An Instance of the Fingerpost

I read this when it came out in the late 90s and, mostly forgotten the plot, I remember I loved it then. I can confirm it is in the top % of historical fiction books I have read. Broad in scope, non-condescending, always interesting and with a sufficient sting in the tail to make me want to go back and re-start it again to re-visit the three other POVs that preceded Mr Wood's portion.

In the back there is a chronology and info about the historical characters in the book. This would have been useful to know before getting through 2/3 of the book, since there are A LOT of characters to keep straight.