You may also have a look at my discussion of all novels of Rutherfurd; or at Forest People, with stories of people with a personal relation to the events and places in the book.
The Forest describes the history of the New Forest: the forest area south of the line Salisbury-Southampton, down to the south coast of England. While Rutherfurd's other books describe two thousand years or more, this book starts at the time of the Conqueror. The book is dedicated to the New Forest Museum.
The forest is for the king's hunting (and even a deer is convincingly included among the characters here). Another connection with English national history is the chapter about the Spanish armada.
Also, in the section 1655 of the chapter Alice, we meet the Penruddock family. One of them, John Penruddock, played the major role in the "Penruddock Rising" against the Cromwell administration, which actually did take place in that year. (Antique dealer Peter Finer has/had an early 17th century portrait of a Penruddock.)
A careful reader brought
the following to my attention about his book:
In the third chapter (page 262/263 in the paperback; 179 in the hardback), it is
very clear that Totton has bet on the ship Southampton and Burrard has bet on
the Seagull. The bet itself forms the plot premise for the entire chapter.
Yet, inexplicably, as the chapter unfolds with the Southampton winning (the
Seagull never arrives and loses), we read (page 308/309 in the paperback; 210 in
the hardback) that Burrard "made no effort to collect any of his winnings"
and that Totton tells him "I owe you our bet," to which Burrard agrees "So
you do, Henry." How could such an obvious error have been overlooked?
(Note that in London, in the chapter The Cutty
Sark (page 772 in the hardbound) there is also a bet on the first arrival
of two sailing ships.)
Another careful reader and traveller, Alan Spencer, brought the
following to my attention about his book:
Rutherfurd, in his Forest preface, says that he 'constructed' the name
Puckle. However, in the Bucklers
Hard museum in the New Forest is a model of Puckle's Gun, an early
18th century machine gun invented by a Lt. Puckle. Was there a
connection between Puckle & Bucklers Hard? Was the name not coined after all?
Or accidentally and coincidentally arrived at?
(See Forest People for a reaction of Jean Puckle
Davidson.)
Barbara Reece wrote:
I have just finished reading The Forest. I have always been
interested in historical fiction and I knew there were several of these type
of books around because I have been reading them. I thought there were a
number of authors in this genre and so did not pay attention to the authors,
just the type of books I enjoyed. I also recall reading one called The
Caribbean.
Well to my surprise, at the end of the book there was a piece about Mr.
Rutherfurd and I realized I had read all of his books! I thought this
book was very similar to Sarum, and it might have the same author but
again this was just not what I was paying attention to.
I especially loved Russka, or I should say, that I
was fascinated by it. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I really enjoy this
type of reading and now I will look forward to this author's next book.
Also, I want to say that (besides Mr. Rutherfurd) probably my favorite
author is Dorothy Dunnett, and I am wondering if the two authors know
each other, either personally or professionally.
Crystal Lydon asks for an
explanation of the ancient stirrup:
In The Forest it says about the Verderers' Hall in Lyndhurst: "In a
place of honour, the ancient stirrup was displayed through which dogs had to
be taken unless they were to be lawed". This is in the last chapter (also
called The Forest) at page 865, line 7; hardcover edition: at page 586,
line 11.
(I asked the New
Forest Museum about this, but never received any reply.)
Last updated March 17, 2002