I love this book.It takes time. But it rewards. It helps if you know the area.I live within a mile of Hale on the edge of the New Forest, and daily walk Charlie there. When we moved here 18 years ago, from London, it was like being born into a new world. What brought us here was, we used to borrow a little upside‑down house in Hyde, just below Fordingbridge; the bedroom and bathroom were downstairs and the kitchen and lounge upstairs. The previous owners had a glass roof so they could gaze at the stars at night before dropping off. After 20 years in London, where you only ever saw the North Star and Venus and Mercury, on those visits to Mousehole, we'd stand on the wooden balcony at night and see the haze of the Milky Way reveal itself into a billion suns. The ponies and the donkeys used to visit the back fence because of the long lush grass in the garden. The boys were three and five when we started coming down. The donkeys would try to eat Josh's hair because it was blond. Jamie suddenly drew his first three‑dimensional drawing — and hasn't stopped drawing since. We'd stroll down to the ford below and were surprised to find grass snakes both short and thick as your wrist in the bracken, and long and emerald sunning on the shingle paths deep in the untroubled forest. One day as I was drifting off, lying in the sun on a grass bank by the stream in Hale, Jamie ran to me, "Dad, Dad, look at this!" It was an adder, just a foot long, small and thin and jagged with black. I had never seen a snake reverse before, as it backed into the bracken.A few years after we moved down Coco joined us, a chocolate Lab, and the next year, Jessie, a colly‑lab cross (supposedly). We loved them for fifteen years. Coco rampaged through the high bracken and woods, Jessie bolted through the streams. We went everywhere in the Forest with them, Bolderwood, Brockenhurst, all about the north, Woodgreen, Nomansland, Fritham, Frogham, Gorley, over the years. We went everywhere. It was a magical picturesque world, pigs in the woods, ponies and foals, great secret dells and purple heaths, the most beautiful thrilling woodland walks. But what I love most about the Forest is the shingle streams: shingle from cream to ochre, little ochre depths, salmon mud banks with seams of blue‑grey silt and sand, like the most gorgeous marble imaginable. We've just played in one of them down in Hale Purlieu. Charlie, our new collie puppy, is getting brave with the water, and he runs flat‑out, ears flat and a wide delicious grin, through the bracken and heather. (Coco went a couple of years ago now, Jessie last October; it didn't feel right not having a doggie about our lives. Then Josh found Charlie. What a beauty!)So knowing these places quite intimately, and many of the others brought alive in the book, it was a delight to read how Rutherfurd wove his historic tales of family feuds and romances through the Forest and all these places. He did it so superbly in Sarum, that was an outstanding experience. I read it soon after we started coming down, finished it just before we moved here. It brought the whole area alive. Rutherfurd is excellent at his family lines set against huge historic events. Although in The Forest the beginnings are of the distant past, the book took off with Beaulieu, and even though I was not especially enamoured by the coastal tale of Lymington, which was, even so, still of interest, I was enthralled by the Armada piece, and fascinated all the way through by the historical setting and explanations, which encouraged me to look up the kings and queens and learn more about those events. I have never been particularly interested in history prior twentieth‑century; now, though, Rutherfurd so brought all these episodes to life, I have an awakened interest: Rufus the Red, Edward Longshanks, John the Bad, the merry monarch Charles I (a little Dickensian satire splashed these pages), the awful James II, and so on. What criminals they all were! I loved the story of Alice Lisle, which inn we used to frequent down by Moyles Court as visitors to the Forest. I enjoyed the Austen‑like Albion story, almost a book in itself; his characterisation was excellent, although the trial based in Bath distracted, I felt, and did not satisfy. But because Rutherfurd wove such strong and varying characters throughout each historic episode — some real, others invented — it brought every section alive, entertained throughout, and taught me a great deal about Forest ways and terms and practices, about nature's way, and about how all this interacted with the historical setting and how those historic episodes involved and changed the Forest.The Forest is best read if you have two or three weeks to come down and explore the place. It is my home, this part of the world, I felt so strongly from the beginning that I belonged here. The Forest sat on my shelf for thirteen years waiting to be read while I was distracted elsewhere in the world because of my work. How facile that working life compared to the rich depth of spiritual, soulful belonging which living in and around the New Forest has been, and still is. It was high time I came back home and got back into the Forest. Rutherfurd has brought it alive for me again — although I do not think I can ever regain that sense of love and wonder and belonging, that exhilaration I felt during the first few years visiting and living here. Sheer wonder, it was.Geographically less explorative and less grand than Sarum, The Forest is nonetheless a wholesome and reviving experience, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I must read Sarum again, now.
One would think that the great cities and its dwellers are the architects of world history but they would be wrong. The historically obscure inhabitants of nameless towns, hamlets and villages really hold the paintbrush that creates and colors the history we know. What would a general accomplish without his army? What would an admiral achieve without his fleet? What could a king or queen attain without their subjects? The answer is….nothing. England is an atoll of forests. What happened in and around the New Forest could and did happen all over island nation. Edward Rutherfurd integrates and intertwines characters real and fictitious with events factual and imaginary in places existing and invented to create a story that will sweep you along in a fantasy world grounded in fact. He possesses a Dickens’ aptitude for characterizations and seems to create them with phenomenal ease. He should rightly be awarded his meed of praise for this remarkable accomplishment. This is the perfect literary companion to retire with to a cozy and quiet inglenook and travel back into time. It is the perfect book to capture the refulgence of the written language. This is my second reading of this novel and it only improves in age and use; like a vintage wine. I have given it a well deserved fifth star and recommend it to everyone.
What do You think about The Forest (2001)?
...Since reading this novel for the first time back in 2001 I've read several thousand pages of other material by this author. Books like Russka (1991), Dublin: Foundation (2004) and New York (2009) impressed my but even after this reread, The Forest is a personal favorite of mine. It's not often you find a book that points out humanity's relationship to the environment and landscape in such vivid detail. This combination of ecology and history gives this novel something extra compared to Rutherfurd's other novels. This is of course my own personal bias. I like books that show a certain awareness of the environment or explore the implications of upsetting an ecological balance. In that sense the novel is a wonderful read. It makes me regret I haven't visited the region myself.Full Random Comments review
—Rob
This is the second Rutherfurd book I have read and it was just wonderful. I learnt so much about the New Forest and its ways and the lives of the people who lived there. I love his books but because they are so huge they take me such a long time to read.Back Cover Blurb:Few places lie closer to the heart of the nation's heritage than the New Forest. The author weaves its history and legends into compelling fiction.From the mysterious killing of King William Rufus, treachery and witchcraft, smuggling and poaching run through this epic tale of well-born ladies, lowly woodsmen, sailors, merchants and Cistercian monks. The feuds, wars, loyalties and passions of generations reach their climax in a crime that shatters the decorous society of Jane Austen's Bath. From the cruel forest laws of the Normans to the danger of the Spanish Armada, from the free-roaming herds of ponies and wild deer to the mighty oaks which gave Nelson his navy, Rutherfurd has captured the essence of this ancient place. Forest and sea: there is no more perfect English heartland.
—Barbra
Edward Rutherford really makes history come to life much as James Michner did. I had bought this book years ago after really enjoying his "Sarum" and "London" which were both excellent. I never got around to reading it because of its time committment (since I cannot put his books down after starting them) until taking a recent vacation . His books are all long but not tedious. They all span centuries of time in the specific locale but he includes maps and family trees to show how the different periods covered relate, so they can be put aside after a chapter on a particlar time period and resumed later without missing a beat. The stories mix in fictional characters with historic characters and events to add interest."The Forest" is about the area of southern England containing the New Forest and covers the period of time after William the Conquerer established this area as the Royal forest to maintain deer for his food and sporting needs. He established the system of management of this resource through local feudal nobles and common foresters/huntsmen. The story deals with the people living in that area through all the historical periods of England and how the forest was used by them, including the use of its majestic oak trees for the building of England's great sailing fleet.I am really looking forward to reading his newest book "New York" to see how he handles a story outside of England.
—Michael
