Dark Earth
Dark Earth by Rebecca Stott, published by HarperCollins Publishers Limited in 2022, is a novel set in AD 500 on an island in the Thames. The story follows Isla, who secretly masters her father’s sword-making skills despite societal restrictions on women, and her sister Blue, who visits the bones of a drowned woman as part of a forbidden ritual. When their secrets are discovered by a local overlord, the sisters flee to Londinium, a ghost city where they seek refuge among a diverse community facing their own challenges.
Readers will find a narrative that intertwines elements of historical fiction with themes of cultural heritage and coming of age. Dark Earth delves into the lives of women navigating a world dominated by blood ties and male authority, exploring their quest for identity and kinship. This edition spans 352 pages and is presented in English, offering a rich tapestry of legend and myth as it reimagines the early foundations of Britain.
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‘Superb … radically new and beautiful’ Observer
‘Magical and evocative’ Imogen Hermes Gowar, author of The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock
‘Heartachingly poignant’ Lucy Holland, author of Sistersong
‘An ancient tapestry of legend brilliantly rewoven’ Francis Spufford, author of Light Perpetual
The new novel from the Costa-Award winning author of In The Days of Rain.
AD 500. An island in the Thames.
Isla has a secret: she has learned her father’s sophisticated sword-making skills at a time when even entering a forge is forbidden to women. Her sister, Blue, has a secret, too: at low tide on the night of each new moon, she visits the bones of the mud woman, drowned by the elders of her tribe who wanted to make a lesson of someone who wouldn’t hold her tongue. When the local Seax overlord discovers Isla’s secret there is nowhere for the sisters to hide, except across the water to the walled ghost city, Londinium. Here Blue and Isla find sanctuary in an underworld community of squatters, emigrants, travellers and looters, led by the mysterious Crowther, living in an abandoned brothel and bathhouse. But trouble pursues them even into the haunted city.
Dark Earth takes us back to the very founding of Britain to explore the experience of women trying to find kin in a world ruled by blood ties, feuds and men in quest of a nation.
‘Unique and extraordinary … It is difficult to imagine any reader not becoming bewitched by Dark Earth’ Irish Times
‘Thrilling’ Alice Albinia, author of Cwen
‘Pulses with the energy of a brave new world, a world as beautiful as it is dangerous, where a belief in myth and magic can save your life’ Katherine J. Chen, author of Joan: A Novel of Joan of Arc
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