The Town House is the first book in Norah Lofts’ Suffolk Trilogy. Fairly early in the book, a 14th century serf, who later calls himself Martin Reed, escapes from his manor with the knowledge that if he can live in a walled city for a year and a day without being captured, he is free. With him is Kate, the young woman he intends to marry.
The novel follows three generations of Martin’s family. At first, everything he tries comes to nothing. Already trained as a smith by his father, he serves an extra year of apprenticeship only to have the guild decline to make him a member, which means he cannot be a smith. Hired by a carter and asked to privately shoe horses, his work is discovered and the guild attacks him and leaves him for dead. All these years, his family lives in abject poverty. It is not until he does a favor for the church that he finally gets an opportunity, but it is too late to save his family from tragedy.
The book is divided into five parts, from the point of view of different characters. The first is Martin himself. The second is Old Agnes, a homeless woman he takes as housekeeper after the tragedy. The third is Anne Blanchefleur, the young woman of good family but no fortune who marries Richard, the now wealthy Martin’s son. The fourth is Maude Reed, Martin’s granddaughter. The fifth is Nicholas Freeman, Martin’s secretary.
Although the beginning of this book is almost identical to that of Cathedral of the Sea (The Town House is written earlier), I was more involved in The Town House. Martin’s prosperity and home are built on tragedy and betrayal. This is a story of complex characters, many with deep faults. I found it interesting in both the story it told and in the background details about Medieval life, especially in the section narrated by Maude, who goes to live for a time in the household of a wealthy and noble cousin. I have already ordered the second book in this series.
What? Me Read? 
Sounds interesting, but since I’m battling with the TBR I’ll wait and see how you get on with the other books in the trilogy before sticking it on my wishlist. I see from her bio she also wrote murder mysteries as Peter Curtis – have you read any of them?
No, but I read a terrific suspense novel by her, Lady Living Alone. I didn’t know she was Peter Curtis, so I’ll look. Her historical novels so far are interesting (although I thought the one she wrote about Sir Walter Raleigh wasn’t very good), but frankly she is a much better suspense writer, so I wonder why she switched over. Maybe from interest.
Unfortunately I can’t find any of her Peter Curtis books on Amazon – I’ll try Internet Archive later. But Lady Living Alone is now on my wishlist…
For older books, sometimes Abebooks is a better resource. I’ll look. Lady Living Alone is terrific. It makes me wonder why she liked historical fiction so much, because she isn’t as good at making the characters come alive.
Abebooks has something called Bride of Moat House. They also have other things by Peter Curtis, but only one of them might be her. Apparently, there’s a current children’s book author by the same name. I guess I need to look up which books she wrote under that name.
I’m seeing five, not including the one I thought might be hers on Abebooks, but including Bride of Moat House.
When I search by the titles, Abebooks has all of them, although You’re Best Alone, costing about $18, says shipping from Britain is $36. I don’t think so. That’s the only copy I can find of that one. But I see some old Penguins of one of the other books. I might get one of those.
Internet Archive seem to have a couple – I’ve stuck Dead March in Three Keys on my list – but my IA list is huge so I have no idea when I’ll get to it!
I just bought three from Abebooks.
I was a big Norah Lofts fan in high school and I remember this series! However, the one I liked best was The Concubine about Anne Boleyn. I found myself a copy several years ago and remembered the wonderful nun librarian who pulled it off the shelf and handed it to me at 14.
I’ll have to look for that one. I just randomly came across this series.