Varlets, vermin, simpletons, saints—in these pages, readers will meet them all. There's Hugo, the lord's nephew, forced to prove his manhood by hunting a wild boar, a beast whose tusks can "slice a man, groin to gorge." There's sharp-tongued Nelly, who supports her family by catching and selling live eels, and the peasant's daughter, Mogg, whose downtrodden mother teaches her how to save the family cow from a greedy landlord. There s also mud-slinging Barbary and her noble victim, Isobel; Giles, the talented beggar; Alice, the singing shepherdess; and more.

With a deep appreciation for the period and a grand affection for both her characters and her audience, Laura Amy Schlitz has created a series of riveting portraits. Read silently or performed before an audience, the collective voices tell an unforgettable human story about what it took to survive in the Middle Ages. Robert Byrd's insightful pen-and-ink drawings take inspiration from an illuminated thirteenth-century manuscript. Together, illustrator and author have constructed an exquisite bridge to the people and places of medieval England.

From the dust jacket