Book Review, Fantasy - Title - A Child's Guide to Heresy - Author - Kendrew Lascelles

Like a chameleon changing colors to camouflageLascelles, a "Renaissance Man" living in
into the surroundings, Kendrew Lascelles morphscontemporary times, possesses the inspired
his vernacular and style to write in 13th Centuryliterary talent making the impossible look easy.
English a novel of then contemporary fantasy.Kendrew Lascelles has once again demonstrated
How and from where he taps his literary geniushis ability as an author extraordinaire in this
to create "A Child's Guide to Heresy: Or Theexemplary novel. Heresy plays out more than
Great Yorkshire Witch Trial of 1249" is beyondwhat would simply be called a "period piece." Unlike
my percipience. His words have a flow and easeJ.K. Rowling's tales of Harry Potter, where she
not at all strained yet precisely chosen to conveytells of tales of witches and warlocks with
a world beyond ordinary imagination.modern day narration, Kendrew Lascelles
Kendrew Lascelles flavors his book with adescends the depths of credibility of character
bouquet of sensations. Using language in a way adevelopment as he writes in a dialogue used by
gourmet chef indulges in spices, Lascelles createsantecedents to William Shakespeare.
mixtures of texture in scenes with hisThe stage of "Heresy" is set in the most lavish of
descriptions, flavors of equivocating sweetnessall theaters, the theater of the reader's mind. The
and bitterness in dialogue, prepares the mainreserved front-row seat awaits your settling back
course of characters with salivations of mentalinto the deeply cushioned red velvet comfort to
stimulation, all within the aroma of the dusty,enjoy the story from the safety behind your
damp and soot filled air of 13th Century England.retinas. The curtain of your eyelids will close upon
A boy, a mere lad of 10, a spirited andthe end of the book as you pause a moment to
impressionable boy loyal to God, the Trinity, andreflect on the feeling of being privileged to have
the Blessed Virgin Mary, Thomas from Moorsridingexperienced such magnificence before
is introduced to the reader in a way Charlesmaneuvering into the aisle, heading for the exit,
Dickens may only have wished to have opened acrowded by the audience of your mind's voices
scene from a play. Lascelles artfully depicts downsurrounding your thoughts with murmurs of
to the detail of a mother's instinct, the fate castaccolades. The price of admission is just buying
upon her boy by the visit of Monks from the localthis book and making the time, not finding the
Bishop's chamber of irreproachable power. Thetime, making the time to indulge into the galley
reader is swept along a journey following the ladtext between this darkly covered, austere and
throughout his coming of age and influenced byunembellished glossy black cover; unpretentious as
the most imaginary characters of evil, seductiveit cloaks the brilliance of the work inside of
witchery, mysterious and imaginative warlords,Kendrew Lascelles.
demons and necromancers.