Tidelands

CAREFUL, Spoilers

In the Tidelands, a place that is nor earth, nor sea, nothing happens. Literally. Its picturesque inhabitants live a normal life: they work, they eat (sometimes), and they kill witches once in a while. It keeps them moving and obedient.

It changes when Sir William Peachey becomes a Royalist in the English Civil War and is forced upon defeat to accept the Parliamentarian regime and pay his debts. Except he is not really a Parliamentarian, in fact, he is plotting to get the King out of the Isle of Wight. The plotting behind the coup, the angst felt by normal English people that see themselves trapped in a war that does not concern them, it should have been an incredibly interesting book.

Except we are not following the incredible adventures of Sir William, but the simple life of Alinor, a midwife who has been abandoned by her alcoholic and violent husband. When she meets Father James, she is caught in the complicated politics of XVII Century England, between love and duty, between her children and the priest (who ends up NOT being a priest).

This book started well. The cemetery setting, the villagers, it all makes perfect sense when introducing the setting of the book. However, it becomes boring from page 50. Books are made to escape the dangers and realities that follow us from the outside world, yet this one was just a report of normal lives from four hundred years ago. And I, for one, was tired of it half-way through it. It is true that in the end (Alinor is accused of witchcraft, she ends up pregnant and poor) it picks the pace up so much that I could not put it down. But to reach the last hundred pages was hard work, and I would, for one, have given up if I had not been interested in doing a review.

Alinor is a very mystic woman. She collects Saxon coins that are called faerie gold by the villagers, she has an independent work and house since her husband left. She has come out of Hell to start living a somewhat comfortable life (aside from the terrible poverty). This independent and magical side of her, I loved.

Yet, as soon as she falls in love with James, she becomes a one-in-a-million lady who only cares about her loved one, who abandons all kinds of decency and carefulness to be with them. This leads her daughter to marry and separate from her husband in a day, and the son being ashamed of her. She ends up getting pregnant knowing her situation, and falling for James who refuses to take care of the child: she gives everything up for him but he rejects her. Alinor, dear, you should have known.

The excessive descriptions of the harbor, the mire, and the Tidelands do not make the book easier to follow. Many chapters describe normal life, and many start with the unchanging description of every single detail about the Tidelands. It gets boring towards the middle of it. slow the book and plot are, it picks up right at the end. Suddenly, everything turns against Alinor and her daughter (a character I grew to hate, well done, Philippa!) and she is accused of being a witch. And finally, some action happens, in the last 50 pages.

There are some sections that advocate for women’s rights, a topic unknown to many during the Middle Ages and Early Modern England, but as important as today’s conception of it. I liked the protagonist’s ideas (before she threw it all away for a man) and it has memorable phrases that show, once more, that Philippa Gregory is a great writer after all.

“No woman is innocent. The Bible names a woman as the one to blame for bringing sin into the world. Everything is our fault (…)"