A Column of Fire

A Column of Fire is a historical novel by the British writer Ken Follett, first published in September 2017. It is the third book of the Kingsbridge series, after The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End.

The novel begins in 1558 and carries its characters through to 1605, following the courts of England, France and Scotland as the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation harden into violence. Ned Willard is a young man from Kingsbridge who goes to work for Elizabeth's intelligence service, watching Catholic plots and reporting what he learns, while Margery Fitzgerald is the woman he wanted to marry, whose family has committed itself to the Catholic cause. Around the two of them Follett sets merchants, monarchs, priests and would-be assassins, and the town and cathedral of Kingsbridge remain the fixed point of the series.

Follett's method is to place invented families alongside historical figures and events, so that the religious politics of the period are shown through what they cost the people who have to choose a side.