50 Great Ghost Stories, ed. John Canning, Odham’s Books, reprinted 1968. (No ISBN)

Occasionally, one finds matters Ricardian unlikely sources.  50 Great Ghost Stories, edited by John Canning, has two stories by Vida Derry and Frank Usher.

In Derry’s ‘Child Ghosts’, she mentions the Princes in the Tower. She does not accuse Richard, but relates the story that Tyrell was responsible for arranging their deaths according to the narrative of Thomas More. She does not say that More’s work is ‘gospel’ as far as Richard is concerned.

She finds it worth noting that the examination of the bones in 1933 was completed in five days whereas the examination of the remains of Anne Mowbray were still at work three months after they were found, despite protests by Lord Mowbray.

In Usher’s ‘Hauntings Royal’, the first paragraph names Henry VIII, according to popular opinion, as one of the arch-villains of history.  He deals at length with the alleged hauntings by Anne Boleyn, mention the elusive ghosts of Jane Seymour, Sybil Penn (Edward VI’s nurse) and Catherine Howard.  He refers to Henry as “the professional widower” and mentions more than once that unlike his victims, Henry rests peacefully in his grave. The following pages detail more executions and Henry is referred to as the “arch-villain of all these beheadings.”

When discussing the execution of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, he states “she had a better title to the throne than Henry himself, as his father Henry VII having usurped the throne from its lawful inheritors.”

Ectoplasmic manifestations aside, the book contains many well-known and not so well known ghost stories, and although not a believer, I would still prefer to have a strong light on, and my chair against the wall when reading The Brown Lady of Raynham.

50 Great Ghost Stories, ed. John Canning, Odham’s Books, reprinted 1968. (No ISBN)

For a limited time, Loyalty Binds Me, my second book about Richard III in the 21st-century, is available for free from Amazon, Apple iTunes, Barnes & Nobel , and on Smashwords in all formats.

Although it’s the second book in the series, it was written to be enjoyed as a stand-alone novel.

Free (normally $2.99)/Recommended by Midwest Book Reviews and a review on this site.

Should the price on Smashwords not appear as “Free”, readers who will be getting the download from Smashwords, please contact me (on: u2nohoo”AT”gmail.com) and I’ll send you a coupon for 100% off the SW price.

P.S. My first book This Time was nominated General Fiction Finalist of 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards

Book Review:  Loyalty Binds Me

Joan Szechtman, Loyalty Binds Me.  Star Publish, 2011.  ISBN 978-1935188254 (also available for Kindle and other ebook readers)

Loyalty Binds Me is a worthy sequel to Richard III in This Time by Joan Szechtman.  Richard visits the UK with his modern day family to pay his respects at the grave of his first wife, Anne Neville.  Basically as soon as he arrives he gets arrested for the murder of his nephews.  However, it soon turns out that this is just a smokescreen to get hold of him and that there is more to the case than meets the eye.

It is a fast-paced story and Richard as well as the reader can never be sure who his supporters are, but in the end we realise who is bound by loyalty.  Loyalty is – as the title indicates – an important theme in this novel.  Given the nature of the official accusations against him, we learn what Richard might have to say on the matter of the fate of the princes.

The views of some of the novel’s characters certainly resonate with Ricardians:

“What did I tell you, Flower,” Simon said, “ever since Henry VII won, the law’s gone to hell. Our Richard wouldn’t have allowed people to be held without charge.

Well-written and fun to read. I look forward to reading more by this author.

Have a look at the brilliant trailer on YouTube here.

Book Review:  Satin Cinnabar

Barbara Gaskell Denvil, Satin Cinnabar. ISBN 978-1-61842-424-2.  It is available online for all formats, Amazon Kindle, ipad Barnes & Noble etc.

I just finished this novel by our new branch member Barbara Gaskell Denvil and was absolutely delighted.

Satin Cinnabar starts with the protagonist, Alex, regaining consciousness at the end of the Battle of Bosworth, where he and his family and household fought for their King Richard against “the Tudor bastard”, and follow him through the first months of the reign of Henry Tudor.

With him we experience the upheaval the regime change brought to the upper classes, but the novel’s best feature is its description of the lives of ordinary people.  The lives of the servants in the great houses and the working class Londoners are so often missing in historical fiction, but not here.  Barbara’s description is excellent and through it the reader can feel and smell what life would have been like.  Her characterisation is equally strong and we emphasise with her characters.

Thrown in is a murder mystery (yes, the reader gets all the important clues) and a love story.  Love stories in historical fiction can sometimes be a bit cloying, but this one is refreshingly different.

It is a gripping and engrossing story, a real page turner, while maintaining a high level of historical accuracy.  I thought I was a bit over historical fiction, but then this novel came along and I can’t wait to read more by this writer.  A thoroughly enjoyable read, highly recommended!

Read here more about Barbara and the background behind this wonderful story.

We asked our new branch member, Barbara Gaskell Denvil, about her personal background in writing Satin Cinnabar, wonderful novel set in Ricardian times.  Here is her answer:

I’ve always been attracted to English medieval history, being taken around castle ruins as a child, smelling that old damp mystery and the insistent intrigue of long forgotten secrets. So I read a considerable amount on the subject over the years but it wasn’t until a comparatively short ago when I wanted to start writing full length novels, that I became more consistently involved and studied in greater depth.

I come from a literary family (my sister is an author and my father was a playwright) and so started young myself, working for BOOKS AND BOOKMEN as a critic and publishing numerous short stories and articles. But after a tortuous marriage and producing three daughters, I needed escape. I explored the Mediterranean and its islands for many years but when my much loved partner died, I looked to escape again. Perhaps I am simply dedicated to escapism. Hence Australia (I am half Australian, half British) and the call of the novel.

Medieval England was the inspiration I needed and so once again I picked up my researches. Like so many Ricardians, I actually delved into the latter half of the 15th century after falling for the charismatically dastardly Richard of Shakespeare’s imagination. The wild exaggerations apart, I was quite prepared to believe in a ruthless king who did anything for power and deserved his ignominious end. Not that I was in favour of Henry Tudor’s usurpation I hasten to add, for my reading had already shown him to be a coldly calculating and devious creature who I did not warm to at all. But – shamefully – my researches up until then had not given a single clue as to Richard’s real character, and that Tudor propaganda continues to reign 500 years later is an absolute disgrace. Hail the Richard III Society.

Back to the point! I was looking for a delightfully evil king but I was soon disappointed. The man I discovered, even in those books which despised and insulted Richard, was a person of responsible authority, a man who lived according to high standards, a man who respected his wife (whether or not there was any genuine romance) and who – if indeed he usurped the crown – did so for very good reasons. Then I moved on to Paul Murrey Kendall, and the usurping, murdering hunchback of outrageous villainy was lost to me forever.

So I did not choose my opinion – the truth of Richard’s character was forced on me through my researches and now this much maligned king heads the very short list of my  historical ‘heroes’ and the only one who was possibly heroic in fact.

SATIN CINNABAR is a very small, very indirect tribute to the man I now so greatly admire, but my story is based more especially in the medieval London which fascinates me so much. I do not claim to be an historian or expert of any kind, but I know a good deal of what it was like to live then, and I have never read another book which attempts to bring that teeming, suffocating, wayward atmosphere to life. I have also long been haunted by the great battles of history, and the incredible toll they took not just on those who had to fight them, but on the relatives left behind, the ruined countryside, and the wandering shadows left to trouble men’s dreams. If ghosts do indeed exist, then what must have tramped across England’s battered pastures for so many long wretched years? We have recently come to understand something of the mental anguish now experienced by men who have witnessed appalling suffering in war. How much more did simple men feel 500 years ago when the cause they fought for was barely understood, and when they stood face to face with a neighbour, hacking desperately at his face as he hacked at yours? Surviving such butchery must have been the cause of thousands of lifetimes haunted by a hundred thousand nightmares. So that is where I began my book, during the aftermath of Bosworth, and the misery it spread then and afterwards.

But this book is no tragedy. Certainly many historians accept that the people of the past thought entirely differently to us, being influenced principally by the standards of the time, the habits of a backward society and of a domineering church. But as a good reading of more down to earth contemporary writing supports, I believe that human nature changes remarkably little. The people of the past had to accept the limitations forced on them, but they were not so different at heart. And that is how I have written this book. I just hope my readers find some enjoyment in my writing.

SATIN CINNABAR is published online for all formats, Amazon Kindle, ipad Barnes & Noble etc..

Please feel free to visit Barbara’s blog!

J. M. Robinson, Treasures of the English Churches.  Sinclair-Stevenson, 1995.   ISBN  9781856192866

This book is the culmination of a search of England to find interesting features of local churches, profusely illustrated in black and white and colour.  Not best pleased, however, to see on p. 131 a reference to  St Mary’s and All Saints, Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire:  Back of the pulpit with Tudor Royal Arms (and a colour picture).   Surely there are other treasures in this church that they could have chosen…

We do rather better with the Digger’s Club Garden Annual catalogue which lists on p. 28 – “King Richard:  The King of leeks.  An excellent early variety.  Produces extra long shanks with a creamy texture.”

I have adopted this vegetable for our King Richard.

Book Review:  The Lady of the Rivers

Philippa Gregory, The Lady of the Rivers, Simon & Schuster.  ISBN HB 978-1-84737-59-2.

This is the third novel in The Cousins’ War series, examining the woman who became the mother of Elizabeth Woodville.  Her importance became evident to the author as she wrote The White Queen, and as we have seen in her previous books, Gregory can focus on the women in history who are frequently placed several places in the rear while men take centre stage, but whose impact on history in enormous.

The story of the young Princess Jacquetta of Luxembourg opens with her recognition of the skills inherited by some of the women in her family thanks to their descent from the water goddess, Melusine.  A few years later she marries John, the great Duke of Bedford, who admits her to his secret world of alchemy and learning and, in England, she soon realises the difficulties she will have to face: not just a new language to learn, but to meet a young, easily led king, his ambitious relatives and confront the jealousy of Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester.  And it is the witchcraft trial, hideous deaths of accomplices and incarceration of Eleanor that is a warning of what Jacquetta herself might have to face if she cannot hide her own gifts. Read the rest of this entry »

Although, as a general rule, novels aren’t the ideal source for historical research, it is always heartening to find our particular branch of the Plantagenet family appearing in imaginative pages.  Happily, in this case, House of Echoes is by Barbara Erskine, who has a degree in medieval history, and her many novels have a commendable ring of authenticity.

In some of her books people of today are linked with characters and events in history and in this story (published by HarperCollins) the connection is with Edward IV (and Richard gets a mention).  Great reading for lazy afternoons, but the chilling mystery could make it a no-no for late-night reading.

There are, of course, plenty of them, but naturally we picked up on this one from The Book of Hoaxes, by Stuart Gordon that was published by Headline some time ago.

Richard Nixon wasn’t the only Tricky Dicky in history, at least if Tudor propaganda and Shakespeare are to be believed.  In 1485 a desperate villain, surrounded by enemies, shouted `A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!’  But too late.  He was slain.  His crown, found snagged on a bush was placed reverently on the head of his conqueror.  So died Crookback Dick, alias Richard III, the scheming hunchback who had murdered two innocent little children (the `Princes in the Tower’) to grab the crown.  Now the Welshman, Henry Tudor was king – King Henry VIII.  A new more glorious era was about to begin, culminating in the reign of his grand-daughter, Elizabeth.

Right had prevailed.  Evil had been vanquished.

But it wasn’t quite like that. Richard was the victim of one of the most successful posthumous smear campaigns ever mounted.

Why? Because Henry had no real right to the throne at all. The Wars of the Roses had been raging for years; all England was in turmoil, and Henry had grabbed what wasn’t his.  How to justify his act and secure what he had seized? How to persuade the English that a Welshman was their legitimate ruler?

For a start, by painting his predecessor as black as possible.

Thus Crookback Dick, hunchback and murderer!

There is no proof that Richard was either.  On the contrary he appears to have been an astute, capable ruler.  But the Tudors, later aided by Shakespeare’s dramatic skills, got away with it.  The mud they threw has stuck ever since.  Some historians and writers … have tried to rehabilitate him – but, as usual, ‘history is the lie commonly agreed upon’.   In popular imagination Richard will always be an evil, black-garbed hunchback stealing into the Tower to smother two little cherubs, before dying a coward’s death in battle, defeated by the heroic Henry …

Naturally Ricardians beg to differ and will continue to do their level best to prove the truth about the last Plantagenet king of England.