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Questions for Ken Follett

Amazon.com: What a phenomenon The Pillars of the Earth has become. It was a bestseller when it was published in 1989, but it's only gained in popularity since then--it's the kind of book that people are incredibly passionate about. What has it been like to see it grow an audience like that?

Follett: At first I was a little disappointed that Pillars sold not much better than my previous book. Now I think that was because it was a little different and people were not sure how to take it. As the years went by and it became more and more popular, I felt kind of vindicated. And I was very grateful to readers who spread the news by word of mouth.

Amazon.com: Pillars was a departure for you from your very successful modern thrillers, and after writing it you returned to thrillers. Did you think you'd ever come back to the medieval period? What brought you to do so after 18 years?

Follett: The main reason was the way people talk to me about Pillars. Some readers say, "It’s the best book I’ve ever read." Others tell me they have read it two or three times. I got to the point where I really had to find out whether I could do that again.

Amazon.com: In World Without End you return to Kingsbridge, the same town as the previous book, but two centuries later. What has changed in two hundred years?

Follett: In the time of Prior Philip, the monastery was a powerful force for good in medieval society, fostering education and technological advance. Two hundred years later it has become a wealthy and conservative institution that tries to hold back change. This leads to some of the major conflicts in the story.

Amazon.com: World Without End features two strong-willed female characters, Caris and Gwenda. What room to maneuver did a medieval English town provide for a woman of ambition?

Follett: Medieval people paid lip-service to the idea that women were inferior, but in practice women could be merchants, craftspeople, abbesses, and queens. There were restrictions, but strong women often found ways around them.

Amazon.com: When you sit down to imagine yourself into the 14th century, what is the greatest leap of imagination you have to make from our time to theirs? Is there something we can learn from that age that has been lost in our own time?

Follett: It’s hard to imagine being so dirty. People bathed very rarely, and they must have smelled pretty bad. And what was kissing like in the time before toothpaste was invented?



Product Description:
Ken Follett has 90 million readers worldwide. The Pillars of the Earth is his bestselling book of all time. Now, eighteen years after the publication of The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett has written the most anticipated sequel of the year-World Without End.

Unabridged edition read by John Lee

Average Rating:

Rating: - Why did it have to end? Great book!
Having read "The Pillars of the Earth" earlier this year, I didn't wait long to pick up this volume. The first three hundred pages were very reminiscent of the first book, but then it came into its own. Contrary to the few reviewers on this site who panned the book as dull and its characters as poorly developed, I enjoyed the book thoroughly. In fact, this 60 year old college professor was very sad when the book ended. I felt like I had lived the main characters lives with them and that I knew ... Read More

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Rating: - A great step back in time
After reading Pillars of The Earth and enjoying it immensely, I had to buy Mr. Follets second offering. I truly liked how the first book laid flat while reading it. The second book, after a couple hundred pages also has this nice feature, even though it is a hard cover and over 1000 pages.

It is amazing to me that the human race has continued when you read how they only bathed once a year. I felt the dialogue was more current for now than that time. It keeps you interested in how the ... Read More

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Rating: - Cannot stop reading
I have just read about 100 pages and I cannot stop reading... utterly amazing and advisable...

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Rating: - Received Promptly
Received promptly, in great condition, packaged well. Thank you. Am still reading last book bought on Amazon.com.

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Rating: - My wife loved it
Could not read more than one hundred pages. The prose is extremely dull and the plot very dry, very black and white, lack of depth in characters.

My wife loved it. Tore through its substantial pages in three days. I'm not equipped to judge it on my limited (and annoyed) experience with it. No doubt, some will love it. Good for them. It's prose, yes, but it's ugly prose. Like staring at a deformed baby and wishing its mother (author) would have loved it enough to have provided ... Read More