The Forest: A Novel

A stellar history of Old England’s “New Forest”, and its survival for millennia. The forest folk are humble, reclusive, and cunning, knowing more about the Forest than those who own it or visit it rarely. Deep in the shadows, loyal to traditional allegiances and rivalries, generations cross and intertwine the King’s Forester’s family with those of the humble tenant foresters. As rivals for the crown of England fight their battles, all are caught up in in a web of faith, treachery, and gambling for a future. Centuries of family rivalry, love, and enterprise will create a wildlife preserve, and make or break fortunes and hearts. The Timber trade will give way to railways, but the Forest remains.

This novel requires a little investment of time, but it is time well spent. Spanning the time from 1099 to 2000, Rutherfurd tells a story of how the New Forest evolved from a royal hunting range to a national treasure. Don’t let that fool you. The story is liberally sprinkled with fascinating, colorful characters from smugglers to landed gentry and no matter how insignificant a character may seem, each bears an important role in the stories of the people who were settled throughout and around the forest. The author legitimizes the liberties taken with history in his preface, but those liberties did not deter from the complete enjoyment of such an epic story. Kudos ... I highly recommend it.

Edward Rutherford is one of the best writers of our time and any book by him is a joy to read. This book runs through most of the history of this particular area of England following many of the families who have populated this region. Necessarily he jumps many years from each time period using the descendants of each group as the continuum on which he creates the stories. This can be confusing and for this reason alone, I did not give this book the 5th star. Otherwise his attention to historical detail is unmatched.

From the first sentence I was gripped by this author's style and the suspense woven around the main character. As the plot twisted and locations and characters came and went I stayed involved and needed to pick it up again to follow where it lead. Hard to put down.

These chronicles are separated by time periods with most well developed. These are very interesting and spellbinding. Most of these sections are in the first 80 percent of the novel. Some of the later appear to fulfill a need by the author to bring the narrative to the current time frame. This, in my opinion did not complement the earlier presentations.

I have now read three of Rutherford’s historical Novel (?). What is the genre? I only know. I devour them with pleasure and feel I have increased my knowledge of ancient history which I love. Next on my agenda is The Princes of Ireland. Hopefully in Kindle form.

I loved Rutherfurd's book "Sarum", but this one I only read 50 pages and decided to quit. I did not find the characters believable. I went back and reread some of "Sarum" again and that was much better written.

I usually enjoy Edward Rutherfurd's historical fiction, and am particularly drawn to the MIchener style family saga that follows a family or group of families generationally over the centuries. I find his novels to be well researched and he does a really good job of demonstrating how large, sweeping events like the Norman Conquest and the Reformation played out at ground level for those English who lived in the Forest. The continuing appearance of family traits and attitudes as they are handed down from ancient times to the present day is particularly appealing to me, as is the survival and explanation of place names as they have been handed down to the present day. These are the reasons I enjoy his books as light reading, for which I suppose they are designed to be, and so I suppose that my only real criticism is therefore moot, which is the superficial development of the characters that diminishes the ability to relate to them on a personal level. I understand that he can't get deeply into his characters in novels that are already long on detail and emphatic about how geographical setting influences the overall character of a people, I'm just saying that in order to really enjoy a novel beyond entertainment, there has to be more character development to pull me in.

Absolutely loved this book. I've lived in the New Forest most of my life and to read the old tales with their subtle embroidery and see the old family names cunningly disguised to protect the guilty is a rare treat.There is magic in the New Forest, always was and always will be from the mist over the peat bogs to the sun dancing on the salt marshes and the deer running through the trees with the ponies. He 'gets' the Forest and that is a rare thing these days.. Mr. Rutherford is a welcome visitor because he understands and respects the old ways and how they have adapted to survive the new ones - the boat builders, the remnants of the salt pans down at The Salterns and the White Hart, the descendants of whom you might glimpse among the trees if you are very, very lucky. I've seen her just the once on a misty early Spring morning and felt all the better for seeing her.

I really enjoyed The Forest. I’m a fan of Rutherfurd’s work. He’s the only author of historical fiction I seek out and I find his work very approachable.Like the other books I’ve read (Paris and New York), The Forest spans centuries of history to tell the story of the ancient New Forest, a place of legend with ties to some of the most important events in English history.Rutherfurd’s prose is highly approachable, vivid and impressive. The rich descriptions in the book bring the ancient forest and the families who live and work there to memorable life.What I liked about this book is that it contains generations of the same families who have thrives in the New Forest since it was founded. There’s something I really liked about this.

I've read London by the same author and it's of a similar theme - starting a thousand years ago or so, the book follows several different family lines through various historic events. It's almost a book of lots of short stories. I live quite near the New Forest so know a few of the landmarks and certainly the towns that are referenced. It's a very long book, yet the stories sometimes seem a bit rushed, probably to keep it on track. The only problem I had was knowing which historical figures and events were fiction or not! I lost count of the amount of times I Googled the names, or places to see if they are still there, or if they ever existed. It reads like a history book come to life sometimes and it would be easy to imagine that everything mentioned actually happened.I also realised that I have driven past the "Rufus Stone" sign on the A31 hundreds of times without knowing anything about it. A few weeks after reading the book I happened to be passing and not in a rush so went to have a look, armed with the knowledge surrounding this event that I picked up in the book (and then checked from actual historical sources!).I would definitely recommend this to anyone with even a small interest in the history of the area. Even if you don't, it would still be a fascinating story/stories woven together.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.It had a great sense of continuity throughout because the same families were followed through time, though their stories were all different.The fictional lines were so convincing that I actually thought one of two of the characters were real, and I tried to Google them.I imagine if you weren't bothered about learning something interesting about history of nature, you could still read this book and enjoy it,but you would be tempted to skim -read some of the longer passages.I personally enjoyed the descriptions.It made for very palatable learning.I grew find if the characters and their ancestors, and was wishing I was a part of the forest too.I have never been to the New Forest but this book made me want to go there,and had me reflecting on how privileged we are to live on such a diverse island.I will definitely read more of Edward Rutherfkrds books, but will read something completely different first - variety is the spice of life !

Enjoyed this latest one by the author, who uses a place and it's people to involve you in the sense of history that comes from an ancient place. It covers a thousand years of the stories of the families of the New Forest and the ebbs and flows of their fortune and place in the forest, which in itself is a character in the book. A big book, but plenty to keep the pages turning! Would recommend, not only this one, but the other books the author has written

I had thought this was a saga type story - lots of characters and events spread over time; instead it read as short stories with reference to previous characters. The author was heavy on explaining historical facts. I gave up 20% in to the book, life's too short for a book that's not up to par.

This is one of the loveliest books by Edward Rutherford, I read it a long time ago and am planning to read it again shortly. It's a book didn't want to read too fast because I didn't want it to end. I expect in another few years I shall read it again and still find something new in it. The forest becomes alive, you realise that whatever you thought you knew about the New Forest is nothing like the facts. There are so many people involved in the running of the forest, keeping it in good health for visitors and mainly the Foresters themselves you have to concentrate.I loved it and have bought quite a few to give to friends and one stranger I met in a charity shop, he was very reluctant to buy a copy in very good condition. I said if he would read it I would buy it for him. Never seen him since so I don't know if he did read it, but hey it was only £1.75 and I may have changed his life

I haven’t finished this book yet but so far it’s been an amazing journey through time. The forest and the characters that live there and the wildlife. I really enjoy the notes on nature it encourages to seek more knowledge . It’s a book that you would want to keep, the stories from the different ages in the forest I’m really enjoying. A brilliant author and spinner of tales. Great read.

I do like this book. I recently read Sarum by the same author and totally loved it so I thought I would try other books by him. I know the New Forest slightly and perhaps that helps but I like this authors style of writing. He writes about families living in the area and his stories spans several hundreds of years (even thousands of years) and brings in these families and people throughout and shows the changes they encounter through history. He includes the actual major historical events and how they affect the people and the area. If you like history then these books are for you.The Forest is set in and around the New Forest and runs from approx 1000AD to modern day so you can see a lot happens in the book. It shows how towns evolve from small settlements and how the people evolve from peasants to modern day living. If you know the New Forest even a little bit, the way this book is written will take you there so you can imagine how things were. It is a great book and one I would recommend to anyone.

A brilliant weaving together of individual stories over the centuries. The Prides, the Furzeys, the Albion’s, and all based on historical events. Moreover the author has a great gift of explaining British history in simple terms, and making it far more interesting than that we learned in school. Well done!

I loved that although this book is several short stories they are all linked through the time scale. This is Rutherfords usual method and it makes very enjoyable reading. Anyone remotely interested in history will I am sure enjoy this book tremendously. I recommend it to you.

Excellent storyline wrapped over periods of history over 1000 years. As ever characteristics reappear over the years . There is a great deal of fact regarding the nature and workings of the Forest .Many of the stories have amusing twists which makes it an easy read.

If you have read any Edward Rutherford books you know his way of telling his tales so I won't go into that. This is a good addition to the titles and the kindle edition is good and feasible. My only grouse would be that any maps reproduced don't come up well on my kindle reader as anything close to photographs or similar just don't show up well and increasing the font size won't work on them but that is a disadvantage of my kindle and not the book. I can of course read it on the kindle fire but I prefer the matt finish screen on the reader.

Never read anything by him before and so far am really enjoying it. Like the way he takes you through the different ages in the New Forest and allows to see the families as they progress through time. Also enjoying the local connection as I live nearby.

I have already read this book in printed form and I really enjoyed it. My reason for buying the book on my Kindle is that i can re-read it and not have to hold a heavy paper book. I reccommend this book and other Edward Rutherford he has written in a similar vein.