Born in the seventh century, Cuthbert of Lindisfarne is the unofficial patron saint of the north, where he’s still known as Cuddy. He began life as a lowly boy shepherd and ended it as a famed religious hermit, holed up on a rocky island off the Northumbrian coast. When Viking raiders arrived, Cuthbert’s body was taken to the mainland by a band of loyal monks, generations of whom traipsed around with it while battles raged until a sign from God (or simple fatigue) told them to stop on a hilltop. There, the settlement that would become Durham sprang up, eventually followed by the towering Norman cathedral that houses his shrine.
In the hands of local novelist Benjamin Myers, the afterlife of St Cuthbert’s legend – and indeed of his mortal remains, which for centuries were said to have remained intact – forms the backbone of a hulking, multi-volume novel. It makes room for poetry and reams of quotations from diverse sources, as well as prose that adopts the viewpoints of stonemasons and brewers, cooks and academics, making for a vibrant alternative history of the region.
