The Red Saint

"The Red Saint" by Warwick Deeping, is a story centered around Denise of the Hermitage, a woman seen as a saint, living in a war-torn England. She faces the Barons’ War, a time of great disruption and violence, while also dealing with her growing feelings for Aymery, a lord involved in the fighting. The novel starts with Denise observing a distant fire, a sign of the chaos engulfing the country. She deeply feels the tension and spreading violence and is drawn into the suffering when she learns about a boy who has died, and she is pulled into the grief of individuals like Waleran, the boy’s father. As Denise balances her duties as a healer with the dangers around her, the story creates a feeling of both strength and vulnerability, suggesting complicated relationships and difficult moral choices to come.