"John the Pupil" by David Flusfeder

 This novel purports to be a fragmentary chronicle, assembled from scraps of parchment, recording the journey taken by the eponymous John, a pupil of the Franciscan monk Roger Bacon, with two other young monks Andrew and Bernard, to carry Bacon's Great Work to Pope Clement IV.

It's a historical novel. Bacon (c 1219 - c 1292), a proto-scientist who studied, amongst many other things, lenses and gunpowder, really did send his Opus Maior to Clement in either 1267 or 1268. Other characters are also historical, including nobleman Cavalcante de Cavalcanti and his son Guido who was a part-time poet and a friend of Dante Aligheri. Other characters are fictional. 

The book attempts to add verisimilitude with a 'Note on the Text' at the start, describing how the chronicle was discovered, reassembled and translated, and endnotes which, inter alia, cast doubt on some aspects of the text (is it a contemporary diary or was it written later, or worse ...). For example, on p52 (St Hubert's Day) John states "In such a way did we affect our first escape from Simeon the Palmer"; had this been written at the time he would not have known it would be the first escape. 

The main text starts with an ellipsis as though the text is incomplete; this is repeated at times. Many of the sections give a potted biography of the saint on whose days they were written, a conceit I found a little wearisome as it was repeatedly repeated.

It is structured as a Hero's Journey. John, who is clever, travels with Andrew who is beautiful and Bernard who is strong. They encounter temptations (alcohol, women, a garden paradise) and dangers. They are befriended and betrayed. Bandits try to steal their possessions, including the book. Like all good heroes on their journey, they have to use their gifts in order to overcome these trials. 

There is a huge amount of historical research which makes it interesting for a student of that period. As the endnotes point out: "All historical novels are failures or, at best, metaphors, dressing up the present day in anachronistic disguise." (p 212)

It is a triumph of re-creation. But, in the end, it stands and falls as a novel on whether you empathise with John and his mates and you like the buddy-journey sort of tale. 

Selected quotes:

• "Brother Bernard ... is always suspicious, he would interrogate the motives on an angel" (St Hubert's Day, p 43)
• "Beauty speaks to beauty." (St Edgar's Day, p 62)
• "The Devil tempts only the very good and the very bad." (St Ephrem's Day, p 70)
• "They had a kind of priest among them, a man with a wildness about him, as if he had stared for too long into a consuming fire." (St Silverius's Day, p 79)
• "To go to Rome, much labour, little profit." (St Bartholomew's Day, p 85)
• "Lines rounden, loop, droop, curve." (St John the Baptist's Day, p 88)
• "You are the seal of the image of God, full of wisdom and perefect in beauty." (St Swithin's Day, p 96)
• "Hunger is too hard a stepmother to learning." (St Swithin's Day, p 97)
• "We walked towards the mountains and it was as if they refused us. They grew no larger, although it appeared to me that we were getting smaller." (St Thomas of Canterbury's Day, p 100)
• "Pope Clement, in a larger voice than I would have thought his body could contain, invited me to stand." (St Tiburtius's Day, p 188)
• "My master has enumerated some of the accidents [Flusfeder uses words in their mediaeval meaning] of old age, grey hair and pallor and wrinkled skin and excess mucus and stinking stool, the sickly bleariness of eyes, low blood and low spirits, crabbiness and absent-mindedness, and Pope Clement seems to exhibit them all." (St Tiburtius's Day, p 196)
• "Pope Clement's voice, profound and wise, stepping out the words like a traveller choosing where to place the stones to make a path over the river." (St Tiburtius's Day, p 197)

Synopsis (spoiler alerts)

John and his companions beautiful Andrew and strong Bernard are sent by Roger Bacon to walk from Oxford to Viterbus in Italy carrying Bacon's book to the Pope. On the way they are waylaid by a 'pilgrim for hire' whose attempt to steal the book is confounded, firstly by John demonstrating a burning glass and secondly by the gunpowder in a decoy box exploding. Other temptations include Bernard getting drunk in Paris and Andrew being bedded by a serving wench. John is tempted by Father Gabriel, a wise priest who has a paradisaical garden and uses herbs to help the sick; he urges John to stay. The trio fall out among themselves: John is upset when Andrew and Bernard reveal they have read his 'diary'; they are upset he hasn't been upfront about their task, Bernard steals ink and parchment in order to do drawings of mythical beasts. Finally they become the guests of a Guelph nobleman who sets John up as a healer and Bernard as a jeweller. Only John and Andrew leave. They then encounter Daniel, another friar from their monastery, who has been sent by Bacon with a smaller version of the Great Work; Daniel is martyred by bandits which enables John to escape. Finally, all alone, he comes to Rome and meets the Pope. The burning lens demonstration fails to work but Clement is delighted when he discovers the lens can be used to correct his failing eyesight and help him to read again. Finally, John decides not to hand the book over.

David Flusfeder has also written Something Might Fall

June 2026; 220 pages
First published by Fourth Estate in 2014
My paperback edition was issued in 2015

This review was written by

the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling 

and The Kids of God

"Ivanhoe" by Walter Scott

This is perhaps the most celebrated novel by an author who was a huge best-seller in his time and respected by Jane Austen, George Eliot and Charles Dickens among others.

It belongs to the now-outdated 'gadzooks' style of historical fiction with lots of 'thous', 'haths' and 'yes' etc. I suppose that created verisimilitude in those days but it sounds forced and inauthentic to my ears. Modern historical novelists, such as Ken Follett, in The Pillars of the Earth, avoid this. But you can say for Scott, who was one of the pioneers of historical fiction, that he did it better than some of his later imitators, such as Charles Kingsley in Hereward the Wake.

It is told in the 3rd person omniscient style, past tense, and framed as a story, allowing scope for the author to interject, for example: “His furred cloak and high cap, seen by the wiry and broken light, would have afforded a study for Rembrandt, had that celebrated painter existed at the period.” (Ch 22) He also bids for verisimilitude by citing his sources. For example, in chapter 24 he mentions both the Anglo-Saxon chronicle and the Wardour manuscript as sources. The latter, however, is fictional, Wardour being a character in The Antiquary, published 4 years before Ivanhoe).

He has clearly done a significant amount of historical research. This is displayed as early as  chapter one, when Wamba points out that Saxons talk of swine and oxen because they farm the animals, while the Normans use the words pork and beef when they eat the meat. Given how early this was written, I was impressed with how accurate Scott seemed to be, although there are some discrepancies and inconsistencies, in particular with dynastic relationships, where, for example, great uncles and prescribed and grandfathers and grandfathers as fathers.

In terms of the plot, it is a cracking yarn, a classic adventure story. It includes a jousting and melee tournament with not one, but two, incognito knights who, naturally, defeat all comers. It includes outlaws waylaying travellers in the forest, an attempt at torture in a castle dungeon, the siege of that castle and an ordeal by combat to save the life of one of the heroines who is threatened with being burned as a witch. Robin Hood, Richard the Lionheart, and bad King John make an appearance.

On the other hand, the characters are very one-dimensional. In the main, heroes are goody-goody superheroes and villains are horrid. There are exceptions. The Templar Brian de Bois-Guilbert is initially no more than a rapist but, impressed by Rebecca's spirit, woos her for a mistress and, in the showdown, when selected as champion for the Templars against Rebecca, asks her to elope with him. Similarly, Maurice de Bracy is in two minds about Rowena. 

Is it anti-Semitic? Isaac the Jew, a moneylender, is a major character and is stereotyped as both cowardly and covetous. However, Scott spends considerable length pointing out how the Jews in this period in England were persecuted and terrorised and in this way condemning anti-Semitism. Rebecca, Isaac's daughter, is the principal heroine; she is strong-minded and virtuous.

Is it sexist? Comments such as, “Women are but the toys which amuse our lighter hours.” (Ch 36) make it seem so, although that is spoken by a villain. Again, Scott is keen to create strong heroines. But there is nevertheless a feeling that he is making stereotypical assumptions. Perhaps the best that can be said is that he was enlightened for his time.

Is it racist? There are very few characters of colour and they are in subordinate positions. There are some unpleasant racial epithets.

So what did Jane Austen see in Scott? (She once said she would read no novels other than those by herself, Maria Edgeworth, who wrote Castle Rackrent, and Walter Scott.) Scott reviewed Emma favourably so the respect was mutual. Fundamentally, they wrote in very different genres. Scott compared Austen's style to that of Dutch interior painting: controlled and utterly realistic. He was writing melodrama and deliberately using exaggeration and extravagance to create drama and to excite the reader: very baroque. 

Selected quotes:

• “It is comfort to think that we leave behind us on earth those who shall be wretched as ourselves.” (Ch 24)
• “This damsel has wept enough to extinguish a beacon light. Never was such wringing of hands and such overflowing of eyes ... A water-fiend hath possessed the fair Saxon." (Ch 25)
• “Glory ... is the rusted mail which hangs as a hatchment over the champion's dim and mouldering tomb.” (Ch 30)
• “Even in our own days, when morals are better understood, an execution, a bruising-march, a riot, or a meeting of radical reformers, collects, at considerable hazard to themselves, immense crowds of spectators.” (Ch 43)

It's an entertaining story but somewhat long-winded for modern tastes (every character must be introduced with a long paragraph of description) which I found wearisome. 

There is a full synopsis of the plot (spoiler alert) under my byline.

June 2026; 519 pages

First published in 1819 by Archibald Constable

My paperback edition was issued by Penguin Popular Classics in 1994

This review was written by

the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling 

and The Kids of God

Synopsis: spoiler alert

Ivanhoe is set in 1194 when King Richard I, captured returning from the crusades, has been ransomed and is expected back in England soon. Since the 1066 Norman Conquest, almost all of the land is owned by Norman barons who act like warlords, tyrannising the local populations of Saxons.

It starts with a group of Norman knights and church leaders riding through Sherwood Forest, asking directions for Cedric’s manor, hoping to spend the night there. Cedric is one of the few Saxons still in possession of land. He hosts the Normans; the dinner is interrupted by another stranger, Isaac, a Jewish moneylender. The anonymous pilgrim who escorted the Normans to the house wakes early the next morning and, having overheard Templar knight Bois-Guilbert planning to abduct Isaac, warns Isaac; helped by faithful swineherd Gurth, the pair slip away. In gratitude, Isaac lends the man a suit of armour and a warhorse.

A tournament is being held at Ashby Castle in the presence of King John. The first day is jousting. A mysterious knight who calls himself Desdichado (= Disinherited) defeats, one by one, the five champions, including Bois-Gilbert, and is declared champion of the day; he chooses as Queen of the Tournament, Lady Rowena, the beautiful and royal Saxon ward of Cedric, engaged to a Saxon nobleman called Athelstane but in love with Cedric’s son Wilfred of Ivanhoe (who was disinherited by his father for this presumption and has left the country to go on the crusades).

On the second day there is a mock battle between two sides. Desdichado’s side is triumphant but only after another anonymous knight who calls himself Le Noir Faineant (= The Black Sluggard) rides to the rescue of Desdichado. The wounded Desdichado is revealed to be Ivanhoe. Rebecca, Isaac’s daughter, a skilled healer, takes him to her house to treat him.

The tournament ends with an archery competition won by an archer called Locksley. It’s Robin Hood!

Le Roi Faineant has spent the night eating, drinking and singing in the cell of hermit The Holy Clerk of Copmanhurst (Friar Tuck).

Travelling through the forest, Isaac, Rebecca and the wounded Ivanhoe, as well as Cedric, Athelstane and Rowena, are captured by mercenary knight Maurice de Bracy and his companions, who are masquerading as outlaws, and taken to Torquilstone, the castle of Reginald Front-de-Bœuf. Gurth and Wamba, Cedric’s jester, escape only to encounter Locksley, leader of the real outlaws. Le Roi Faineant and the Friar turn up. They go to besiege the castle.

Inside, Front-de-Boeuf tries to extort money from Isaac by torturing him in the dungeons. De Bracy tells Rowena he wants to marry her; she turns him down. Bois-Guilbert tells Rebecca he wants her to be his mistress; she threatens to jump out of the tower window if he lays a hand on her.

The siege starts and the besieged send a message that they will kill their captives. Wamba, disguised as a priest, goes into the castle’to hear Cedric’s confession’ but then changes clothes with Cedric who slips out of his cell. On his way out, Cedric meets withered crone Ulrica, and has a lengthy conversation with her, eliciting her back story as if he has all the time in the world. As Urfiried, she was daughter of the original lord of the castle which Front-de-Bouef usurped, raping her and keeping her imprisoned. In revenge, she sets light to the castle as the besiegers gain entrance. Front-de-Bœuf is killed in the fire. De Bracy is forced to surrender to the Black Knight, who identifies himself as King Richard. Athelstane is wounded and presumed dead. Bois-Guilbert escapes with Rebecca to the local Templar preceptory.

Lucas de Beaumanoir, the Grand Master of the Templars, is in the preceptory to to sharpen it up. Discovering that Bois-Guilbert's girlfriend is a Jew, he accuses her of witchcraft. Prompted secretly by Bois-Guilbery, she demands a trial by combat. She must find a champion in three days to defeat the champion appointed by the Templars or be burned to death. The Grand Master picks Bois-Guilbert as the Templar’s champion. He’s in a dilemma: does he fight for the love of his life, or fight against her champion and thus maintain his chivalric honour.

At his own funeral, Athelstane returns to life, demanding food. He pledges allegiance to King Richard and cedes Rowena to Ivanhoe. Ivanhoe hears about Rebecca’s plight and rides hard to become her champion. He arrives in the nick of time but he’s exhausted. Bois-Guilbert and Ivanhoe ride a joust; both fall. Ivanhoe gets up; Bois-Guilbert stays down. He has had a stroke or a heart attack from the conflict of emotions inspired by loving Rebecca and having to fight against her, and he is dead.

Rebecca goes to Rowena and tells her that she and her father are leaving for Cordoba in Muslim held Spain where the Jews aren’t persecuted. She will become a healer. Rowena wins Ivanhoe.

Other novels by this author

Scott wrote a series of historical novels which were hugely influential at the time. They are known as the Waverley novels after the title of the first (later novels were often published anonymously as 'by the author of Waverley). 

• Waverley (1814) set during the 1745 Jacobite rebellion
• Guy Mannering (1815) set in Scotland
• The Antiquary (1816) set in Scotland
• The Black Dwarf (1816) set in Scotland
• Old Mortality (1816) set in Scotland
• Rob Roy (1818) about a Scottish bandit
• The Heart of Midlothian (1818) set in Scotland after which the Edinburgh football team was named
• The Bride of Lammermoor (1819) set in Scotland which inspired the opera Lucia di Lammermoor by Donnizetti
• A Legend of Montrose (1819) set in Scotland
• Ivanhoe (1819) set in mediaeval England, complete with Robin Hood
• The Monastery (1820) set in Scotland
• The Abbot (1820) set in Scotland
• Kenilworth (1821) set in Tudor England
• The Pirate (1822) set in Shetland and Orkney
• The Fortunes of Nigel (1822) set in Jacobean London
• Peveril of the Peak (1822) set in England
• Quentin Durward (1823) set in mediaeval France and Belgium
• St Ronan's Well (1824) set in Scotland
• Redgauntlet (1824) set in Scotland and northern England
• The Betrothed (1825) set in  Wales
• The Talisman (1825) set in Palestine at the time of the Crusades
• Woodstock (1826) set in England and Brussels during the English civil war
• The Fair Maid of Perth (1828) set in Scotland
• Anne of Geierstein set in Switzerland
• Count Robert of Paris (1831) set in Constantinople in 1097
• Castle Dangerous (1831) set in Scotland

"The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett

 

A vast epic of a historical novel told by a superb storyteller.

It is set in the days of the Anarchy, when King Stephen and Empress Maud battled for the English throne, a time of rebellions leading to a full-blown civil war, the entire period lasting for seventeen years during which time parts of England were controlled, an terrorised, by the local warlord. Against this background is set the story of Prior Philip who wants to improve his monastery and a builder who wants to work on a cathedral. The baddies include the local bishop and a wannabe earl; the goodies, beside the prior and the builder include the daughter of the earl who is defeated, usurped and killed, and the talented bastard son of a witch and a hanged jongleur. 

There's plenty of action to keep the reader turning the more than a thousand pages. Conflict rules, whether it be a disputed election of a prior, a mob of outlaws attacking a town, an army of soldiers destroying a castle, rape, murder, cursing witches, plenty of sex ... this is a story that has everything. And at this length, there is even time to develop the characters. True, most of them have little nuance. William the bad earl and Waleran the bad bishop are villains through and through with  no redeeming features whatsoever: they are figures straight from mystery plays or melodramas. But the goodies have a degree of complexity which allows the author to keep posing problems for them which they solve but not entirely so that the solutions can return to haunt them. In the end, this reader hoped and hoped that, despite moments or peril and jeopardy, despite impossible odds, his favourites would survive and prosper till the end. Read on, read on!

If you want a page-turner, you cannot fault this novel. It begins with the line: "The small boys came early to the hanging." which is an incredible hook. After that, a paragraph setting the scene is perfectly in order. The few pages of this Prologue ground the reader thoroughly in the setting but are also full of action so it becomes impossible not to read on.

After this there is plenty to get your teeth into. There's plenty of description telling me more about this period, and cathedral building, than I have learned in many standard history books. But the key to the readability is that you are never more than a few pages away from yet another confrontation. The Battle of Lincoln. The murder of Thomas a Beckett. The collapse of a cathedral. It might be a thousand pages plus, but the pace never flags.

And each of these set pieces, from sex to battle, from court room scene to cathedral killing, is perfectly written. 

A whirlwind of a read.

Selected quotes:

• "He seemed fond of Philip but wary of him, like a father whose son has been away to war and has come home with a sword in hius belt and a slightly dangerous look in his eye." (1.4.1)
• "Pray for miracles, but plant cabbages." (3.12.1)
• "The ducks swallow the worms, and the foxes kill the ducks, and the men shoot the foxes, and the devil hunts the men." (5.16.1)

April 2026; 1080 pages

First published by Macmillan in 1989

My paperback edition was issued by Pan in 2023

This review was written by

the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling 

and The Kids of God

"Hawker and the King's Jewel" by Ethan Bale

 A classic thriller based in late mediaeval Europe. After the defeat of Richard III in the Battle of Bosworth, Yorkist knight Sir John Hawker has to protect Sir Giles, Richard's bastard son, and deliver a valuable ruby to the Doge of Venice. Together with a motley band of warriors, including at least one who will betray him, Hawker travels across Europe to encounter more duplicity in the city whose streets are canals. 

And whatever happened to the Princes in the Tower?

It's a classic of its kind. The research is obvious, allowing the reader to wallow in authentic reenactment. The scenes of fighting are regularly delivered. There are good characters with whom the reader can identify and hope will survive (Jack the squire and Sir Giles) and there are villains (Dieudonnee). The plot is perfectly paced on the four-part model, even if the final quarter is split in two so that a final twist can be delivered. 

My only complaint? Referring to cheese (I presume) as the "the white stuff" in a too obvious attempt to avoid repeating the word 'cheese'.

Selected quotes:

• "Even an arsehole has its purpose." (Ch 3) 
• "Marriage comes from love as vinegar comes from wine." (Ch 21)
• "You are like the scribe who can see nothing more than the page his nose touches." (Ch 22)

November 2025; 337 pages

Published by Canelo in 2022

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"The First Crusade" by Peter Frankopan

When, in November 1095, Pope Urban II preached at Clermont, France, in about the need for a crusade to recover Jerusalem from the Muslims, it was partly to boost his own standing (he was one of two alternative popes, the other having control of Rome) and partly in response to a call for help from Byzantine emperor  Alexios I Komnenos. This book rewrites the myths to show how important Alexios was to the ultimately successful campaign to retake Jerusalem. Even though he was never physically present, preferring to lead from Constantinople, and was therefore accused of cowardice (unfairly, as a soldier before he became emperor and subsequently as emperor he often led his armies in the field) and sidelined by a history mostly written by the westerners, nevertheless his contribution to the logistics, ensuring that the armies were almost always well-provisioned, was crucial. 

This book is therefore an important contribution to the history of those times, as well as being immensely readable. Of all the characters, my favourite is the immensely brave and hugely talented soldier Bohemond who decided to keep Antioch for himself thus provoking a crisis in the leadership of the allies. When Bohemond returned home to the west he needed to pass through waters controlled by Byzantium. “Bohemond was so convinced that the emperor would take revenge for his treachery during the Crusade that he travelled home in secret. He even spread reports that he had died and had a coffin designed which purported to be carrying his corpse. As his ship passed through imperial waters, he lay in his sarcophagus alongside a dead chicken whose rotting carcase lent the coffin a powerful and unmistakable smell of death.” (Ch 10)

Readable and interesting. June 2024; 206 pages

Peter Frankopan also write The New Silk Roads

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"Henry VII and the Tudor Pretenders" by Nathen Amin

 Henry Tudor, whose claim to the throne of England was tenuous, spent most of his early life in exile in Brittany and France before landing in England and, within three weeks, overcoming the superior forces of King Richard III to become King Henry VII. Not surprisingly, he never felt perfectly secure on his throne. Conspiracies throughout his reign endeavoured to topple him. Three of the most famous are those of Lambert Simnel, Perkin Warbeck, and Edward, Earl of Essex.

Lambert Simnel was probably the son of a joiner, or organ-maker from Oxford who was taken to Ireland when he was ten years old where he was proclaimed to be Edward, Duke of Warwick, son of George, Duke of Clarence (the brother of Edward IV and Richard III whose rebellious activities during Ed IV's reign got him killed in the Tower) despite the fact that Edward was still alive and living in captivity in the Tower of London (and despite the fact that Clarence had been attaindered following his rebellion so that his son had no legitimate claim on the throne). Little Lambert was crowned in Dublin Cathedral and then brought back to England with an army of Irish and mercenaries which was slaughtered at Stoke Field near Newark.  Lambert himself was captured, confessed, and given a job as a turnspit in the royal kitchens; he later became a falconer. The priest who allegedly groomed young Lambert is a rather mysterious character whose confession is recorded but who seems to have had no independent existence either before or afterwards.

Perkin Warbeck lasted longer. A native of Tournois he travelled, via Portugal, to Ireland. He was a good-looking lad and supposedly the spitting image of Richard, Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower, sons of Edward IV, who, it was said, had somehow escaped captivity although his older brother had been murdered. Claiming to be Richard IV, he gained support at the court of the French King Charles VIII and, after Charles had signed a peace treaty with Edward IV, the Burgundian court, before trying to land at Deal in Kent (the advance troops were massacred by locals) and then going, via Ireland, to James IV in Scotland where he got married and accompanied James IV on a border raid towards Berwick but getting cold feet and fleeing back to Edinburgh. He then attempted a landing in Cornwall and mustered rebels, getting as far as Taunton before again fleeing. He surrendered at Beaulieu Abbey and was kept under guard in Henry VII's court before again escaping and being recaptured and flung into the Tower before yet another conspiracy attempted to spring both him and Edward, Earl of Warwick (the real son of Clarence) which got them both executed.

This history focuses on these (and other) plots against Henry VII. There are lots of other details about him and his reign but they are not necessarily in chronological order nor are they very detailed so if you want to learn about him, go elsewhere. But it is well written and a good read and as informative as it can be given the scarcity of reliable sources. It even-handedly considers the possibility that the claimants were genuine rather than imposters. For example, Amin points out the the huge amount of detail in Warbeck's account of his early life compared to the vagueness of his account of how he escaped from the Tower probably means that he was an imposter but could be seen as a well-written but fictional 'manufactured' confession and the fact that it contains discrepancies with other sources could be explained by the vagueness of the times (eg over names) but might suggest fabrication. On the whole, though, he comes down on the 'imposter' side: 

• “This is perhaps the clearest indication of Henry VII’s certainty that Warbeck was not Richard of York, for is there was any doubt in the king’s mind that a legitimate rival to his throne still lived, his death would have been arranged ... by overturning Titulus Regis, the act Richard III passed who de-legitimised Elizabeth of York ... Henry had also re-legitimised her brothers.” (Ch 15)
• “If there is any one indication that Henry VII believed Warbeck and Simnel to be the imposters he claimed they were, then it is in the stark difference between his treatment of them and his treatment of the unfortunate Warwick - confined deep in the Tower, out of sight.” (Ch 16)

But the whole of this history is delightfully murky. For those like me, who are sceptical that Richard III murdered the Princes in the Tower (there is evidence to suggest that it might have been Henry VII), the widespread acceptance of the claims of Simnel and Warbeck suggests that some people, aristocrats as well as commoners, did not believe that the Princes in the Tower were dead. And the idea that a ten year old or a handsome Fleming lad could be touted as possible kings is delightfully romantic.

Good fun. March 2024; 344 pages

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"Hidden Hands" by Mary Wellesley

 A book about mediaeval manuscripts sounds dry as dust. I loved it. From the visceral description of how parchment is made from goatskin (including a photograph of the author having a go) to the wonderful two-language quotes from manuscript so you can try your hand at translating Old English and check how accurate you were, this book is a delight. I learned so much!

• Parchment was invented when a bibliophile ruler of Pergamon was unable to import papyrus from nearby Egypt: pergamenum is the Latin word from which we get parchment. (Prologue)
• The closely related vellum is technically made from calf-skin (veal) (Prologue)
• When making parchment the dried goatskins are stretched across a frame called a 'herse', a word related to the word 'hearse' which originally meant "a frame for carrying lighted tapers over a coffin". (Prologue)
• You can determine the social status of old skeletons by measuring the amount of radiocarbon in their bones because higher-status individual ate more fish (Ch 3)
• Manuscript artists were called limners short for luminers which meant illuminator from the Latin lumen meaning light. (Ch 4)
• Surreal monsters are a characteristic of the pictures on manuscripts dating from the Gothic period (1200 - 1350) (Ch 4)
• "The rise of universities in England from around the twelfth century created a demand for books outside of any specifically monastic context" (Ch 5)
• The word 'brethele' which means a worthless person or a pauper is related to the word 'brothel'. (Ch 5)
• The word 'author' is related to the word 'authority'. (Ch 7)

If I have a criticism it is that towards the end of the book, especially in chapter seven, the author drifts away from talking about the manuscripts and focuses on mediaeval authors, especially women, whom she regards as having been ignored by later generations of misogynist scholars. The blurb on the back cover describes this as "an insistent emphasis on the early role of women as authors and artists". But I was reading the book to learn about the texts, not to speculate on their producers.

But there is much else in this book to treasure, including fifty beautiful colour plates and a most wonderful glossary.

An interesting history of some fascinating artefacts.

Selected quotes:

• "Literary fame appears to be a fleeting thing." (Ch 6)

November 2023; 280 pages

This review was written by the author of

Bally and Bro, Motherdarling and The Kids of God

"The Song of Simon de Montfort" by Sophie Therese Ambler

I find the middle ages fascinating and this biography of Simon de Montfort is no exception. It covers, roughly, the period of rapid constitutional change from the issuing of Magna Carta, a document to protect the rights of barons and to limit kingship, via the first parliaments to the calling of the first parliament by Simon to include townspeople, ie the start of the House of Commons. The political theories are fascinating: Magna Carta applied to the 50% of the population who were 'freed' (ie not the serfs) whereas Simon's Provisions of Oxford applied to all people in the realm. For the first time royal officials became truly accountable for their actions and could be acted against by ordinary people in courts. The Franciscans and Dominicans were spreading like wildfire at this time, and learning was advancing rapidly (one of Simon's mentors was Robert Grosseteste, a seminal figure in the history of science, one of Simon's opponents founded Merton College in Oxford). Simon himself was an important figure who made what was almost certainly a love match with King Henry III's sister (to Henry's fury), ended up rebelling and defeating and capturing the King and his Heir, and was at one time offered the regency of France. Not all was progress. Henry III was the first king to order that Jews wore distinctive marks on their clothes and Simon encouraged the persecution and killing of Jews. But it was a key time in English history.

It was well written and very well explained and there were some very useful maps, but one of my criticisms is that the author expects you to remember which year you are in. She gives dates such as '9 June' (for the Oxford Parliament) but if I have forgotten the year I have to move back through the pages until I can find the year mentioned; in this case it was (by implication) in the previous chapter. There are also occasions when people are mentioned and more could have been said. For example, one of the magnates supporting SdM at Oxford is listed as "Hugh Despenser"; what is not mentioned is that he is the father of High Despenser the Elder and the grandfather of Hugh Despenser the Younger who was a controversial favourite of Edward II. Why did I have to to look this up on wikipedia?

Selected quotes:

• “The worst sort of decision was one made behind closed doors. King John had been guilty of this, and it had been a major cause of resentment amongst his nobles. ... It was expected that great matters of state, affecting the whole kingdom, would be discussed in a formal setting.” (Ch 3)
• "Henry had begun to seize estates from subjects simply because he wished to - the sort of action that could see a king labelled a tyrant.” (Ch 3)
• “Suffering is to the righteous what pruning is to vines, what cultivation is to untilled land, what washing is to dirty garments, what a healing but bitter drink is to those who are ill, what shaping with a hammer is to vessels that are not yet fully moulded, what proving in fire is to gold.” (from a letter of Robert Grosseteste to SdM; quoted in Ch 4)
• “Trial by ordeal was in effect banned by Pope Innocent III at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, on the basis that it did not work.” (Ch 7, footnote).
• “The barons ... were seeking to protect lesser folk ... from the iniquities of royal justice. But what is most remarkable is how they were also determined to protect lesser folk even against baronial injustices.” (Ch 9)
• “The kings of England had carried a dragon banner perhaps since the Anglo-Saxon age ... By the thirteenth century, the raising of the dragon standard carried a particular meaning: no enemy was to be spared.” (Ch 13)

September 2022; 339 pages

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II! by Paul Doherty

 Isabella was the daughter of King Philip IV 'le Bel' of France who was married to Edward, the first Prince of Wales, the son of King Edward I of England, as a way of ensuring peace between the two countries. They were wed in Boulogne. But Edward became Edward II and he was a weak King. He had favourites. His first was Piers Gaveston. This was probably a homosexual relationship, though of course that can't be proved, and Isabella seems to have tolerated it; Edward was providing her with children. But the Barons hated Gaveston as a Gascon upstart and rebelled against Edward until he agreed to exile Piers and when Piers returned they rebelled again and assassinated Piers.  Edward then took another favourite, Hugh Le Spencer, who acted as a gangland boss, greedily laying his hands on all the property he could and flouting the rule of law, both terrorising and alienating the barons. Isabella hated him; Doherty suggests this was because Edward and Hugh insisted on a wife-swap. Eventually Isabella went away to France, where she met rebel baron and exile Roger Mortimer, and soon persuaded Edward to send to her their son Edward, the crown prince. Armed thus, and having hot the useful county of Hainault on side by promising that Philippa, the daughter of the count, would marry her son Edward, she and Mortimer landed an invasion force and defeated and captured Edward II and Hugh. The latter was horribly executed and Edward was deposed and jailed in Berkeley. The story is that he there met his end when a red-hot poker was thrust into his anus, as played on stage in Edward II by Christopher Marlowe. Isabella and Mortimer were, is anyhting, greedier than Hugh Le Spenser, and almost as ruthless, but three years later the now 18 year old Edward III staged a coup and won his own kingdom back; Mortimer was executed and Isabella sent into retirement.

And then rumours started that Edward II was not dead but had escaped Berkeley Castle and was not living abroad. These are the rumours that Doherty, working sometimes from previously unpublished chronicles, dissects, deciding, in the end, that there is some evidence that the body buried in Gloucester Cathedral is not actually Edward II.

The author has written six non-fiction history books and over one hundred (100) (!!!!!) historical novels. He has also been a headteacher for thirty years. How?

Selected quotes:

• “Once Edward II had been transferred to Berkeley, both before and after his death, no one was allowed to see him.” (225)

July 2022; 236 pages

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God