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DOOMSDAY BOOK is the first in a loose sequence of time travel novels set in Oxford. James Dunworthy belongs to the Twentieth Century department while Mediaeval's Gilchrist has wangled his own appointment as acting head of History while the department head is on holidays, reputed to be catching fish. Dunworthy is terrified that his own best student, Kivrin, will be injured when visiting the year 1320. Gilchrist has managed to take the year off the forbidden list for time travellers and is voraciously hungry for the information Kivrin will be able to bring back from that time. In the interests of verisimilitude, Kivrin is physically injured before she leaves the 21st century. Her cover story for anyone who finds her is that she was waylaid by robbers and a blow to the head has caused her to lose her memory. An unforeseen complication is that she is infected with influenza, despite her inoculations, so that she is extremely ill on her arrival in the past. By the same token, modern day Oxford sees an epidemic of the same infection after her departure. Dunworthy's friend, Dr Mary Ahrens, is expecting her great nephew Colin to arrive in Oxford on Christmas Eve and he does not disappoint -- despite quarantine restrictions. Kivrin finds her translator inadequate for the task until she has been in the past for some time. She is in a noble's household and becomes intimately bound up with the fate of the residents. Her especial concerns are the two young daughters, five-year-old Agnes and 12-year-old Rosemund and the priest, Father Roche, who she at first mistakes for a cut-throat. Meanwhile, Dunworthy attempts to help preserve order in the panicking Oxford population, augmented by a troupe of American bellringers. He battles the recalcitrant Gilchrist in an attempt to retrieve Kivrin before her projected return on Holy Innocents Day. His attempts to understand the situation are frustrated by the severe illness of the technician who had been in charge of the drop which transported Kivrin to the 14th century. DOOMSDAY BOOK is an amazing work. There is no doubt it is a triumph of scholarship. The author is able to propound a theory of history and speech that may not agree with that put forward by some scholars. She is able to bring tecnicolour life to the dry and brittle bones of 14th century history as her heroine does battle with the conditions and prejudices of the past. Willis's attention to detail and her masterly command of dialogue is nothing short of prodigious. There are trifling discrepancies -- for example, the most glaring being the emergence of mobile phone technology in the past decade. Her prophecy was for videophones but they are still limited by landline technology. It would have taken a major rewriting job to have brought just that aspect of the novel up to date but it is a glitch easy to overlook in the awed admiration for the incredible achievement of the writing. Willis provides deft characterisation as well as plotting. The reader is easily bound up in concern for the fates of Kivrin, Dunworthy and the children of both eras. One can hope that more of her work will be re-released and that she will produce more new novels in the not too distant future (lack of time machines notwithstanding).
Reviewed by Denise Pickles, September 2006
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