Paul Hoggart has himself suggested that this book, his first novel, was written partly in irritation at The Da Vinci Code, and certainly, if Dan Brown knew any factual history, were able to conceive rounded, realistic characters who develop and grow, and could vary his tone from comic to chilling, via satirical, poignant and profound – in short, if he were able to write, he might possibly have come up with a pale shadow of this book.It begins with a telephone call and ends with revelations. Its hero is an unheroic historian – Dr James Appleby, whose academic career began in a fiery savaging of Elizabeth I’s treatment of her sailors but has since drifted, along with his once happy marriage, into a dull and monotonous cul-de-sac. His story is played out through various thr