Revolution!

'In the streets of Paris, some fifteen hundred human beings had lain, hacked to pieces by hands unknown. The Septemberers seemed to have come out of the bowels of the earth, and then vanished back there again.' English aristocrat, Richard Mortimer, was a Septemberer, 'a soul damned and cast out of mankind'. His revolutionary zeal drew him to play a vital, bloodied role in events in France, a stark contrast to his boyhood friend, Lewis Boston, who saved aristocrats rather than brutally butcher them. Leon Garfield has woven a tightly-packed, evocative tale that makes no compromises as it confronts the emotions, passions and issues involved in the horrific story of the French Revolution. I found it hard to put down but I fear that many youngsters mightn't stay the demanding, intricate course.