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    Lady of Hay: Two Women, Eight Hundred Years, and the Destiny They Share
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    Lady of Hay: Two Women, Eight Hundred Years, and the Destiny They Share
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    Lady of Hay: Two Women, Eight Hundred Years, and the Destiny They Share
    Ebook901 pages14 hours

    Lady of Hay: Two Women, Eight Hundred Years, and the Destiny They Share

    By Barbara Erskine

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Two Women, Eight Hundred Years, and the Destiny They Share

    With a story as mesmerizing as it is chilling, Lady of Hay explores how Jo, a journalist investigating hypnotic regression, plunges into the life of Matilda, Lady of Hay—who lived eight hundred years earlier. As she learns of Matilda's unhappy marriage, her troubled love for Richard de Clare, and the brutal treatment she received from King John, it seems that Jo's past and present are hopelessly entwined. Centuries later, a story of secret passion and unspeakable treachery is about to begin again—and she has no choice but to brave both lives if she wants to shake the iron grip of history.

    Praise for Barbara Erskine:
    "So well researched and so well written that it is almost impossible to put down. The novel has everything that readers of racy fiction could ask for: beautiful characters, exotic settings, and passion...situations and characters that are so completely convincing that they come to life."—Philadelphia Inquirer
    "Told with hair-raising intensity, this is a gripping tale."—Daily News
    "Barbara Erskine is a superb storyteller."—Los Angeles Daily News
    "Fascinating, absorbing, original—all such praise comes easily when describing Barbara Erskine's Lady of Hay. But perhaps the most suitable word is hypnotic."—She
    "Barbara Erskine can make us feel the cold, smell the filth, and experience some of the fear of the power of evil men...The author's storytelling talent is undeniable."—Times of London

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateOct 1, 2010
    ISBN9781402254673
    Unavailable
    Lady of Hay: Two Women, Eight Hundred Years, and the Destiny They Share
    Author

    Barbara Erskine

    Barbara Erskine is the author of thirteen bestselling novels and three collections of short stories that demonstrate her interest in both history and the supernatural. Lady of Hay, her first novel, has now sold over three million copies worldwide.

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    Reviews for Lady of Hay

    4/5

    207 ratings18 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Someone somewhere mentioned [Lady of Hay] in a favorable light. Luckily for them, I don't remember who. It was Pearl Ruled at p42. U. G. H. Tedious, ponderous sentences. Tiresome characters from Central Casting. Too old, too many books better than this to make me want to persevere.
    • 4/5
      Middle England, reincarnation. Good, long read.
    • 1/5
      DNF. It has a cool concept, but it's just not interesting.
    • 5/5
      I think this is a book you either hate, or you love. I happen to love over the top time-twisting, slightly supernatural love story adventures, so this was right up my alley.Yes, Erskine's heroine's can be maddeningly dense and self-destructive and sometimes you just want to slap some sense into them. Yes, you have to suspend a good deal of disbelief to accept the premise. But if you like this genre than no one does it better than Barbara Erskine
    • 2/5
      .?.?.?.?

      The historical background was absolutely gorgeous. Great writing. The main character was a complete idiot. I spent most of the book hitting my head against a wall trying to figure out why she was so useless. I don't know. A thrilled, romance and historical novel all in one.
    • 5/5
      Book Description Two Women, Eight Hundred Years, and the Destiny They Share Barbara Erskine can make us feel the cold, smell the filth, and experience some of the fear of the power of evil men...The author's storytelling talent is undeniable." -Times of London With a story as mesmerizing as it is chilling, Lady of Hay explores how Jo, a journalist investigating hypnotic regression, plunges into the life of Matilda, Lady of Hay-who lived eight hundred years earlier. As she learns of Matilda's unhappy marriage, her troubled love for Richard de Clare, and the brutal treatment she received from King John, it seems that Jo's past and present are hopelessly entwined. Centuries later, a story of secret passion and unspeakable treachery is about to begin again-and she has no choice but to brave both lives if she wants to shake the iron grip of history.

      My Review This was a fascinating story which switched from the present day to the 12th century. Barbara Erskine's writing is easy to read and brings history to life. The characters were very believable and their emotions were transferred to the reader. The plot was intriguing and allowed for a page-turner which was unputdownable until the last page. I look forward to reading another of Erskine's books and recommend this one to those who love historical fiction mixed with adventure and romance. "
    • 2/5
      Loaned by a friend when I was walking in the Black Mountains. Rubbish characters (the C20 ones), and more gratuitous rape than in a Ken Fosset, dealt with maybe more appallingly (I only read one of his, and I'll only read this one of hers). Couldn't wait to finish the story and get these people out of my life, so it was quite fun that the central characters felt pretty much the same!
    • 3/5
      I was surprised by how this book pulled me in from the very beginning - I wanted to see how the Matilda/Jo characters connected, perhaps aspects of their lives. The Nick subplot and his creepy brother Sam (why wasn't he arrested for more than D&D Why did people put up with him?) started to get old, however - and yet, I kept reading because I wanted so much to find the connection between Matilda and Jo, why the reincarnation of a medieval noblewoman in a modern journalist. Halfway through, I was annoyed by the modern-day 'friends' of the heroine, Jo Clifford, who sit around and talk about her and always weem to have a drink in their hands - or plot against her. The medieval story was wonderful and had the modern story been handled differently, I would have liked it more. The abuse Jo puts up with and the cruelty of Sam and Nick, just didn't make sense.
    • 4/5
      This is a rather convoluted story given that you must keep track of both past and present story lines for multiple characters. The characters are compelling by themselves, but when placed into this particular story they become entrancing.Ms. Erskine was very thorough in researching the material for this book, and the descriptive details were wonderfully enchanting. The only place I feel she slipped a bit was in the way the historical characters spoke, occasionally using the word "hey," which was not introduced into common language until several hundred years after the historical portion of the story took place. And for all that Lady de Baorse was a trailblazer, I still found it a bit challenging to reconcile her attitude and how on the one hand she spoke to men - particularly the king - as if they were equals, and on the other hand she would talk about the duties of women being to submit to their husbands and acknowledging that they were owned by their husbands just like a horse or an item of clothing. But much of that can be forgiven and understood since the Lady de Baorse was being channeled by a modern-day woman who wouldn't be afraid of men as women of the 1200's would be, since women were chattel and only used to gain necessary alliances and such. That hiccup aside, the story is riveting. All the main characters are strong forces on their own and combined together they become a volatile mix. Even the secondary characters have a surprising depth not often seen in a character that may only be in two or three scenes in the entire book. Just when you feel that the story arc is beginning to drag, you are whisked back in time to relive the extraordinary life of Matilda, otherwise known as the Lady de Baorse. However for the majority of the book the story moves right along at a lovely clip.If you have an issue with wanton alcohol consumption be forewarned, as I'm not sure if there is a single scene in which either alcohol or coffee is not consumed - and often the coffee contains alcohol. Also, Jo comes across as having a rather loose moral code when it comes to sex, but I much of that is driven by the historical portions of the book oddly enough.This book is perfect for those who enjoyed such books as 'The Other Boleyn Girl,' 'The Virgin's Lover,' and other books that take historical periods and their more well-known people and try to recreate what their lives might have been like. While that may sound like a simple romance novel it is clear the hundreds of hours of research that goes into the creation of the top-shelf books of this genre. And there is no doubt in my mind that this book belongs up near the top-shelf with the others, though it is not in the same league as the Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" series. Definitely a challenge to put the book down and get anything else done until I finished reading it. Thankfully it is a fairly quick read, regardless of its size.
    • 2/5
      Where I got the book: bought retail. Full price. Seriously, sometimes I do that just for laughs.I read this book back in 1985 when it came out. I was 25. I cannot imagine this. I thought this book was AMAZING back then. I was hoping to recapture the moment...Sigh.You can never go back.Plot: beautiful, talented journalist Jo (STRIKE ONE) appears to have no other purpose than to be hypnotized back into a previous life. Because absolutely EVERYONE she meets can do this. Really? I could count the number of regression hypnotists I've met on one.... hair follicle. Minus one. But when it comes to Jo, NOOOOO everyone can wave a hand and send her back to the Middle Ages, where she's a beautiful, willowy (STRIKE TWO) Lady of Hay called variously Matilda, Matilde, Maud or Moll. If nobody else is around to hypnotize her, Jo self-hypnotizes, boom, back in time before you can reach for the Scotch.And they DO reach for the Scotch, oh yes they do, when they're not reaching for the coffee. In the contemporary parts of the novel intensely-blue-eyed (STRIKE THREE) ex-boyfriend Nick, sinister ex-boyfriend-brother-who-may-or-may-not-have-blue-eyes-but-who-cares? Sam, wimpy wannabe-boyfriend Tim and slightly-slutty-ex-boyfriend's-girlfriend Judy narrow their eyes a lot, drink much Scotch and much coffee, sleep with each other and gaze at each other with intensely blue eyes. Most of them are reincarnated, natch. Because it's PERFECTLY NORMAL to find reincarnated royalty/nobility who happen to have cassette tapes of the EXACT SAME flute music from the Middle Ages in London in 1985.But thank heaven for the reincarnations, say I. The Middle Ages plot is the only plot in the novel, the contemporary parts being nothing but the aforesaid Scotch drinkings and eye narrowings, with a bit of driving around foggy damp Welsh hills and the occasional punch-up thrown in. The Middle Ages characters do all sorts of exciting activities, either on horseback or at swordpoint or, I was going to say in bed but the sex is pretty perfunctory, his eyes narrowed and next minute they were smoking a cigarette or drinking a post-coital Scotch kind of thing. Oh no, wait, I was in the Middle Ages so perhaps no Scotch. Damned if I know.This is the anniversary edition, so there's a sequel short story which is over-the-top silly with lots! of! exclamation! points! Interestingly, Erskine seems at times to refute the New Age beliefs which evidently gave rise to this idea that you could simply hypnotize yourself back into the past. Or fly, depending on which drugs you were taking. The 70s were awesome.You know, if you just stuck to the Middle Ages story you'd have a great tale of love, loss, dynastic power-mongering, rogue kings and towering castles. I only felt like screaming every time we landed back in the 1980s. Of course, if you remember the 1980s you'll sympathize with that.Verdict: a novel that is past its prime. A humungous hit in its day, but it doesn't travel well.
    • 1/5
      The modern part of this book is Twilight, without the sparkling. The historical part is quite interesting, and Matilda de Braose was the saving grace of an otherwise truly dire and dreadful book. Joanna Clifford is a journalist living in London and writing a series of exposé articles, one of which is based on hypnotism and past life regression. Jo doesn't remember, but her last experience of regression almost ended in her death, something she was ordered to forget. So when she decides to try again, sixteen years later, she is not expecting to be hypnotised successfully and she is certainly not expecting to describe her past life as Matilda de Braose, Lady of Hay, a noblewoman living in the time of King John.As Jo delves deeper into Matilda's life, those around her are also deeply affected. Her on/off boyfriend, Nick, his brother Sam and her friend Tim all seem to be deeply connected to her life as Matilda 800 years earlier. Her neighbours start to see and hear ghostly apparitions and Jo fears that a spirit from the past is trying to fulfil Matilda's destiny by taking Jo's life. Matilda fulfils her fathers dying wish to marry William de Braose, a much older nobleman she does not love. Almost immediately that they are married, Matilda meets Richard de Clare and falls deeply in love with him. As William is sent to the boarders of England and Wales, committing some terrible acts to show his loyalty to the King, Matilda is left to fend for herself and raise her children. However she makes a powerful enemy of Prince John, and when he becomes King she and her children find their lives are in danger in a story that is set to span the next 800 years. SPOILERS BELOW:I hated the modern day story and the characters involved, and I felt the author swung between two plot lines for them that were never quite decided upon. There was nothing to recommend them. The women were meant to be strong and independent, focused on their careers. But they spent much of their time fighting to win back a man who was a liar, a cheat, violent towards them and guilty of rape. They forgave all of this, passing it off as being their own fault, or the fault of being possessed by a violent ghost, or the fault of a mad hypnotist. When they weren't doing that they were putting each other in danger (anything for a deadline or a good story), shrieking at each other or being deliberately thick (for the sole purpose of provoking me!) The men were controlling, violent, manipulative, backstabbing and in one case insane. Most of this was forgiven as being the fault of the women, past and present, or because they were fulfilling their ghostly destiny and couldn't help it. There was a great deal of "I love you...but I can't be with you because I think I murdered you in a past life and I'm going to do it again" and "I love you...I don't care if you murdered me once before, I think you have to do it again, history demands it."I would have been happy to have any one of the modern day characters manifest themselves in front of me just so I could throw this book at them. The author seemed torn between having everything hinge on ghosts from the past or on a mad hypnotist, and the blame for Nick being a vile, violent rapist was placed on both, even though he was vile, violent and a rapist before he was ever hypnotised or aware of his past incarnation. The only thing this book has to recommend it is the fascinating story of Matilda de Braose, which sadly was not told here as well as it could have been. There was more than her fair share of violent, controlling men in her life too, but she was a strong character who never behaved in the way her modern incarnation did. I would love to find a decent book about her and her life, although I think too little is really known of her and much is speculation, folklore and legend.Although her husband was hated by the Welsh, Matilda came to be loved and revered and many legends have been told about her, variously as Matilda, Maude, Maud, Moll Walbee, Malld Walbri and Mallt or Mawd.Her death at the hands of King John, after being hunted down across England, Ireland and Scotland, so shocked the country that it was responsible for a clause being written into the Magna Carta.No man shall be taken, imprisoned, outlawed, banished or in any way destroyed, nor will we proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land. Matilda's story was fascinating even though much of it in the book is fiction made up by the author because the real facts are not known for sure. Even the place of her death is uncertain, known only as either Windsor or Corfe. Her story could have been told beautifully, without the need for the modern story, and been a much better book.
    • 5/5
      I don't even know where to begin with this review. My emotions were thrown for a loop while reading this book. I found myself wanting to learn more again about history.So this is a work of fiction which includes a bit of history from the 1200's. I am not too familiar with history that far back. I never found it interesting or something I wanted to learn. I have realized that as I read these types of books I want to do research and learn more about the history.Joanna is the main character of this book. Some of the other important characters are Nick, Judy, Tim, Sam, Dr. Bennett and many more from their pasts or not. Joanna is doing an article on hypnosis and reincarnation. She doesn't believe in reincarnation. She also doesn't believe that being hypnotized can make someone go back to a previous life, especially her.She soon discovers that her first thoughts are not exactly correct. Jo also learns about the first time she was hypnotized and what happened. Did she really live a life in the past? Or is it just something that someone suggested and put in her mind? Those are the questions that she needs to figure out.I found the characters so diverse and interesting. Jo is a strong woman that can be intimidated or scared at times. Judy I felt was very self absorbed at first but then her character seemed to grow and mature. Nick was just a lost soul, confused about who he really was. Sam was the one character that I found very manipulative, self absorbed, jealous and so much more. By middle of my book I found myself wondering about hypnosis and reincarnation. Wondering if it was possible to hypnotize yourself.
    • 4/5
      Jo, an investigative journalist, is working on a series about hypnosis, past-life regression and reincarnation. Initially skeptical, she allows herself to become hypnotized as part of her research. Immediately she begins reliving the life of Matilda, the Scottish Lady of Hay who lived eight-hundred years earlier. As she becomes more and more involved in Matilda's life, the men around her also appear to be reincarnations of the men in Matilda's life. I was immediately drawn into the story through Erskine's writing style and dynamic characters. The historical nature of the book was carefully entwined with the present, creating an interesting and dynamic plot. At times the book did seem to drag on and the people Jo encountered seemed a bit too serendipitous. Despite these flaws I highly enjoyed this book.
    • 5/5
      Recently re-read this in the updated 25th anniversary version with the added 'What happened next' short story. It's an epic story charting the dual lives of Jo Clifford and Matilda de Braose centred around regression. Whilst you cannot fault the story telling abilities of Erskine some of the characterisation rankles. *spoiler* I'm not certain how many modern women who had been beaten/raped by their ex would be willing to let them back into their lives, but this is what happens to Jo. It doesn't ring true and that is the major thing that annoys me about the book.*/spoiler* That aside it is an interesting tale with great historic detail. For me, the added short story adds nothing to the overall storyline.
    • 3/5
      From my book review blog Rundpinne: I have been struggling with my review of Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine and putting it off hoping my feelings toward the book would change with time, they have not. I had truly wanted to adore Lady of Hay and quite unfortunately, I did not care for the book. There, I said it. I enjoyed the idea of the story, especially the descriptions of life in the twelfth century. Erskine did an excellent job at creating two realistic and vividly described centuries and creatively moves in and out of them seamlessly. I immensely enjoyed learning about Matilda de Braose and the life she led. So, what did I not care for in Lady of Hay? In short I did not care for the paranormal aspect of the book, many of the characters, and Jo. Had Erskine told a tale about Matilda de Braose, The Lady of Hay, and left it solely about her life, I would have been raving about this book, however the story is about Jo’s regression through hypnosis to become the Lady of Hay, a twist I did not care for. With that said, Lady of Hay is brilliantly developed, chock full of drama to keep the reader turning the pages long into the night and when dealing with Matilda, a brilliant historical fiction novel. I would recommend Lady of Hay to those who enjoy paranormal novels as well as historical fiction. Even though Lady of Hay was not all I hoped for, I do look forward to more novels by Erskine, as she is a masterful storyteller. JH/Rundpinne/2010
    • 1/5
      I will give Barbara Erskine credit for trying, but this fails as historical fiction and as an introspection on modern life. The main character, Joanna Clifford, undergoes hypnosis and gains access to a past life in 12th Century England. I found Erskine's depiction of medieval England unconvincing and her characters maddeningly annoying and unbelievable. I haven't read any other of her books and will be staying away like the plague.
    • 5/5
      I can never put this book down once I have started it, even though I have read it many times. Erskine shows true skill in weaving past and present together, and also a strong knowledge of what life would have been like back in 12th century England. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves historical fiction.
    • 5/5
      What would you find out about yourself in a past life reading? This book reveals this and much more while entertaining the reader....