by Ian Kershaw
First published 2001
Brother Thomas watches the Italian wool merchants arrive at Bolton Priory once again, their ledgers thick with debts the house cannot pay. The modest Augustinian community struggles in the harsh Yorkshire dales, far from the wealthy Benedictine houses of southern England. Their lands yield little, their endowments remain meager, and Scottish raiders sweep down to burn their granges and scatter their livestock. Thomas must balance the priory's accounts while managing estates, overseeing food stores, and negotiating with creditors who grow more impatient each season. The thousand-page Compotus he maintains records every transaction, every loss, every small victory in their fight for survival. As agricultural crisis deepens and the Scots strike again, Thomas faces a choice between the priory's spiritual mission and its earthly obligations. His detailed records become both confession and testament to a religious community caught between devotion and desperation in medieval England's unforgiving northern frontier.
Genres: historical-fiction, agriculture, accounting, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, survival
Setting: Bolton Priory, Yorkshire Dales, Southern England, Medieval England
Period: 1286-1325
650 pages · Hardcover · Yorkshire Archaeological Society