The Pillars of the Earth

I had to go to Hong Kong recently, which meant that I missed all but the first episode of the ABC's mini-series The Pillars of the Earth, based on Ken Follett's novel. Spotting his book on sale at Tullamarine airport, I bought a copy. It made for an intriguing in-flight read for a family history writer like myself, always grappling with the need to convey dense material in an interesting way. Follett's book contained some valuable lessons.

To begin, his book has not been out of print since it was first published in 1989, and the back cover blurb assures us that it continues to be one of Britain's best-loved books, proving his success in converting some extremely dense material into a good read. Who would believe that a book incorporating page after page of technical descriptions of the techniques used in building a medieval cathedral could sustain a reader's interest for 1,075 pages? Yet it did.

Anyone who's ever stepped inside Canterbury Cathedral in England would understand the impact of such a magnificent structure on the human soul. It is inspiring, uplifting, humbling, to be surrounded by such beauty and to think that men of bygone centuries could have known how to design and build such a masterpiece. I recall my single experience of attending Evensong at Canterbury. As the voices of those young choir boys filled the space and soared towards the distant ceiling, the American tourist standing beside me experienced the same outpouring of tears of pure joy as myself. Surreptitiously, I shared my small packet of Kleenex tissues with her.

The book taps into this ethereal feeling. But the text was also sufficiently concrete in describing building techniques that I often wished for the inclusion of extra illustrations. Certainly, line drawings introduced the six distinct time periods of the book, and explained at a glance the inspiring elevations of a medieval cathedral. Yet in-depth discussion of terms like nave, transept, cloisters and various outlying buildings formed a fundamental component of the book's plot and although I've visited many cathedrals over the years, I'm sure I wasn't the only reader hankering for a basic floor plan diagram.

Part of the book's success can be explained by the tenet write what you know: Follett has had a life-long passion for cathedrals. But he has the novelist's eye for character and drama and of course he incorporated the occasional titillating sex scene. It helps that a novelist is able to create characters as over-the-top as he or she cares to make them, whereas a family history writer tries to bring someone to life in a completely truthful and evidence-based way. However, Follett also has the knack of keeping the story moving along at the right pace, and this was his other lesson for me - his book reinforced my own aspirations to keep a good story at the heart of any family history book.