Book Reviews
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Murrey and Blue interviews Michael K. Jones
“The King’s Mother”, “Tudors”, Aquitaine, BBC History Magazine, Castile, Chandos Herald, chivalry, Crecy, David Baldwin, Edmund Duke of Somerset, Edward III, Edward the Black Prince, Enrique of Trastamara, France, Froissart, Henry of Knighton, Henry VI, Henry VII, Hundred Years War, interviews, Jean II, John Gower, John of Gaunt, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Lancastrians, Lionel of Antwerp, Lords Appellant, Malcolm Underwood, Michael K Jones, Military tactics, Mortimers, Najera, Pedro I, Poitiers, Polydore Vergil, propaganda, Richard Duke of York, Richard II, Richard III, siege of Limoges, St. John’s College Cambridge, Thomas Brinton, Thomas Walsingham, tyranny, Wars of the Roses, Westminster Hall, YorkistsWhich of the Black Prince’s military achievements is the most impressive and why? The main attraction in writing a biography of the Black Prince was to bring to life his martial exploits, for Edward of Woodstock, the eldest son of Edward III, captured the imagination of fourteenth century Europe. The chronicler Jean Froissart described him…
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I was privileged to be able to help proof-read a copy of Alex Marchant’s new children’s novel about a twelve-year-old boy in the service of Richard, Duke of Gloucester and I was delighted to find that it was well-written, engaging and – wait for it! – pro-Richard! At last we have a novel for children…
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A great review of Matthew Lewis’s new book: The Survival of the Princes in the Tower
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This link is to an article about an author named Avi, whose latest children’s book, The Player King, is a novel about Lambert Simnel. Available at Amazon. I have no idea whether it is pro or anti Richard, but the fact that the blurb mentions “the deceitful Earl of Lincoln” doesn’t bode well. If Lincoln…
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The Survival of the Princes in the Tower has finally been released. There was a delay in some copies reaching readers in September, so by way of apology I blogged a little extract which can be found below. I also wrote a piece for On the Tudor Trail which was quite well received and can…
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Eleanor of Aquitaine was the daughter of a provincial Duke in France. Twice she married Kings and had many children, although she outlived most of them and several grandchildren, living into her ninth decade, suffering annulment and internal exile. Two of her sons became King of England and, through John “Sansterre”, she is the ancestress of…
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Almost every Ricardian knows about the famous novels ‘The Sunne in Splendour’ by Sharon Penman and ‘We Speak No Treason’ by Rosemary Hawley Jarman. Most know Majorie Bowen’s ‘Dickon’, Carleton’s ‘Under The Hog,’ and ‘The White Boar’ by Marian Palmer. More recent readers who are discovering the world of kindle probably have seen Meredith Whitford’s…
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I wrote a short story a couple of years ago, one of the first ‘Ricardian’ works I had ever written. So, when a best-selling Amazon author, Dan Alatorre (whose blog I follow), announced he wanted to make an anthology of stories from a variety of authors, all on a ‘scary’ theme, I remembered this story…
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This fictional tale for younger readers, by Stuart Hill, relates the story of the young Richard III and his lifelong friend Francis Lovell when, as boys, they trained to be knights at the castle of the Earl of Warwick, now known as the “Kingmaker”. I’m told it’s a charming story that introduces a new young audience…
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At last, another serious writer who champions Richard. Jason Goetz has produced a very even-handed account of how Richard’s dastardly reputation has come down through the ages…and he takes Richard’s side against the ten-times-more-dastardly Tudors. Goetz has written a series called Essays on the Classics! (The Great Books Revival), in which one of the people…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 