World Without End

I’ve finally reached the end of Ken Follett’s book - one thousand two hundred pages of it. It’s about three times the length of anything I’ve written, but the story held my attention until the last page. The television series was abbreviated to the point where it lost many of the twists and nuances in the book. It would have needed a much longer (and costlier) series to the do the book full justice. I preferred the book.

A minor, but interesting, side of the story is the way the character’s names developed from their trades or where they came from. Merthin Bridger built Kingsbridge’s bridge. Harry Ploughman worked in the fields. Dick Brewer sold ale. Carl Shaftsbury probably came from the Saxon town of that name.  I suppose my Hough ancestors of that era would have taken their name from the fact of living on a hough… the crest of a hill. Maybe there’s a hillcrest at Hough in Cheshire. Have you ever thought how your name originated? It could make an interesting story.