18/03/2025
BOOK REVIEW: THE SUFFOLK TRILOGY BY NORAH LOFTS
by IHGS Tutor, Liz Yule, DipGen
Writing in the middle of the last century, Norah Lofts lived for most of her life in Bury St Edmunds and is lauded as their most famous author. With the majority of my ancestry from Suffolk, and Bury in particular, she had been on my radar for a while, and this year I finally got around to reading her Suffolk Trilogy – The Town House, The House at Old Vine and The House at Sunset.
The books chart the history of a property – ‘Old Vine’ – situated outside the fictional Abbey town of Baildon, based on the real-life Bury St Edmunds. They begin with ‘Martin Reed’s Tale’, who was born in 1381, the year of the Peasants’ Revolt, and end with the house in a rather dilapidated state in the mid-1950s – but with a spirit of optimism and a buyer looking for a new life for herself, and in turn for the property.
In the late 14th century, young Martin Reed is part of the manorial system, and very much tied to his manor. The workings of the manor are intricately depicted, with the limitations this placed on Martin’s life abundantly clear. Circumstances then take Martin to Baildon, where the Abbey was at the heart of the town – at least for the time being.
The house remains the focus of the story – families come and go and their fortunes impact on the building. The flourishing wool trade of the 15th century led to added extensions, whilst in later centuries the property was divided up into shops, as the town expanded to where Old Vine was situated outside the walls of the Abbey. The fortunes of the various families who lived at Old Vine also fluctuate (with the odd ‘non paternal event’ in evidence to the reader).
To say these books surpassed my expectations would be an understatement. The research Norah Lofts undertook sits lightly (although I didn’t recognise the description of a ‘kin book’ as kept by the parish priest, but I’ll let that pass!), and what is interesting from the point of view of a genealogist is that they depict the real life experience of our ancestors – young and old and of differing social status – from the medieval manor to the 20th century, and everything in between.
And don’t just take my word for it. In 2014, author and historian Alison Weir published a review of the Suffolk Trilogy in the Independent’s ‘Book of a Lifetime’ feature (https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/suffolk-trilogy-by-norah-lofts-book-of-a-lifetime-an-outstanding-historical-novel-9582322.html) in which she calls the books, considered altogether, as ‘the most outstanding historical novel that I have ever read.’ And if that isn’t a recommendation to go out and read these books, I don’t know what is.
