What character would you cut from The Pillars of the Earth? Yes, except his Welsh accent was all wrong (I'm from North Wales, we don't speak like extras from Gavin and Stacey, we don't call our fathers 'Da' - hate it when the whole of Wales is charicatured as South Wales - we're far more lyrical up here - Bryn Terfel, Rhys Ifans - listen to their accents).

What could Ken Follett have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?ĭid John Lee do a good job differentiating all the characters? How? The predictable one-dimensional characters, the predictable and unneccessary laciviousness, the lack of authenticity and the predictability. What disappointed you about The Pillars of the Earth? The Pillars of the Earth is the first in The Kingsbridge Novels series, followed by World Without End and A Column of Fire. Soon build tensions between good and evil, turning church against state, and brother against brother. Facing enemies that would thwart them, they will stop at nothing to fulfil their grand plans of Kingsbridge. He decides, then, to build Kingsbridge the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has ever known.Ī World of High Ideals and Savage CrueltyĪs the prior recruits his mason, so begins a journey of ambition, anarchy and the struggle for absolute power. A resourceful man, he knows that if his town is to survive at all, it must find a way to truly thrive. Philip is the church prior of Kingsbridge. With his family on the verge of starvation, mason Tom Builder dreams of the day that he can use his talents to create and build a cathedral like no other. It is 1135 and civil war, famine and religious strife abound. An epic, spellbinding tale of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, The Pillars of the Earth is Ken Follett's historical masterpiece.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett