A Burnable Book

Review of Bruce Holsinger's novel "A Burnable Book" by Washington Post fiction editor Ron Charles:

Forget Tom Cruise scaling the Burj Khalifa tower; the hot new super-agent is 14th-century writer Geoffrey Chaucer. Thrill to his daring Middle English rimes! Gasp at his mighty scansion! Here in the pages of Bruce Holsinger’s medieval adventure, that randy old poet finally gets the “Mission Impossible” cameo he deserves.

“The Burnable Book” takes place in 1385, when the walled city of London is still finding its footing after the Peasants’ Revolt four years earlier. As the Hundred Years’ War drags on, young Richard II faces myriad threats inside and outside his country. Who knows when fresh blood may flow between the Earl of Oxford and the king’s uncle, John of Gaunt?

The intrigue opens during a dark night on the Moorfields. A cloaked man is beating a young woman for information. Whatever he wants to know, she won’t tell him. She screams out two lines of an allegorical poem just before he finishes her off with a hammer. This doesn’t say much for the efficacy of poetry as a defense against blunt-force trauma, but it gets the novel off to a rousing start.

I had this one on my TBR list - and after reading this review, the book has moved ever closer to the top.  I am looking forward to getting my hands on a copy and settling in for a journey into " the grimy underbelly of London".

New Poems by Sappho

From the Guardian:

Sappho is one of the most elusive and mysterious – as well as best-loved – of ancient Greek poets. Only one of her poems, out of a reputed total of nine volumes' worth, survives absolutely intact. Otherwise, she is known by fragments and shards of lines – and still adored for her delicate outpourings of love, longing and desire.

But now, two hitherto unknown works by the seventh-century lyricist of Lesbos have been discovered. One is a substantially complete work about her brothers; another, an extremely fragmentary piece apparently about unrequited love.

The poems came to light when an anonymous private collector in London showed a piece of papyrus fragment to Dr Dirk Obbink, a papyrologist at Oxford University.

Read Poem Here => http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/30/read-sappho-new-unknown-poem-papyrus-classical

Sappho's poems, which were lost from the manuscript tradition and were not collated and copied by medieval monks as were so many surviving ancient texts, have been preserved by two main means: either through quotation by other authors (often as examples of particular syntactical points by ancient grammarians) or through the discovery of fragments written on ancient papyrus. There is hope yet for more poems to come to light, preserved in the Egyptian sands.

Obit: Thomas F Mayer

From Quad City Times:

Thomas F. Mayer, 62, died Monday, Jan. 20, 2014, at the Clarissa C. Cook Hospice House in Bettendorf, after a year-and-a half-long struggle with cancer. He was born Sept. 10, 1951, in McLeansboro, Ill.

Tom was professor emeritus of history and an internationally known scholar who taught for most of his life at Augustana College in Rock Island. He received his master's degree in medieval history at Michigan State University and his Ph.D. in Tudor/Stuart history at the University of Minnesota.

As the author of 15 books, he wrote a study of the early 16th century political thinker, Thomas Starkey; a biography of Starkey's patron, Reginald Pole, who missed becoming pope by one vote; and a trilogy on Galileo's trial and the Roman Inquisition. His second volume on the Inquisition was published just before his death, and another book on Galileo's trial will be published posthumously. He also edited five volumes of Pole's correspondence.

The Ruin - A Word From The Author

I posed a couple of questions to John in relation to his book "The Ruin" which I shall share with you all now.

=== === ===

Following up on Melisende's review of my novel The Ruin, there were some questions she raised with me.

The first was why I chose the mid-5th century as my setting, when the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain began in earnest and the post-Roman civilisation was in its death throes. As Melisende mentioned to me, there is a pretty near endless supply of fiction set in the supposed Arthurian era around the turn of the sixth century, and that's partly why I chose the period fifty years earlier. 

Vortigern's era has some of the same advantages as the Arthurian period (dearth of primary sources, wealth of legendary material) while the disadvantages (done to death by fiction, rendered meaningless by pseudohistory) aren't quite so severe. There is simply more room to develop a story without straying into areas that get pillaged for new material every year by every conceivable medium, in fiction or non-fiction, whether anyone is paying attention or not.

That said, there are already some great fictional pieces that deal with broadly the same period - The Little Emperors by Alfred Duggan, and 'Hun' by Anthony Burgess (this is a novella in a collection called The Devil's Mode). Well worth checking out.

Melisende also asked why I didn't use the more familiar forms of some of the names in dealing with historical figures. There were a couple of reasons for this. 

The first was to avoid familiarity dictating the reader's perceptions, especially for readers who might be familiar with some of the historical figures involved. You may already know the story of St Patrick, for instance - how he was taken into slavery by Irish raiders at the age of sixteen and later became a missionary. In The Ruin he is known by his birth name, partly because he adopted the name 'Patricius' later in life, and partly to preserve the sense of danger when the raiders land near his home.

The other reason was because a lot of the names have come down to us through different linguistic routes, and they often just look odd on the page together - the Latin 'Eldolus' and 'Pascentius' alongside the Middle Welsh 'Amllawdd', 'Ynyr' and 'Glywys', for example. So I did a bit of linguistic detective work. I could explain why the form 'Vertigern' is more historically correct than the familiar 'Vortigern', but I'm afraid it would bore any sane person to tears. The same goes for the place names.

Melisende asked if there might be a sequel on the cards, and to be honest I think it's unlikely for the time being. I have a pretty clear idea in my head of how a continuation might go, just in case there was some demand for it one day, but for the moment I'm just concentrating on trying new things.

JOHN SAWNEY
Website: http://jacksawney.wordpress.com/

Twitter: @JohnSawney 

Review - The Ruin

"A gritty tale of Dark Age Britain, where heroes are few and the lives of thousands hinge upon the whims of greedy and unscrupulous men. In fifth century Britannia .... Eiteol, a cloddish nobleman, manages to save the dictator Vertigern from an assassination attempt and the pair must flee for their lives …...."

The story is that of the early invasions of Britain by the Saxons, Angles & Jutes, during the 5th century. It is a time of chaos and ever-wavering loyalties and the leaders fight each other and themselves for power and control - and prominent is the backdrop of the story of the Night of the Long Knives

Here are names that may be tantalizingly familiar to those whose forte is the early Anglo-Saxon history of Britain: Horsa, Hengist, Vortigern (here called Vertigern), one Eldol (called Eiteol), Gildas (Glivis), and Arthur (called Ambris, and finally Flavius Ambrosius Aurelinus). Many other of the “founding” Saxons, Angles & Jutes are here in some form as are the missionary figures who feature in the early christianisation of Britain (including St Germanus).

It is a fast paced story – though those unfamiliar with this period may find the going a little hard (ie: keeping track of the main characters) but there is enough action to keep the reader entertained.

This story is a glimpse into the past, although I wonder whether the author considers that there is more to tell …. 

For more about Vortigern visit: Vortigern Studies
For more on the author visit: John Sawney

January 2014 Arrivals

January has begun rather well for the Library - December's order has arrived safe and sound (see: December Additions to the Library) and I also picked up John Curran's "Agatha Christie's Murder in the Making" - a companion guide to his "Agatha Christie's Secret Notebook" - and a nice little satire called "A Game of Groans - A Parody of Slush and Soot" by George RR Washington (can't think what series of books this could be taking off!!!).

January's order has gone in - see below for details:

• Women in Russian History - From the Tenth to the Twentieth Century by: Natalia Pushkareva, ed. & trans. by Eve Levin 
• Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy by Jacob Burckhardt, trans by:  S.G.C. Middlemore 
• Chronicles by Jean Froissart
• Two Lives of Charlemagne by Einhard, and Notker the Stammerer 
• Vendetta: High Art and Low Cunning at the Birth of the Renaissance by Hugh Bicheno
• Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses by Sarah Gristwood
• The Crusader States by Malcolm Barber
• Power and Border Lordship in Medieval France: The County of the Perche, 1000-1226 (Royal Historical Society Studies in History New) by Kathleen Thompson
• The Life and Times of Geoffroi IV De Rancon Seigneur De Taillebourg, Gencay and Rancon by Roger Fisher
• The Song of the Norman Conquest: A New Translation of the Earliest Account of the Norman Conquest (by Kathleen Tyson

I also dropped in to a quaint little second-hand book shop today (it is rarely open but the range of subject matter is too good to pass up) and picked up:

• Egil's Saga - trans. by Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwwards
• The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan (love the movie of this)
• Historical Detectives edited by Mike Ashley (nice collective of historical fiction detectives)
• Complete Plays of Christopher Marlowe - nice little 1947 hardback edition

In addition, I have decided it is time to catalogue the contents of the Library - this comes hard on the heels of me ordering the same book twice (and not for the first time!).  And with so many books sharing the same title, it can be a bit of a muddle sorting out which one I have and which ones I don't. And in between reading, reviewing and researching, I might just find time to post a blog or two.

So happy reading to all and hope this year provides you all with some interesting reads!

Fore-Edge Painting On Books

Amazing article on the use of books as a medium for art from Viralnova:

Guess what: your copy of the Canterbury Tales may actually be more exciting than you think (sorry, Mr. Chaucer). It’s very possible that your battered, old copy of the book contains some fore-edge painting, which is an illustration or painting that is hidden on the edge of the pages of the book. The technique allegedly dates back to the 1650s and we have no idea why people went through the trouble of painting on their old works of literature, but thanks to Colossal, now we know they are there.

Review: Granada Gold

Armageddon falls on my twelfth birthday:

I see my Christian parents conquer Moorish Granada.

I am Juana Trastamara, part-English, heiress of the Alhambra,

and future troubled Queen of Spain.

From SA Carney's website:

Granada Gold is based on the true story of young Juana Trastamara. During the Granada War, she befriends Lord Edmund Sales, commander of the English longbow archers fighting for Christian Spain. In 1492, Juana’s parents – Queen Isabel and King Fernando – defeat the Moors, expel the Jews, and send Columbus sailing across the Atlantic. Juana’s arranged marriage to the womanising Habsburg duke, ‘Phillipe the Handsome’, is a personal disaster. Trapped in an increasingly abusive marriage, Juana has only one place to turn: England. Through Lord Sales, Juana meets Tudor King Henry VII, who falls deeply in love with her. The stage is set for international royal passion, betrayal, and death.

I really liked this fast-paced snapshot into part of the life of Juana "la loca" - or Juana / Joanna the Mad, Queen of Castile as she later became known.

The period covered is from late 1491 and finishes in December 1500.  Our story sees the fall of Granada to the Christian Monarchs - Isabella and Ferdinand; a curse; the expulsion of the Jews; the voyages of Columbus; family tragedy; and the betrothal and marriage of Juana to Philip the Handsome of Burgundy.  And it is from this time in Juana's life (ie: her marriage to Philip) that we begin to see the background to the stories of her madness.

As mentioned, it is a short tale, narrated by Juana that will keep you fascinated with each turn of the page.

For more on Juana / Joanna:

Sister Queens by Julia Fox
Juana the Mad: Sovereignty and Dynasty in Renaissance Europe By Bethany Aram
Juana of Castile: History and Myth of the Mad Queen edited by María A. Gómez
That Other Juana: Queen Juana I of Spain (Juana la Loca) by Linda Carlino
The Last Queen by CW Gortner

History Extra - Book Reviews

I was sent this link via a history forum that I am a member of, and thought it would also interest readers - Book Reviews | History Extra.

These reviews cover a wide range of history topics and is part of the BBC History Magazine website.  The hardest part will be deciding what to include on your shopping list!