From Frederick of Bayeux, a preux chevalier in William of Normandy`s victorious army at Hastings, to Fred and Hal Barber, who found gold in the Witwatersrand in the 1880s and helped in the expansion of the Transvaal - their name survives in Barberton - Norman blood and Norman characteristics flow through the men and women who populate this exciting action-filled historical drama. Passion, warfare, retribution and the `otherworld` of sorcery, magic stones and social stigma are worked into a majestic overview of what drove our Viking - Northmen - Norman ancestors to travel to the edges of the world, to push on and see the business through. `The Barbers,` adds the author, `always had an affinity for making sense of the unknown world. This fanned the flames of their exploration work.` And may their spirit live on...