Bill Albert 1942-2020

Norwich 1144 A Jew's Tale

 

It is 1230 in Norwich, and Joseph the Crippled Jew, waiting to die at the hands of an angry mob, recalls with regret and joy the key role he played more than 80 years before in transforming his childhood friend into a martyred saint. This was the first modern accusation of the ritual murder of a Christian child by Jews, what was to become known as the Blood Libel. The story of William of Norwich has echoed down the centuries in a great many similar accusations, riots, pogroms and wholesale genocide. Norwich 1144 A Jew's Tale is the first novel based around the terrible, historically resonant events of this period.