady Edith. Love buds between John and Hazel and she promises to help; he sells her to Lady Edith as a servant. But the battle brings no victories and to get Hazel back, he breaks into the place and both of them get caught.

          Hazel is ordered to be burned alive and John is sentenced to death. He kills Hazel himself before they can get her and the angry mob burns him down. John's daughter born on Lady Edith survives and vouches revenge; she and Angel joins with Tim Kettle.

          Gallows Wedding is a powerful portrayal of the private suffering and the public confusion caused by Henry VIII's dissolution of monasteries.

Rating: Wonderful Book!

Comment:

          This is Rhona's debut novel and I have heard that there is a sequel. Better to read this after your teenage -- some parts are really brutal. Though at that time this made my head revolve, I still remember this even after four years and I am closed to anger at this time also. Its a pity that nothing much good happens to Hazel, except for that time with John; she is only fourteen . . .

--- Winner of the first Historical Novel Prize in memory of Georgette Heyer