About the Author

Jill Paton Walsh is the author of books for adults, young adults and children. Her novel Knowledge of Angels was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Her crime novels and mystery novels include The Attenbury Emeralds, A Presumption of Death, The Wyndham Case and A Piece of Justice, which was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award. With Dorothy L. Sayers, she was co-author of Thrones, Dominations. Her novels for children and young adults include The Green Book. She lives in Cambridge, England.

Reviews

Gr 7-12‘Talented British actress Brigit Forsyth becomes young Mall Percival to recount Jill Paton Walsh's touching story (FS&G, 1992 pap.) of life in medieval England following the Restoration and religious turmoil and through the death and devastation caused by the Bubonic plague. Her good diction and clear enunciation make it easy for listeners to follow the regional accents and varied levels of education of the speakers in the town. Her speech is steady and appropriately paced. There is no hesitation with the unusual sentence structure of the time period. The emotions of the characters are effectively portrayed; grief, fear, love, anger are naturally reflected in her voice and never seem artificial or contrived. The producer has made it easy for one to read along with the narration as the corresponding page numbers are printed on each side of the tapes. This excellent presentation will make it possible for a young lady of 1665 to visit with the youth of 1996.-Claudia Moore, W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA

"In 1665, a tailor in the village of Eyam received a parcel of cloth patterns from London, contaminated pieces that infected him with the plague. . .The author builds a novel that draws readers into the account related by Mall Percival, a young woman betrothed to Thomas Torre, who lives outside the village. . .[A] beautifully written, meaningful story." --Boxed review, Publishers Weekly