A Column of Fire

Christmas 1558, and young Ned Willard returns home to Kingsbridge to find his world has changed.The ancient stones of Kingsbridge Cathedral look down on a city torn by religious hatred. Europe is in turmoil as high principles clash bloodily with friendship, loyalty and love, and Ned soon finds himself on the opposite side from the girl he longs to marry, Margery Fitzgerald.Then Elizabeth Tudor becomes queen and all of Europe turns against England. The shrewd, determined young monarch immediately sets up the country’s first secret service to give her early warning of assassination plots, rebellions and invasion plans.Elizabeth knows that alluring, headstrong Mary Queen of Scots lies in wait in Paris. Part of a brutally ambitious French family, Mary has been proclaimed the rightful ruler of England, with her own supporters scheming to get rid of the new queen.Over a turbulent half-century, the love between Ned and Margery seems doomed, as extremism sparks violence from Edinburgh to Geneva. With Elizabeth clinging precariously to her throne and her principles, protected by a small, dedicated group of resourceful spies and courageous secret agents, it becomes clear that the real enemies – then as now – are not the rival religions.The true battle pitches those who believe in tolerance and compromise against the tyrants who would impose their ideas on everyone else – no matter the cost.

‘Where Follett excels is in telling a yarn ... you won’t be able to put it down.’ -- The Independent
‘A historical saga of such breadth and density ... Follett succeeds brilliantly in combining hugeness and detail to create a novel imbued with the rawness, violence and blind faith of the era.’ -- The Sunday Express
‘Enormous and brilliant ... this mammoth tale seems to touch all human emotion – love and hate, loyalty and treachery, hope and despair ...' -- Cosmopolitan

Ken Follett, born 5 June 1949, was only twenty-seven when he wrote the award-winning Eye of the Needle, which became an international bestseller. His celebrated Pillars of the Earth was voted into the top 100 of Britain's best-loved books in the BBC's the Big Read and the sequel, World Without End, was published to critical acclaim. He has sold more than 130 million copies of his works and many of his books have reached the No. 1 ranking on the New York Times bestseller list. He lives with his family in London and Hertfordshire. British narrator John Lee has read audiobooks in almost every conceivable genre, from Charles Dickens to Patrick O'Brian, and from the very real life of Napoleon to the entirely imagined lives of sorcerers and swashbucklers. He has won numerous Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards, and he was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile in 2009. Lee is also an accomplished stage actor and wrote and coproduced the feature films Breathing Hard and Forfeit.

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