Templar Silks

Written by Elizabeth Chadwick

Narrated by Jonathan Keeble

To save his soul William Marshal takes the perilous road to Jerusalem, but the greatest danger he faces there is losing his heart.

England, 1219
Lying on his deathbed, William Marshal, England's greatest knight, sends a trusted servant to bring to him the silk Templar burial shrouds that returned with him from the Holy Land thirty years ago. It is time to fulfil his vow to the Templars and become a monk of their order for eternity.

As he waits for the shrouds' return, he looks back upon his long-ago pilgrimage with his brother Ancel, and the sacred mission entrusted to them - to bear the cloak of their dead young lord to Jerusalem and lay it on Christ's tomb in the church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Jerusalem, 1183
In the holiest of all cities, the brothers become embroiled in the deadly politics, devious scheming and lusts of the powerful men and women who rule the kingdom. Entangled with the dangerous, mercurial Paschia de Riveri, concubine of the highest churchman in the land, William sets on a path so perilous that there seems no way back for him, or for his brother. Both will pay a terrible price and their only chance to see home again will be dependent on the Templar shrouds.

In this glorious adventure, bestselling author Elizabeth Chadwick sweeps the reader to medieval Jerusalem in a story perfect for fans of Ken Follett and Philippa Gregory.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Little, Brown (Hachette UK) Audio
• Release date: Mar 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781405535519

Elizabeth Chadwick

Elizabeth Chadwick lives in Nottingham with her husband and two sons. She is a member of Regia Anglorum, an early medieval reenactment society, and tutors in writing historical and romantic fiction. She won a Betty Trask Award for The Wild Hunt, her first novel, and was shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists' Award in 1998 for The Champion. Her novel Lords of the White Castle won the WordWeaving Award of Excellence, and The Falcons of Montabard, her thirteenth novel, was shortlisted for the U.K.'s Parker Romantic Novel of the Year Award for 2004.

Reviews for Templar Silks

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Part of my Kindle TBR clearout, reading downloaded but neglected books in reverse order - this title has been lurking in the pile since 2018! Even worse, I started on the William Marshal series in 2008, getting through three fictionalised chapters in the 'greatest knight's life before moving on.I found the first half of this concluding book to be a bit of a slog, not least because I had forgotten about most of the characters. The narrative jumps back and forth between the Earl of Pembroke's deathbed in 1219 and his pilgrimage to the Holy Land thirty years earlier from 1183-1186, which was mentioned in The Greatest Knight. The journey to Jerusalem is fairly plodding, despite Marshal and his men being ambushed along the way, and the real story for me started after William had fulfilled his promise to the young King Henry. Paschia de Riveri, the Patriarch's concubine, is my favourite type of historical female character - beautiful, clever, powerful and ruthless - and I was glad when she went with her head (or her purse) and not her heart in the end: 'Love might enrich our lives, but it does not give us the wherewithal by which to live. Believe me, I have seen love go begging because it does not have the means to flourish.' You go, girl! Anyway, I enjoyed those chapters, only to be slightly annoyed by William's moping, not that he had long to wallow, thanks to the constant attempts on his life in the snakepit that is Jerusalem.Elizabeth Chadwick is an amazing author who makes these real life figures and a time period I know little about both accessible and entertaining, but I may have been a few years too late to pick up the final instalment!

[piggelin_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

well written historical novel on a rather unknown part of William Marshal's life. I really enjoyed the format of the novel and how the author tied everything together.This one I may pick up again on a rainy day - and I rarely re-read books.