“Rotherweird” by Andrew Caldecott (2017)

“One for sorrow: Mary Tudor, a magpie queen – dress black, face chill white, pearls hanging in her hair like teardrops – stands in the pose of a woman with child, her right palm flat across her swollen belly.”

 

In the sixteenth century, twelve children with superb intellectual gifts were born. Some felt they were saviours, others the spawn of the devil himself. Under the order of the queen, they were banished to the town of Rotherweird, which was in turn cut off from the rest of England. Now, f...