The Knot

<p>From the author of the Orange New Writers shortlisted ‘The Book of Fires’ an extraordinary tale of love and science.</p> <p>When Henry Lyte brings his young bride Frances home to his Somerset estate he hopes she will share in his devotion to the garden – a refuge of fruit trees and flower beds with a knot of herbs at its heart. Henry is a scholar and his life’s work is his ‘herbal’ – a book of plants and their medicinal properties intended for those who cannot afford physicians’ expensive cures.</p> <p>But life on the edges of the flood plains makes Frances uneasy and there are strange rumours abroad concerning the death of Henry’s first wife – rumours that can be traced to Henry’s step-mother Joan Young a grasping woman eager to seize control of the family’s lands. And while Henry cannot tear himself from his studies he stands the risk of losing everything he loves…</p>