Three Medieval Queens by Lisa Benz St. John

This book is an innovative study offering the first examination of how three fourteenth-century English queens, Margaret of France, Isabella of France, and Philippa of Hainault, exercised power and authority. It frames its analysis around four major themes: gender; status; the concept of the crown; and power and authority.

The King’s Bishops by E. Crosby

This is the first detailed comparative study of patronage as an instrument of power in the relations between kings and bishops in England and Normandy after the Conquest. Esteemed medievalist Everett U. Crosby considers new perspectives of medieval state-building and the vexed relations between secular and ecclesiastical authority. 

Queenship and Voice in Medieval Northern Europe by William Layher

This book examines female lordship and the power of the political voice in medieval Northern Europe, focusing on three prominent, foreign-born queens of medieval Scandinavia - Agnes of Denmark (d. 1304), Eufemia of Norway (d. 1312) and Margareta of Denmark/Sweden (d. 1412) - who acted as cultural mediators and initiators of political change.

Review: Trace Elements by Donna Leon

Synopsis: When Dottoressa Donato calls the Questura to report that a dying patient at the hospice Fatebenefratelli wants to speak to the police, Commissario Guido Brunetti and his colleague, Claudia Griffoni, waste no time in responding.

“They killed him. It was bad money. I told him no,” Benedetta Toso gasps the words about her recently-deceased husband, Vittorio Fadalto. Even though he is not sure she can hear him Brunetti softly promises he and Griffoni will look into what initially appears to be a private family tragedy. They discover that Fadalto worked in the field collecting samples of contamination for a company that measures the cleanliness of Venice’s water supply and that he had died in a mysterious motorcycle accident. Distracted briefly by Vice Questore Patta’s obsession with youth crime in Venice, Brunetti is bolstered once more by the remarkable research skills of Patta’s secretary, Signora Elettra Zorzi. Piecing together the tangled threads, in time Brunetti comes to realize the perilous meaning in the woman’s accusation and the threat it reveals to the health of the entire region.

Veneto is the eighth largest region in Italy. This region encompasses the provinces of Belluno, Padova, Rovigo, Treviso, Venezia, Verona and Vicenza.  The capital of the Veneto is Venice, world-famous for its canals. It is built on an archipelago of 117 islands formed by 177 canals in a shallow lagoon. The islands on which the city is built are connected by 455 bridges. In the old centre, the canals serve the function of roads, and almost every form of transport is on water or on foot. 

A police station in Italy is called a 'Questura', and there is one located in each of the 103 provincial capitals of Italy.  There are five national forces:

Polizia di Stato: civilian police force primarily responsible for the maintainance of public order and security, under the control of the Department of Public Security
Guardia di Finanza: under the control of the Minister of Economy and Finance. It is responsible for all crimes involving finance, such as: bribery and corruption, money laundering, credit card fraud, cybercrime, and counterfeiting. It also shares responsibility for border controls, immigration and smuggling
Arma dei Carabinieri: controlled by the Ministry of Defence, they have both military and civil responsibilities. they operate the 'Specialist Mobile Unit Division', which is based in Treviso and is responsible for public order, emergency situations and military activity overseas, as well as dealing with the mafia and terrorism
Polizia Penitenziaria: of which we are not concerned about in this particular story.
Corpo Forestale dello Stato: responsible for protecting Italy's natural resources, the environment, countryside and ecosystems, forestry (and now part of the Carabinieri)

Commissario Guido Brunetti, is a police commissioner who serves under a rather pompous Patta, the Vice-Questore. Patta’s secretary, Signorina Elettra Zorzi and Sergente Vianello assist Brunetti with research he needs in order to solve the crimes that occur in and around Venice. Signorina Elettra is considered “well connected,” and is arguably the most helpful to Brunetti regarding research that is performed for his investigations; Sergente Vianello is his “right hand man,” who is pleasant and sharp-witted.  In this episode, Brunetti is ably assisted by Neopolitan newcomer, Commissario Claudia Griffoni.

Donna Leon fills her novel with all aspects of every day life in Venice, Italy, while also exposing the unpleasant, rough side of crime and its components.   In this instance, we are introduced to the darker side of the tourist trade - pickpockets.  Many people are openly hostile to the Roma (or Gypsies as there were once referred to), accusing them of avoiding work in favour of theft and other crimes.  This is one of the side issues Brunetti must deal with.

The two most concerning environmental issues in Venice are applicable to the waterways. Pollution from heavy industries on the nearby mainland and shipping, congestion from unregulated boat traffic, and damage caused to waterside apartments and other buildings by the waves impacting the building foundations.  Though for the reader, the lamentations of excessive tourism to the crumbling La Serenissima and the oppressive heat, are not the crimes Brunetti is charged with solved.

I was drawn to this police procedural as it was set in Italy, particularly Venice, for which I have some affinity for. This was the last in a long line of Brunetti novels from Donna Leon - and the very first that I have read although I have two in the series sitting on my bookshelf, as yet unread. Whilst wonderfully descriptive, the pace was rather slow moving - something to do with the heat perhaps - though does finally pick up as the pieces are moved into place.

Not having read any in the series did not detract from my reading, though for the sake of character development and continuity, I would suggest following this series from the beginning. As I already have a couple, I may invest in the whole series myself.

Review: Answer in the Negative by Henrietta Hamilton

Synopsis: At The National Press Archives on Fleet Street, archive assistant Frank Morningside has become the recipient of nasty poison pen letters and cruel practical jokes. With Frank disliked by many, his superior Toby Lorn is concerned and calls on his friends Sally and Johnny Heldar, two amateur sleuths, to investigate. Posing as researchers, Sally and her husband Johnny go undercover to scout out the myriad of suspects at the archive. But just as the Heldars begin to make some progress, Morningside is found dead, bludgeoned by a box of glass negatives, in his office. When another suspicious death occurs within the company, the Heldars fear they may be in over their heads. 

What readers need to get their heads around first and foremost is that 1950s Britain was vastly different from today.

The major cities, and particularly in London, there were vacant bomb-sites, unrepaired houses, temporary prefabs and gardens turned into allotments. War damage and a scarcity of manpower and materials created a serious urban housing problem - and the population began to spread out of the city limits, there was talk of demolishing the slums and rebuilding. The continuance of rationing encouraged people to produce their own food in back gardens and allotments. There were also severe shortages of most consumer products, which prompted the continuance of the wartime ‘make-do-and-mend’ culture. 

At this time, Britain was the most urbanised and industrialised country in the world and consequently one of the most polluted. The reliance on coal for both residential heating and energy generation resulted in chronic atmospheric pollution which was harmful both to people and to buildings. The London smog of 1952 lasted five days and killed more than 4,000 people from heart and lung diseases. In industrial areas, factories polluted not only the air but also the waterways, while mines and spoil tips scarred the landscape.

The 1950s were a golden age for public transport - buses, trams or trolleys, trains and bicycles were the most common forms of transport; few owned a car.

Public attitudes towards sex and marriage still remained strongly conservative. British society was still strongly influenced by war, with the return of many serviceman and  as a consequence there were far fewer women were in paid employment than today. Women were generally not expected to have proper careers, but to seek short-term employment before they married and had children. After the war, many young women gave up paid work and raised a family at home.

The 1951 census showed that only 3 per cent of the population had been born overseas and the great majority of the immigrants were white and European. The largest immigrant group – over half a million – were the Irish - and this is one of the themes running through this book.

The British media in 1950s was still dominated by the press. The national newspapers – all published around Fleet Street – were dominated by autocratic press barons and restrictive print unions. Newspapers were a far more important source of news than they are today.

So this then is our setting for this cosy mystery.  Today's readers might find some of the themes running through this as a little dated - but that is what you get when reading something that is over 60 years old and written at a specific time in history.

This isn't the first in the series but there is enough contained within to ensure that you aren't completely left in the dark.   However if you are interested in in reading more, these are the books in order of publishing:

The Two Hundred Ghost (1956); Death At One Blow (1957); Answer In The Negative (1959); and A Night To Die (1959)

I was rather intrigued about finding out more about this author, however, she herself is rather an enigma.  I could find nothing about her except the following blurb:

Hamilton name was a pseudonym for Hester Denne Shepherd. She was born in 1920 in Dundee and went to St Hugh’s College, Oxford, where she studied modern languages. In War World Two she served in the wrens and after the war she worked in a London bookshop for a while. She died in 1995.

If you are looking to read something out of your standard comfort zone and for an afternoon's escapism, look no further than this series.

Medieval Bruges c850-1550 by Andrew Brown & Jan Dumolyn

Bruges was undoubtedly one of the most important cities in medieval Europe. Bringing together specialists from both archaeology and history, this 'total' history presents an integrated view of the city's history from its very beginnings, tracing its astonishing expansion through to its subsequent decline in the sixteenth century. 

The authors' analysis of its commercial growth, industrial production, socio-political changes, and cultural creativity is grounded in an understanding of the city's structure, its landscape and its built environment. 

More than just a biography of a city, this book places Bruges within a wider network of urban and rural development and its history in a comparative framework, thereby offering new insights into the nature of a metropolis.

Swordsmen by Roger B. Manning

Based upon a wide range of historical and literary sources, Swordsmen is a scholarly study of the military experiences of peers and gentlemen from the British Isles who volunteered to fight in the religious and dynastic wars of mainland Europe from the English intervention in the Dutch war of independence in 1585 to the death of the soldier-king William III in 1702. 

This apprenticeship in arms exposed these aristocrats to the chivalric revival, the military revolution and the values of neostoicism, and revived the martial ethos of the English aristocracy and reinvigorated the martial traditions of the Irish and Scots. This remilitarization of aristocratic culture and society was completed by 1640, and provided numerous experienced military officers for the various armies of the civil wars and, subsequently, for the embryonic British army after William III committed the Three Kingdoms to the armed struggle against Louis XIV during the Nine Years War.

Service in mainland European armies also exposed swordsmen from the British Isles to a fully developed cult of duelling which hampered official efforts to divert aristocratic aggression from feuding and private war to the more rational military and political objectives of the modern state, subverted military discipline and delayed the process of professionalization of the officer corps of the British army.

Review: The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo

Synopsis: In the winter of 1937, the village of Okamura is abuzz with excitement over the forthcoming wedding of a son of the grand Ichiyanagi family. But amid the gossip over the approaching festivities, there is also a worrying rumour – it seems a sinister masked man has been asking questions about the Ichiyanagis around the village.

Then, on the night of the wedding, the Ichiyanagi family are woken by a terrible scream, followed by the sound of eerie music – death has come to Okamura, leaving no trace but a bloody samurai sword, thrust into the pristine snow outside the house. The murder seems impossible, but amateur detective Kosuke Kindaichi is determined to get to the bottom of it.

This setting, in 1930s Japan, sees a seemingly impossible double murder committed on the night of a wedding. Whilst the police investigate, one of the wedding guests calls in the services of renown private detective Kosuke Kindaichi who is described as ".. ungainly [in] manner, wild, [with] dishevelled hair and a stammer..." and man who ".. enjoyed putting on a show ..". All of this conceals razor sharp deduction skills that enable Kindaichi to solve the seemingly impossible crimes.

As we are propelled along with the investigation, Kindaichi seemingly takes over and many clues come to light and mysteries are solved. The final denoument occurs about three quarters of the way in and is covered off in the last few chapters.

Another theme running through this book was that of the class system that dominated Japanese society and culture at the time. There are many references to the feudal Edo society with its strict social stratification, customs, and regulations. Japanese people were assigned into a hierarchy of social classes based on the Four Occupations that were hereditary. The Emperor of Japan and the kuge were the official ruling class of Japan but had no power. The Shōgun of the Tokugawa clan, the daimyō, and their retainers of the samurai class administered Japan through their system of domains. Bu the majority of Edo society were commoners divided into peasant, craftsmen, and merchant classes, and various "untouchable" groups. 

At this time, Japan, like the rest of the world, was coming out of a depression and was becoming militarised as Japanese politics was gradually overtaken by the military with the invasion of Manchuria (1931) and the Japan-China War (1937) the most notable events. Many incidents occurred that undermined the government (coups and assassinations) as ultra-nationalist groups within the military sought to unite the nation under the emperor and introduce economic and social reforms. One by one, new measures were introduced to control and mobilize people, enterprises and resources. Most Japanese firms remained privately-owned but were heavily regulated to contribute to the war effort. Toward the end of the war, in order to boost heavy industries, consumption was greatly squeezed and light industries were suppressed. The textile industry (previously the leading industry of Japan) was virtually eliminated. The people were forced to live without a new supply of clothes and footwear. Steel products in structures and households were stripped as the metal source for building more airplanes and ships. External trade had all but ceased. In the end, the Japanese economy collapsed and defeat was inevitable. 

I am making a point to read more books that have been translated from their original language - and not just detective fiction. In this instance, I was drawn to the "locked door" mystery and was interested to see how this was interpreted.  What I also enjoyed was the reflective beginnings to this tale, told ten years after the fact and utilising facts garnered from the original investigation - so a little bit of back and forth in the timeline. 

For Yokomizo's detective, Kindaichi, this is one of many outings, in fact, there are 80 books featuring the popular detective, Kosuke Kindaichi. Hopefully, we will see many more translated and republished.

Book Bag: ‘Female Husbands: A Trans History’ by Jen Manion

From Daily Hampshire Gazette: 

In her new book, Jen Manion notes that there’s a tendency today to think transgender people are somehow brand new, or that gender was always stable until now. But in “Female Husbands: A Trans History,” Manion examines cases as far back as nearly 300 years in which people who were born biologically female presented themselves as men and married other women.

As she writes in a preface, “female husbands” was a term “that persistently circulated throughout Anglo-American culture for nearly 200 years to describe people who defied categorization…. Female husbands — people assigned female who transed gender, lived as men, and married women — were true queer pioneers.”

“Female Husbands” also offers a broader analysis of how social, economic and political developments influenced popular attitudes toward, and the treatment of, these unconventional couples from the 1740s to the 1920s. More widespread gender-nonconformity, and the emergence of women’s rights and queer subcultures, led to the end of the “female husband” moniker in the first half of the 20th century, Manion notes.