The Midwife's Apprentice

'From someone who had no place in the world, she had suddenly become someone with a surfeit of places.' This is the transformation achieved by the young woman whom we met as Brat and leave as Alyce in this highly readable and always engaging novel. Set in the England of the fourteenth century, it belongs to that genre of historical fiction which places its emphasis on the everyday lives of ordinary men and women (here, mainly women) as distinct from the doing of the mighty and privileged. As we follow Brat's progress from abandoned orphan to young midwife a vivid picture emerges of a world characterized by harshness and cruelty and a desperate struggle to survive. It is her combination of humour, resilience and adaptability which enables her to come through, to learn to live with disappointment and, above all, to understand the gap which exists between dream and reality. Cushman brilliantly incorporates these themes of personal growth within a fascinating frame of medieval social (and medical) history, the erudition being lightly and entertainingly displayed.