It is London 1665, a year fraught with strange and unearthly events. Comets fly low in the sky while merchants clamor for war.
Eleven year old Erasmus T. Muddiman attends St Paul’s School with his younger brother. He enjoys Latin but hates to create Latin verses, preferring the new sciences as seen at the Royal Society. He plays football with the lads in Paul’s Yard, shimmies up the drainpipe outside his bedchamber window and he saves his brother, Desiderius, from all sorts of scrapes.
Soon, Erasmus cannot avoid the rumors of war. Men and boys are pressganged, taken to ships or the dockyards. Plague enters the city. As school fellows disappear, Erasmus and his family meet a terrible fate of survival. Who will live and who will die?
Excerpt
His brother extended his hand. “I will help you.” His voice was subdued, cautious.
“What?” Erasmus did not understand.
Desiderius grabbed his coat and hauled him to his feet.
Erasmus straightened his hat. “You are strong.”
His brother hissed. “Shhh, someone’s coming.”
Two men, dark in the heavy snowfall, skulked like devils toward them. They moved carefully, sidling up Watling Street. One man’s arm seemed overlong. Erasmus followed his brother into a deep door alcove and flattened against the wattle and daub wall.
The men stopped in the lane near the doorway. They looked about as if they searched for something.
“’Tis a horrid night,” one said and slapped a long thing onto his open palm. Erasmus could only reckon the man held a cudgel.
“Only one more to go afore we reach our day’s quota,” the other growled low, his voice gruff.
Near his ear, Desiderius’ teeth started to clatter. Erasmus pressed him against the wall with his body.
“Thought I saw something.” Another looked around. The cudgel slapped against his hand with more force. “They were small, though, like kids.”
Professional Reviews
A 17th C London boy's story
Here's some truly admirable YA historical fiction, this skillful leap into the dark, filthy streets of London after the Restoration of King Charles II. Erasmus and his brother are being educated at St. Paul's school, where the boys' father is a kind of 17th Century Security Guard, complete with halberd and ax. It's a bad year, though, beginning with a comet which brings all sorts of evils in its wake. The boys, true to the genre, undergo dangers and adventures of the sort that real boys of the time might have had, some potentially lethal and/or profoundly life-changing. The pace is fast, as I was drawn right into the story and then swept along, worrying and wondering about the fate of these well-portrayed 'tween brothers, whose scraps and scrapes are familiar to anyone who had brothers or any parent who has raised sons. The ending is abrupt, although it did leave me hoping for a sequel.
London as it was.
London life as seen through the eyes of an eleven-year-old boy in the time of the great plague. Ms Pym has not skimped on historical detail. Her book is well researched and the adventures that befall Erasmus, from the threat of pressgangs and his interactions with his friends to being reprimanded by his mother are all totally believable. The sights, smells, and sounds of 1665 London are brought to life in a most enjoyable history lesson for young and old.
Five Stars
Great book. Historically accurate with incredible detail. Highly recommend it.
Book I of Southern Swallow Series – 12th Century scholar Li K'ai-men takes command of his first official assignments during a time of political unrest and barbarian invasions.
