William Peak’s evocative images of Dark Age Britain are haunting and convincing. “The Oblate’s Confession” has a slow pace and demands the reader’s attention, so is a book to save for the long winter months. The rewards are there, however, as it raises many questions that are as relevant today as they were in medieval times.

I was fascinated by the details of life in a monastery, the hardships and challenges that were presumably taken for granted at the time. The almost poetic narrative unfolds to give a real sense of what it must have been like as the new Christian religion swept across a Britain where plagues and sacrifice were part of everyday life.

Recommended for anyone who would like to look beyond what have been dismissively called ‘the Dark Ages’ and understand a little more of our medieval heritage. “The Oblate’s Confession” is a book I suspect I will return to.

                      —   Tony Riches, The Writing Desk