THE STORY OF ELSWYTH

A confused period in pre-Norman England comes vigorously alive in the story of Elswyth, young daughter of a freeman, herself a laborer of low degree. Her love for the son of the 10th century Saxon manor where she was farm hand, and her chance encounter with the young son of the Saxon Queen Elfrida, later to become King Ethelred the Unready, change her status and embroil her in a strange intrigue which culminates in the assassination of Edward, the Martyr, half brother to Ethelred. Compelling fiction is backgrounded by a vivid Medieval background in a young novel as uniquely convincing as it is holding. The Story of Elswyth is a far step forward for the author of The Gloriet Tower (1957) and sets a standard which should be sustained by other writers of historical fiction for the teen age reader.