One of the most memorable books I have read in the past few years was Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth. When I saw that the Starz channel featured a mini-series based on the book, I promptly signed up for the channel. It was worth it, and I enjoyed the mini-series just like I enjoyed John Adams by HBO based on a book about Adams by McCullough I had previously read.

Pillars is a massive 8-hour series and it brings the medieval town of Kingsbridge to life. I enjoyed having faces associated with the characters. Of course, as always with movies based on novels, there is so much detail missing, entire subplots are left out and characters are skipped over.

However, I liked seeing the muddy alleys of Kingsbridge, the castles and palaces, the massive construction site of the cathedral. Medieval daily life played out in front of me and it renewed my interest in our own history, so far, and yet so recent.

Rating: ***