The Witch’s Brat by Rosemary Sutcliff was published in 1970. The setting is England in the reign of Henry I. Lovel is a young lad, just eleven years old, and his grandmother has just died. She had been the local healer and herbalist so she had been tolerated in the village. But Lovel was born with a crooked back and his mother had died when he was born, his father is dead too, so he’s all alone in the world and the villagers hound him out. They think that his crooked back means he must be a witch.
Lovel has no option, he has to keep walking, but eventually a swineherd finds him and takes him to a Benedictine Abbey where they take care of him and he finds a place as a bit of a dogsbody within the community. When Rahere the King’s Jester (jongleur) arrives he sees something in Lovel that nobody else does and he gives some hope of a different kind of life in the future for Lovel, maybe he’ll take Lovel to the king’s court one day. Soon after that Lovel is taught to read when it’s realised that he has a good knowledge of medicinal herbs and his life begins to change for the better.
This book is partially based on reality as a man called Rahere who was the King’s Jongleur founded Saint.Bartholomew’s Hospital in London and you can visit his tomb in the Church of Saint Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield, London.
This was an enjoyable read, Rosemary Sutcliff books are always good.
I thought I had read most of her books but this does not sound familiar. I was worried – it did not sound as if this was going to end well for Lovel but I guess that is the difference between Rosemary Sutcliff and someone like Norah Lofts. I remember one otherwise happy Lofts book ended with a character coming home and suddenly seeing his house (and family) going up in smoke in the distance!
Constance,
I haven’t read any Norah Lofts books since the 1970s, but a friend read one recently and was disappointed with the ending, maybe that’s why!