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1679: Set amid the tumult and intrigue of Scotland’s Killing Times, this tale reflects the changes that took place across 17th century Scotland
Changed Times
What you need to know before your trail
Charles II is on the throne, the Episcopacy has been restored, and southern Scotland is in ferment.
The King is demanding superiority over all things spiritual and temporal and rebellious Ministers are being ousted from their parishes for refusing to bend the knee.
When John Steel steps in to help one such Minister in his home village of Lesmahagow he finds himself caught up in events that reverberate not just through the parish, but throughout the whole of southern Scotland.
From the Battle of Drumclog to the Battle of Bothwell Bridge, John’s platoon of farmers and villagers find themselves in the heart of the action over that fateful summer where the people fight the King for their religion, their freedom, and their lives.
Travel Guide
From the BBC website archives:
Many Scots viewed the Union of the Crowns in 1603 as a disaster. It created the problem of one king ruling over two parliaments. To James VI & I, now holding court in London, the English Parliament was by far the more important of the two houses. He assured the English, ‘the greater would always attract the lesser’, and that Scotland would eventually Anglicise. At the time, his plan for a Union of Great Britain proved unpopular on all sides and it was quietly abandoned; it was his son, Charles I, who continued the plan.
Charles saw himself as the ‘Godly Prince’, the divinely appointed leader of society, who should be obeyed as such. He sought to bring the Scots Kirk into conformity with England by effectively using his Scots bishops to run Scotland for him. The King, however, had touched a raw nerve in the Scottish people – religion was the politics of the 17th century.
Lesmahagow
This is the main setting of the book and where the people live who tell the story and show how history affects them all
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
I’d not read a book written in Scottish dialect like this for some time so I did hesitate at the beginning. However I needn’t have worried as before long you forget you’re reading it as it flows nicely yes it still manages to capture that time and place and culture that the book is all about.
Any book about a real life period known as The Killing |Time is not going to be sweetness and light, and this book is as dark and deadly as they come. A real period in history so it immerses you into every bloody battle, deadly trap and dirt strewn field of that time. It’s visceral and gripping.
Despite all this, I found the gentler nuances of the story to be the most engaging – the fears and hope of the people who lived in the village of Lesmahagow and who lived and experienced these turbulent times.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Changed Times
Author/Guide: Ethyl Smith Destination: Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire Departure Time: 1679
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