Book Reviews
-
The other talents of Sir Clements Markham
Abyssinia, Antarctic, Arctic, Edward VI, explorers, India, India Office, Inland Revenue, James Gairdner, Lazarille de Tormes, Peru, Richard III, Robert Falcon Scott, Royal Geographical Society, Royal Navy, Shackleton, Sir Clements Markham, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir John Franklin, Sir Peter Scott, Spain, translationTo historians, Ricardians in particular, Clements Markham is best known as the writer who built on the earlier research of Horace Walpole and others to rehabilitate the last Plantagenet during the Edwardian era. In this capacity, his rivalry with James Gairdner is legendary and he wrote a biography of Edward VI, however Markham was a…
-
I enjoy reading novels about the life and times of Richard, nore than anything else, but sometimes there is not much new available about him, so I turn to other eras. I am gradually learning a little more about history other than the Wars of the Roses and sometimes I uncover real gems. I have…
-
Here’s Legends an interesting book of Leicestershire folk tales for children. It includes the intriguing story of the griffin of Griffydam. Oh, and it also relates the “legends” about King Richard III !!
-
Finally my new novel, Distant Echoes, is available on Kindle for only £2.50 ($2.99 on Amazon.com). The paperback is imminent too! It was inspired by lyrics from a song, Sheriff Hutton, by The Legendary Ten Seconds. Here is the synopsis of the story: A new, innovative invention. The DNA of a mediaeval king. Put them…
-
There are few more fertile sources for intricate information about the medieval past (and other areas too, of course) than theses that have been published online. A prime website for these is White Rose eTheses on line, of which I have written before. I am mentioning the site again now because of finding a particularly absorbing 2016 thesis by Anna Maria…
-
Given her huge notoriety at the time, it’s odd that Edward III’s mistress, Alice Perrers, has (as far as I can ascertain) only garnered one biography. This is Lady of the Sun by F George Kay, 1966 (and seemingly never reprinted). There are no surviving contemporary likenesses of Alice, nor even a description of her.…
-
Having just acquired Nigel Saul’s For Honour and Fame, about chivalry in England from 1066 to 1500, one of my first actions was (as always!) to go to the pages that refer to Richard III. Well, it’s second nature to any Ricardian, I think. So, on page 279, I read: “. . .A generation later…
-
Here is the front cover of the next book, about Edward IV’s chief mistress, from Britain’s busiest historian , to be published by Pen and Sword on 31 July. I wonder which surprises he will have for us this time?
