Dunstan

by Conn Iggulden

Age was no guide then, nor is it now. The old and the young defy their endings, while others go too soon. Neither is it good or evil in the veins that seems to protect them. This is a brief and bitter life, the mere proving crucible for what lies beyond. That is all that makes sense of it, or I would rage at the heavens themselves.

I'm enjoying this.

It was a revelation as important as any other in its way – that expert men love their subject. Show them interest, show them fascination, and they see themselves reflected – and then they will move the world for you.

It is strange how we keep thinking we can change the world, only to be revealed as smaller than the turning of the sun on a single day.

I tried not to beam too obviously, but if you’d recently spent three years in Ghent, you would have been delighted as well.

will turn the other cheek, but I prefer my enemies to be dead when I do, so they cannot strike at me.