Rating: 
Summary: Rich and meaty novel
Review: The New Forest has played a central role in the history of England starting with William using it as a hunting "spa". It is in the New Forest where William's son Rufus is killed under strange circumstances. Throughout the remainder of the millennium, this area has been on center stage almost as much as London has. Even in the present, the locale serves as an example of the modern day debate between development with easy access vs. environmental protection by pushing to name it a national park. In between much happens to members of the English Who's Who to include Austen, Drake, and Nelson, etc. Edward Rutherfurd is considered one of the giants of fictionalized history that provides a story telling account centering on real events and people. His latest work THE FOREST will show his talent to educate his audience with a well-written account that spans a thousand years of English history. Though some sections will overwhelm the reader with its vast historical tidbits, sub-genre fans will enjoy this book as much as Mr. Rutherfurd's previous works, LONDON and SARUM. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: re:forestation and Rutherfurds
Review: This is an extremely rich body of work. I hesitate to say 'novel' since there are eight parts to this book of equal stature. Is it then a collection of novellas? Well, no not quite, since all of these stories have a tendency to refer to each other. For instance, there is the little wooden cross that is handed down the generations of families whose paths we follow. Of no great monetary value in itself, this ornament, whose origin is more or less forgotten, still signifies a great deal to whomever happens to be wearing it at the time. The author concentrates his attention of a handful of fictional families, from the Albions of the gentry, to the coarser tribe of Seagulls. The one great thing which binds all these families is the New Forest. The author takes great pains to also bring the forest alive, from the mighty oak, to the fallow deer. Anyone who's in love with English history will find much richness here. What the author has done is to realise a great empathy for the English peoples of the last thousand years, and even beyond, if you include the Prehistory of the Saxon Prides. Also mentioned are modern day forest disputes, which are rooted in the past. The prose is light and easy to follow. The author has a few old storyteller tricks here: such as employing loose ends. A character will do something in one story that will resound greatly in another. Those who dislike such loose fragments left unresolved will be relieved to find that this author is extremely tidy. However, I did spot a few typos, but these hardly spoil the impact of such great tales. This author is also very aware of the literary conventions concerning the historical periods of which he writes. You groan when the section set in Beaulieu Abbey starts off with the murder of a monk, and suspect that Cadfael is not far behind with his herbal remedies. However, the author is very clever here, for he plays delightfully with your expectations - he does not provide mere homage to the past - he always brings something new and unique to such fictions. The tale of 'Albion Park' is very much Jane Austen, and as the author admits, he derived this story from something which really happened to Austen's aunt at Bath. The heroine, like that of 'Mansfield Park', is called Fanny. During the latter parts of the book, we also get a delicious portrait of a Victorian Pre-Raphaelite artist, who is inspired by the forest of his ancestors. But all is not sweetness and light: perhaps the grimmest chapter features the plight of Alice Lisle, caught within Judge Jeffries' notorious Assizes. There are accounts of famous rebels, such as Penruddock and Monmouth: the author really does bring the history alive. He reveals how place names and surnames change over time, due to historical events. However, there was one family that I was particularly interested in concerning this novel, but whom I found to be only obliquely mentioned: the Rutherfurds. I first became intrigued because of the peculiar spelling - trying to search for this author's surname in online bookshop search boxes provides a variety, so much so that it's highly tempting to believe that the internet will have impact on this ancient name. Rutherfurd begins his novel by going back just under a thousand years to the murder of King William 'Rufus' (so-named because he had red hair). 'Ruther' is also derived from the Celtic word for 'red'. One of the stories concerning the origins of the Rutherfurd name is that it relates to a ford. The Rutherfords first seem to appear around this era as inhabitants of the Scottish borders. There is an account of them beating back an invading English force across a ford before the time of William Wallace, and it's romantic to believe that the name could derive from this incident. Is it just a coincidence that Walter Tyrell has a ford named after him in the New Forest (as Rutherfurd writes in the opening novella), due to his flight after the death of Rufus? Rutherford also briefly mentions Wallace, and the Scottish Rutherfords certainly fought for him and Robert the Bruce against the English. Rutherfurd writes of the protestant dissenters: Samuel Rutherfurd may have been one such historical ancestor. There is also a strong branch of Rutherfurds in America, possibly related to the Pilgrim Fathers or others like them. Certainly the American heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt had a distant relation to the Rutherfurds, and may even have been in love with Winthrop Rutherfurd before she married the Duke of Marlborough, whose Blenheim Palace is mentioned in the novel (along with, I think I recall, a cheeky comment about the Marlboroughs marrying into the best families). Sir Walter Scott was related to a branch of Rutherfurds, one of whom is mentioned in his 'The Bride of Lammermoor'. However, all this might be baloney or coincidence, except for one thing: Edward Rutherfurd keeps mentioning the Royal Navy ship, the Swiftsure, which was at the battle of Trafalgar as part of Nelson's forces: it's captain? - Why, none other than William Gordon Rutherfurd! I therefore think that the author has derived a great deal from a rich family history, as his characters do also.
Rating: 
Summary: pleasant but not thrilling
Review: This novel was a bit of a disappointment, especially after the outstanding "London". It's a less dramatic tale. But it does involve the reader in Rutherfurd's usual style of tracking multi-family histories. I'd say it's a good, but not great, read.
Rating:
Summary: An Enjoyable History Lesson
Review: Well, Edward Rutherfurd has done it again! Somehow, he is able to take an area of land and give us a history lesson about it--without boring us to death. He also has an incredible talent for covering a large span of time, yet he is still able to be detailed in his telling and make us care about his characters. "The Forest" is no exception. He teaches us English history while giving us stories that intertwine throughout the timeline. We learn the background of both obscure and well-known relics, and are shown ways that people earned their surnames. One of the things I really appreciate about this author is that he's realistic--sometimes the good guys don't win, and every once in a while, a bad guy gets away with an evil deed. Be sure though, that in Rutherfurd's books, the ancestors will pay! If you liked "Sarum" and "London," be sure that you won't be disappointed with this one. I don't often buy hardback books, but I was confident that Edward Rutherfurd wouldn't let me down, and he didn't.
Rating:
Summary: Dear Mr. Rutherford, Please keep on writing books like this.
Review: What can be better than to have a long train ride and have a huge, highly entertaining book to read. Mr. Rutherford has not let me down yet. As much as I loved Sarum and London that's how much I absolutely love The Forest. In every book he focuses on a few families and takes us up through history with them and you wonder about the origins of your own family.
Rating: 
Summary: A visit to an overlooked corner of Merry Old England
Review: With THE FOREST, author Edward Rutherford continues his love affair with England begun with SARUM and LONDON. (His other book, RUSSKA, was apparently an aberrational dalliance.) In all of his novels, Rutherford goes back in time and selects fictional families living in a specific geographical area, then visits members of each family at key points down through history as they interact with each other and the environment of the chosen area. In SARUM, it was the land surrounding the English town of Salisbury, including Stonehenge. In LONDON, it was ... well, London. In THE FOREST, it's the New Forest in the English county of Hampshire, a triangular patch of land approximately anchored by Salisbury, Christchurch and Southampton, and on the mainland immediately northwest of the Isle of Wight. "Forest", a French term, originally meant "reservation", and the New Forest was such a place set aside by Duke William of Normandy as a royal hunting preserve after becoming William I, King of England, in 1066 by defeating King Harold at Hastings. Rutherford begins his narrative in 1099, and continues in chapters headed 1294, 1480, 1587, 1635, 1794, 1868 and 2000 respectively. From previous exposure to the author's style, I've found it convenient to consider each chapter a short story more or less independent from the overall chronology. That way, I don't get too confused by the intersecting genealogical lines of the featured families as they thread through the centuries. This is a collection of vignettes portraying the human dramas encountered in the everyday lives of ordinary people, both gentry and commoners, as influenced by the time and place of their life spans. Thus, one becomes acquainted with Adela, a Norman noblewoman in search of a husband soon after the Conquest, and Brother Adam, an abbey monk suffering a crisis of faith after being seduced by a local housewife. Then there's Jonathan, a young boy living in the port of Lymington, caught in a storm at sea during a boat race, and Clement, a young gentleman threatened by his crazy mother's treasonous behavior as the Spanish Armada seemed poised to invade. And Alice, caught in the turbulent and dangerous times of Cromwell's Civil War and the subsequent Restoration. Or Fanny, an heiress pulled in opposite directions by love and an age-old family vendetta, on trial for shoplifting a piece of lace. Finally, Colonel Albion, fighting to save the forest he loves from the depredations of the London politicians. If you're looking for a thriller, or epic conflicts between a series of protagonists and antagonists, then THE FOREST is not for you. However, if you love England - especially that - and you enjoy vicariously immersing yourself in the everyday joys, heartaches, triumphs and defeats of others, then you'll love this book. Moreover, THE FOREST contains interesting information about non-human elements of the region: the mating rituals of the local deer population, the life cycles of the forest's oak trees, the method for harvesting salt from seawater, the formation of bogs, the proper use of timber in the art of building wooden sailing ships. Additionally, England's southern coast was once a hotbed of smuggling (oh, sorry ... "free trade"), and Rutherford gives some insight into its economics and methods as practiced there. If, by serendipity or design, you should find yourself on the A31 between Southampton and Ringwood, perhaps leave the main route onto the B3078 or A337, and explore the villages and landscape of the New Forest. I've been on the A31 several times, yet have never taken the time to explore this small corner of England. Now, I wish I had.
Rating:
Summary: Best yet
Review: Wonderful stories that can be read separately but which paint a beautiful picture of life in the various periods of the forest. Rutherford must keep writing as he is getting better with each book.
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