Marie Macpherson

Hallowe’en night. 500 years ago.

Superstitions rule sixteenth-century Scotland, and Macpherson opens her sumptuously-detailed novel with a sly nod to the spirit of Macbeth (though the Bard won’t be born for another half century). Elizabeth Hepburn and her two teenage sisters are tossing nuts into a blazing fire, as their witch-cum-nursemaid Betsy divines their futures by the way they sputter and pop. Then, well-primed for ghosts and ghouls, the feardie trio slip out into the dark night clutching a neep lantern and rowan twigs to ward off evil spirits and thrice circle a sheaf of dead cornstalks, determined to see the specters of the men they will someday marry – per Betsy, following the ritual carefully will grant the girls visions of their future sweethearts. As bats swoop through the sky and a pease-bogle (scarecrow) shakes in the wind, they suddenly hear voices, see shadowy black figures approaching, and flee for their lives. Elizabeth tumbles down a hill, lands in a stream, and is dragged out half-drowned by David Lindsay, come to fetch her back to the castle. She falls head over heels in love. Tapsalteerie. Whigmaleerie.

And the turbulent affair between our two star-cross’d lovers is off and running.

John Knox plays a decided second fiddle to Elizabeth and David in The First Blast of the Trumpet, the initial book of Macpherson’s ambitious, three-volume, re-imagining the life of the Scottish Reformation’s founding father. Here she focuses on the violent, brutish, superstitious world into which Knox will be born. Larger forces capriciously play with the lives and dreams of our two lovers – a destructive war between England and Scotland; the intensifying confrontation between papists and protestants; infighting between avaricious clans; plague and starvation. Fate rules people’s lives. As Betsy warns Elizabeth in the opening line of the book, “There’s no rhyme or reason to it. Your destiny is already laid doon.”

Macpherson’s award-winning novel glows with a luminous sense of time and place, the writing ripe and heady with a wantonly rich Scottish vocabulary. You not only see the 16th century – you hear it. The author holds a Ph.D. in Russian and English; has taught language and literature throughout Europe; and her affection for her native tongue is infectious. She mines a proud literary vein. Burns, Scott and Stevenson globally popularized the Scots vernacular through their poems, songs, stories and novels, and “Auld Lang Syne” is sung around the world on New Year’s Eve. Scots-Irish immigrants like my mother’s forebears brought wisps of words and phrases with them to America in the 18th century. When someone teased me in grammar school in the late 1950s, I retorted with the words my mother (of the clan Boyd) taught me: “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” Imagine my delight to discover that Scottish children were spouting the same phrase in 1511. For fun, I started keeping a list of the poetic slurs Macpherson puts in the mouths of her backbiting Scottish women who fling them against their rivals – gilpie, cow-clink, clumsy kittok, skirling shrew, cankart carlin, dowdy dunnock, brazen besom, vauntie-flauntie, and skrinkie-faced with froggy eyes. And you feared First Trumpet would be some dull, pious, religious tract? You silly gowk!

First Trumpet is closer to bawdy, vulgar Shakespeare than Sir Walter Scott’s airy-fairy world of chivalric romance. Gluttonous Dame Janet, Elizabeth’s aunt and prioress of St. Mary’s Abbey, powders her face with white lead, plucks her eyebrows, and rouges her cheeks. Sucking on a marche de pain bonbon, she sets Elizabeth straight about love and marriage. Forget Lindsay and wedlock, she advises. “When you’re not bleeding you’re breeding.” Men aren’t to be trusted. “Every man is in thrall to his pistle.” Besides, what’s so great about fyking? “...a few spurts of pleasure for them mean untold grief and agony for us.” Better to be a nun than a wife. And if postulant Elizabeth gets the itch? No problem, just be cautious. “If you fancy a tumble in the hay with the stable lad, make sure you’re not bairnt.” After all, “…a quick fyke can be over in the wink of an eye, leaving a troutie in the well.” Like the well-fed prioress in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Macpherson’s worldly Janet is a memorable literary creation. Drooling over the fare at a feast, the prioress smacks her lips at the stag testicles poached in honeyed sauce, declaring, “Just how I like them: soft, squidgy and sweet. Tastier than a strumpet’s teats.” Victorian prudery is still 350 years into the British future. We’ve got brides’ cherries being picked; crowds marching upstairs to oogle the newlyweds as they consummate their marriage; legions of bastards being born “on the other side of the blanket”; and even get a frank lesson in female pleasuring. Who says history has to be boring? Characters are nuanced. You feel a twinge of sympathy for Prioress Janet. She never wanted to become a nun, any more than her brother, Elizabeth’s uncle John, wanted to become a priest and Prior of St. Mary’s. But someone in the Hepburn clan needed to step up so the family could retain control of the abbey’s wealth, lands, granaries, mills, orchards and breweries. “You maun dree your weird,” as the Scots say – you accept your fate; you endure your destiny. Likewise, Elizabeth will eventually take her vows, and succeed Janet; David Lindsay will sacrifice Elizabeth to serve the King.

And John Knox, finally making his late bow in the tale?

Saved at birth by a puff of breath into his lungs from nun Elizabeth, he becomes her godson and gravitates towards his own fate. Raised in her protective shadow, he trains for the priesthood but, offended by whoring monks and painted Janets, by simony and religious superstition, the young Knox falls under the spell of the Lollardy heresy and embraces the Protestant cause, determined to tear down Elizabeth’s all too-human church. Tellingly, he embraces Calvin’s doctrine of predestination. No amount of prayers or papal indulgences can change your fate. Instead, an inscrutable God decides each man’s destiny – heaven or hell – before they’re born.

The First Blast of the Trumpet is rich intellectual fare, and Macpherson thoughtfully includes a handy map of Scotland, family trees, and a complete cast of characters for the history-challenged. But any reader bringing to the novel a basic familiarity with the Western canon will quickly pick up the thread.

First Trumpet is double-timely. 2014 marks the 500th anniversary of Knox’s birth. It’s also the year Scottish voters determine the fate of their country. Will she remain united with England (which she joined in 1707) or regain her sovereignty. When the next installment of Macpherson’s captivating Knox Trilogy appears in bookstores, bonnie Scotland may once again be independent.… (meer)

The First Blast of the Trumpet takes on the life of John Knox, the Protestant reformer from Scotland (it is book one of a trilogy). The author's note clearly indicates that very little is known of Knox's early life and that this book is very much a depiction of the author's "what could have beens."

Each chapter opens with a quote from either the Bible or David Lindsay's writings or some other relevant source. The quote gives a hint of what is to come in the writings below. This first book starts with the history of the Hepburns of Hailes castle - the lords Bothwell - and a basic discussion of the politics of the time. Scottish history is always interesting and often challenging and I think if one had no idea of its clannish complications this would not be a good first book to read. The addition of common Scottish words was also a tad confusing. I had an e-copy. I don't know if there was a glossary included with the book or not. I've read a LOT of Scottish historical fiction so I was able to muddle through but heaven help a new reader.

The tale moves along as we get to know Elizabeth Hepburn and her sister and cousin. Her sister is forced to wed one of the more powerful lords despite wanting to enter the nunnery. Her cousin heads off to court to become the mistress of the king. Elizabeth is forced into the nunnery despite wanting to marry. Gotta love the way they treated women back in the day.

Elizabeth ultimately becomes Prioress of St. Mary's - apparently a Hepburn holding for ages. (This is fact.) She learns to accept the role and the freedoms and power it brings her but does she still long for her love, David Lindsay? While visiting with her former nurse she helps with the birth of a child. He is almost dead when born and she does not want to give up on him so she breathes into his mouth and he survives. She stands as his godmother as he is named - John Knox.

The book was very interesting in the beginning and I found myself truly enthralled but then something happened about 2/3rds of the way through. It was as if the author had to get a lot of story in under a certain amount of pages and the chapters started reading like diary entries instead of a complete story line. There were timing issues as well as issues discussed in one chapter weren't introduced until the next. It was frustrating. I don't know if it is because books can't be long any more or what but it took away from the reading experience for me. I don't mind a big, long book. I miss them as a matter of fact.

If this had continued the way it began it would have been a 5 star read in spite of the Scottish words thrown in and in spite of the glossing over on the political stuff. It might be different for a less well read reviewer but I truly enjoyed the book until it started changing.… (meer)

We begin this story when their are three young girls...Elizabeth, Meg, and Kate. As they bloom into young woman and take their paths. Meg is chosen to marry, and we feel sorry for her. Kate is taken off to the Kings Court, and Elizabeth...she becomes a Nun and later the Prioress of St. Mary’s Abbey. She is hopelessly in love with David Lindsey, he goes off to war and she takes her vows...but there is a secret!
We travel with her as she is let to where a baby is about to be born. Elizabeth then and saves infant John Knox's life. She becomes his Godmother. She wants the best for him, knowing his mind is very bright.
This book although fiction is totally based on fact, the one thing that I personally didn't care for was the sex in the story...yes I know that is probably all true also. This is a marvel of Scottish History. These people are real, and we are following their destiny.
If you enjoy historical fiction with a twist...could of happened this way, then this is for you. Enjoy!

I received this book through Know Robinson Publishing book blogger program, and was not required to give a positive review.… (meer)