Twisted Lives

In Twisted Lives Bill Dodds portrays the bawdy sexuality, intellectual disorder and vicious intrigues of late Elizabethan England through the lives of young adults. In court and country, the gentry are divided between Essex and Cecil. People believe in angels and demons, and remnants of medieval Catholicism survive. Educated gentlemen follow the principles of geometry, cabala, astrology and alchemy. Experimental science is in its infancy. Robert waits for James nursing his drink in the Bear. James enters. He is smiling, and wearing a gleaming crucifix. Introduced to an alchemist by James, Robert becomes trapped in a mystery which requires his knowledge of alchemy, cabala, and mathematics to solve. Agnes Sorrell is the daughter of a rural mayor, attractive and feisty. Her passionate love, strength and ruthless cunning save Robert from despair and death. But there is a tragic price to pay for their life together.