In the year 1203, nine pilgrims set out on a pilgrimage.

The journey - on foot, on horseback and by sea - is fraught with danger.

Not all of them will come safely home. Among them is Gatty, whose whole life has been spent working in the fields. Bright, eager and resolute, she is at the heart of a huge, ambitious novel that sweeps across Europe to Jerusalem.

All the pilgrims endure aches and pains, homesickness and terrible loss; they are prey to thieves and murdererers; but it is Gatty, whose impulsiveness lands her in desperate trouble, who is transformed by the experience.

With knuckle-biting drama, tremendous emotional highs and lows, and unforgettable characters, Kevin Crossley-Holland paints a wonderfully vivid picture of the world of the Middle Ages that answers the question so many readers have asked, of what happens to Gatty.