book details

Book: In a Milk and Honeyed Land by Richard Abbott

categories: Book, Ancient Israel, Ancient Egypt, Gaza, Canaan, Poetry, Biblical Fiction, Joshua, Love, Conflict, Hill Country, Ancient History, Historical Fiction

Richard Abbott

about this book: This book emerged from two very different foundations - a passionate study of late bronze age poetry, and a strong desire to tell stories from biblical times from a different perspective. So we follow various occupants of one of the Canaanite hill country villages as their world begins to change. Instead of walking with the Israelites arriving at a place flowing with milk and honey, we live alongside the existing occupants of this land, and experience their life.

What will a reader find? Glimpses of a world which would disappear before very many more years had passed. It is solidly based on academic research, but is told as a tale of life, love and conflict. Poetry written in the ancient style is woven in with the prose, and as the reviewer noticed, the story unfolds progressively and carefully. There is space and time to reflect on what was happening to these people.

The cover photograph was originally taken by an old friend of mine who is a photographer. When I saw this particular picture I knew that this was exactly right - it captured the milk and honeyed land perfectly.

• "This is time travel at its best... stories are told in a different way - slowly, carefully, step by step rather like the long journeys of Damariel" — from an Amazon.co.uk review