Man of Glass

“When pestilence strikes, will Amalric's dreams be shattered?”

Andrea Sarginson

ISBN: 9781912726189

304 Pages

Published Feb 2020

Fiction

Paperback £8.99 Kindle £1.99
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It’s spring 1349 and a terrible plague is spreading like wildfire across England. Dreading its arrival, gifted young glazing apprentice Amalric despairs of the Church’s response and his village’s rampant superstition – but even he cannot deny the ominous portents that seem to abound.

When the gruesome pestilence at last reaches Warren Horesby and neighbouring Meaux Abbey, Amalric and his family are blamed. Exposed to brutal recrimination, he is horribly injured in a vicious assault. Suddenly his survival depends on the care of a shy servant girl and the improbable support of the village priest and a newly qualified doctor of physic with pioneering ideas.

Can the village ever come to terms with the ravages of the plague? Can Amalric still hope to honour his family and fulfil his talent? And could there ever be hope for love?

  • Man of Glass thrusts the reader into the fascinating world of fourteenth-century northern village life. We are introduced to Amalric, a young, thoughtful, creative and caring apprentice to his glazier father. Am’s journey from boy apprentice to Master Glazier and head of the household is fraught and filled with tragedy, but always underpinned by hope and sustained by faith manifested through creative beauty. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

    Revd Alan Simpson, Secretary, Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Care of Churches
  • Centred on a family of stained-glass makers in Yorkshire in the 1300s, this wonderful historical tale tackles the enduring themes of love, ambition, faith and frailty of the human condition with energy and pathos.

    As a doctor, I particularly enjoyed the vivid descriptions of the characters’ injuries and illnesses. The medical beliefs and practices of the time are engagingly described. The accounts of the plague buboes and Amalric’s burns are extremely believable, and you cannot help but empathise with the characters as they suffer grim treatments with little hope of cure, battle against ignorance and superstition, and experience living and working conditions far removed from our comfortable twenty-first-century lives.

    Packed with fascinating historical details and authentic descriptions of domestic and ecclesiastical life, this story, with its endearing characters (not forgetting Samson the dog), brings mediaeval England to life!

    Julia Blackburn, doctor and trainee plastic surgeon
  • What an epic journey! The medical bits gave Man of Glass a real punch and the sense of how horrific a pandemic like that must have been. I am a practising artist and craftsperson in stained glass. The craft of stained glass today follows the same basic methods and techniques as medieval glaziers, though our tools/kilns, etc have evolved. I can say that the descriptions of the materials, methods and tools described in Man of Glass ring true and have an authentic feel – especially Am’s drive as an artist.

    Stained glass artist, West Yorkshire
  • An enthralling read with believable characters. It is full of fascinating historical details about the creation of stained glass and the progress of the plague in a small Wolds village in mediaeval England. I could picture the place vividly. Religious faith of the time was described well. I liked the sense of community and could feel their isolation from the wider world despite being caught up in great events.

    Debi Burridge, retired librarian
  • This book evokes most vividly what it must have been like to live at the time of the Black Death, with both its description of the fear and superstition surrounding the pestilence and the frustration of trying to find a cure. The author makes an excellent job of telling the story through the eyes of Amalric, a young man born with aspirations for a better life and a talent for creating stained-glass windows that could lift him out of poverty. Set in a Yorkshire village in the fourteenth century, this book successfully conveys the strength of the role of the church in the lives of people at that time. I was left wanting to know more about Amalric’s future.

    Jean, Bamford Reading Group
  • The vivid descriptions and storyline of this book immersed me in the fourteenth century. I was lost in the suffering brought about by the plague but then uplifted by the love and dedication of the family, the medic and the clergy. The book brought to life the struggle of the early doctors along with the wisdom of old remedies. Hope breaks through by the love for each other and for the church.

    Angel Culley, retired Head of Midwifery and Nursing at the Jessop Hospital for Women

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