1588 was no ordinary year.This was a year in which the world was meant to end, in which ‘for ever’ seemed to loom perilously close. its calandar and almanacs, and enduring histories, have shaped the stories here, which follow through the year its high days and holidays, fair days and foul, from Candlemas to Yule, where the changing of the seasons marks time to the march of human lfe itself, and the only constant is that every date brings death.
Click on the titles below to learn more of the background to each of the stories (an extended version of ‘A life shaped by the seasons’ in the Calendar of Crime):
Preface: forever and a day
Candlemas
Whitsunday
Lammas
Martinmas
Yule
The Hew Cullan Mysteries 