The World of Brother Cadfael‪.‬

FOR READERS OUTSIDE the realm of mystery fiction the name Ellis Peters is generally unknown. For mystery-genre aficionados, though, this author of the Brother Cadfael Chronicles is reputed to be the literary find of the last thirty years. Some people argue that P. D. James might rival her for that designation, and yet even those present-day Jacobites admit that Ellis Peters in most ways is the equal of their preferred writer. The tapestry of the twenty books in the Brother Cadfael Chronicles is a medieval one, drawn by Ellis Peters from the twelfth-century England that she had studied and mastered thoroughly. That historical mastery and her literary artistry were two of the reasons among several that Birmingham University bestowed on her an honorary Master of Arts degree and that Queen Elizabeth II presented to her the Order of the British Empire.