In The Saracen’s Dagger, Anabel Prescote lost her partner, shop and home in the Great Fire of Southwark when the blaze tore through the south bank of the River Thames in July 1212. It remains one of the most devastating yet frequently overlooked tragedies in British history. While the famous blaze of 1666 dominates the public consciousness, this thirteenth-century inferno, which occurred during the reign of King John, resulted in a loss of human life that far exceeded that of its more famous...
