The Purple Thread

It is 733 AD in Anglo-Saxon Britain – a time of warriors, war and religious extremes. Begiloc, a young freedman from Wimborne, is a man of action. But his world turns upside down when the young Briton and his best friend Meryn are ordered away to protect English missionaries in Germany. For a man accustomed to brutality, Begiloc has a soft spot for the purple-tinged mountains, waterfalls, lakes, animals, trees and flowers – beginning to muse whether they, rather than Man, do not better embody the essence of God. Mission follows mission across the continent, and Begiloc is driven ever further from his loved ones. His ultimate foe is the corrupt and cruel Bishop of Rems, Milo. Will Begiloc ever be free from his obligations to the Church, and reunited with those whom he has been so long separated? John Broughton’s The Purple Thread is a historical thrill-ride across 8th century Europe, which also rings some very contemporary bells, and a tale of a man’s psychological battle to sustain his faith and morality in the face of temptation and evil...M.F It is 733 AD and the Abbess of Wimbourne receives a letter destined to change the life of Begiloc forever. The Church wrests the British warrior from his family to protect English missionaries in Germany in particular the faith-driven Leoba, future abbess, counsellor to kings and saint. Events drive Begiloc further from his family and lead to an implacable enmity with the worldly, corrupt Bishop of Rems, Milo, who blinds Begiloc’s closest friend. Thwarted by Leoba in his desire for revenge, she sends Begiloc on a mission to Rome where he meets Pope Gregory III who promotes him for his services to the Church but sends him deeper into pagan lands. On his return, he discovers his family has died of fever. The Purple Thread is the tale of a man’s psychological battle to sustain his faith and morality in the face of temptation and evil inside and outside the Church. He overcomes all obstacles, including Milo, but his relationship with God faces its sternest test with Boniface on the field of the saint’s martyrdom in Frisia in 755.