Testament - Tapa dura

It is 1385 and master mason Simon of Kineton is building his magnum opus: a great college to rival any in England. But the Bishop of Salster, hostile to free education, is determined to sabotage Simon’s project. When rumour spreads that the mason’s son is cursed, the bishop sees an opportunity to undermine both Simon and the college.

Six hundred years later, in the same city, Damia Miller has been employed to promote penniless Kineton and Dacre College. She realizes that a grotesque wall-painting uncovered during renovations may hold the key to the ancient college’s survival. Marshalling Kineton and Dacre’s devoted student body, she is determined to unlock the painting’s mysteries and, she hopes, guarantee the college’s future.

In medieval Salster, Simon of Kineton is struggling to accept his imperfect son, while battling to complete his masterpiece. But just as he is coming to terms with the child, a tragedy occurs whose implications will resound until the present day.

A startling feat of imaginative skill, Alis Hawkins’s unforgettable debut novel is a heartbreaking reminder of what it is that makes us human – no matter what era we are born into.

Biog: Brought up in west Wales, Alis Hawkins read English at Oxford before training as a speech and language therapist. She lives in Kent with her partner and teenage sons.