The Rose on the Ash-Heap

The Rose and the Ash Heap is the epilogue from English People - Barfield's ambitious unpublished novel of English life between the First and Second World Wars. At once fairy tale, societal critique, romance and apocalyptic vision, it discloses the redemptive powers of love and imagination. Sultan, Lord of all the Asias, falls passionately in love with a beautiful and elusive temple dancer. He pursues her across continents, all the way to Albion, where the Lord of Albion - guardian of all that is good in the English spirit - confronts the overwhelming threat of Abdol and the forces of materialism. Written in the late 1920s, a time of widespread societal and economic instability, The Rose on the Ash-Heap also addresses the deepest concerns and hopes of the twenty-first century.