Changed Times
by Ethyl Smith
Thunderpoint, £9.99
In this impressive first novel, Ethyl Smith creates a fast-paced story of catastrophic events in 1679 involving a group of villagers on the Scottish Borders who become embroiled in what became known as the “Killing Times”, caused by a devastating clash between the Scottish Presbyterian Church (traditionally ruled by its own elders) and the English Parliament, which asserted the right of the sovereign to establish bishops in Scotland.
Revealing in microcosm the resulting widespread troubles that erupted as a result, Changed Times – the first in a trilogy – opens when the Rev Lucas Brotherstone refuses to sign his acceptance of bishops and thereby his fealty to King Charles II (who, ironically, favoured religious tolerance and had earlier signed the Act of Covenant himself which guaranteed it, only to be forced back on his word, becoming a Catholic on his deathbed). Brotherstone is brutally evacuated from his rural parish of Lesmahagow and forced to go on the run.
