Sunday, March 01, 2009

Books and bits

As you'll see from my Events and Titles blog, http://elizabethchadwickevents.blogspot.com/ I am going to be fairly busy over the next couple of months visiting various libraries up and down the country. I hope this won't put too much of a downer on my Living The History posts, but bear with me if I post less frequently for a few weeks.
However - good news! My very good author friend Sharon Kay Penman has agreed to be interviewed on my blog in the soonish future. As soon as we've organised a Q and A session, I'll be posting our talk.
Next time round I'm going to post about some interesting details I've been able to dig up that add more circumstantial evidence to the lost Newbury Castle being sited at Speen. Some interesting peripheral jigsaw pieces have come to light.

For now, I've just taken a delivery of a few more research books, so I thought I'd post this latest haul.




I was after this one all the time I was writing A Place Beyond Courage. I'll read anything Professor David Crouch writes. It has now been re-issued in paperback and it's going to come in big time when I write my Empress Matilda novel. Did I mention that the Empress was on the cards? It's down to them being shuffled around slightly and the Empress has come to the top of the pack.
I've started Akashic work on her already and some very interesting and useful details have been emerging.












A general overview of cosmetics down the ages, but written by someone who knows their stuff. I particularly like the Old Irish 'nail varnish' and the minty Medieval mouthwash (authentic!)



















This one, like another on the list, was reccommended to me by my good friend, author Sharon Kay Penman. It tells us how the Medievals saw their world in terms of Geography - the names they gave to places etc. I had to obtain this one from Abe Books.
















Robert Bartlett is another of my favourite authors along with Professor Crouch. The first of 2 book on my list by him and intended for general reading and hopefully an increased understanding of the medieval European stage as a whole.














2nd book by Bartlett and I hope it'll help give me more understanding of mindsets - so important to the historical novelist who wants to get it right.
















Fiction reading here. A book highly recommended to me by Sharon Kay Penman who thought it was terrific and that it got above mentioned mindset right. Apparently it's a film too!
http://www.arnmovie.com/

21 comments:

Jan Jones said...

You're going to be at Bury St Edmunds on Thursday March 5th???

Would you like a friendly face in the audience?

Marg said...

I will be interested to see your interview with SKP, as well as hear more about your Matilda book!

Elizabeth Chadwick said...

Hiya Jan,

Yes I am, and I would LOVE a friendly face in the audience. Hey, you might BE the audience! :-)

Jan Jones said...

See you there, then. I shall find out how to get a ticket.

Doubtful Muse said...

Thank you for posting these! I definitely need that Bartlett book on the Natural and Supernatural!

Mikaela said...

Yes, the Arn books are great. I actually prefer the third one.

Taminator said...

Have to say The Beaumont book and the Bartlett book really look appealing to me. Maybe you could summarize them for me in your spare time? :)

Anne Gilbert said...

Ooooooooh! So you're going to write about Empress Matilda? Whee! I can hardly wait!
Anne G

Anne Gilbert said...

I kind of forgot to mention that I linked this article to your blog! Sounds like you're doing a ton of research here. I should get back to mine. . . .
Anne G

Elizabeth Chadwick said...

Marg, the SKP interview will probably be, I reckon, a couple of months hence. I'm working on the questions at the moment, but then Sharon has to answer them!
Tammy - being as I know you, I think you know the answer to your question - LOL!
Anne: The original game plan was Edith Swan Neck followed by Eleanor of Aquitaine. Then suddenly the world and his wife decided they were going to produce novels about her in the next couple of years - Cecelia Holland, Alison Weir, a new writer called Christy English, there's SKP's paperback of Devil's Brood to come, and Ariana Franklin's The Death Maze. If I did one I'd just be stuffing another dress into an already over-stuffed wardrobe. So yes, next book up is the Empress. Then the women of the Norman Conquest. And then perhas Eleanor when everyone else has finished and gone away!

Elizabeth Chadwick said...

Anne, you can NEVER have enough research books - LOL!

Anonymous said...

Medieval minty mouthwash, would love to see that's made up of.

I love the idea of a book on Empress Matilda, but I was also looking forward to one on Edith Swanneck. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers.

Elizabeth Chadwick said...

Hey, Misfit, welcome to blog land!
Edith Swan Neck is still very much on the cards, but she'll follow on from the Empress

Anne Gilbert said...

You're right! You never can have too many research books. I've got plenty of them, but not the Crouch one. And, being a Starving Writer, I'm on a budget, so I can't get everything I want, exactly when I want them. BTW, I'm probably going to have Edith Swan Neck appear in the "prequel" to what I'm doing now, but it probably won't be anything like yours, since I'm writing, well, "romantic science fiction"!
Anne G

Anonymous said...

EC, thanks for the welcome. I have a feeling blog land is major time suck as Marg calls it. This could cut into reading time in a big way :)

Katherine said...

The Road to Jerusalem looks good! Amazon.com says the book won't be out in the US until April, though... thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Passages to the Past said...

Oh no! EC and SKP together?!? I may just have to take off work that day! Haha!

Do you think that since your books are going to be published in the US that you will be touring over here? If so, Atlanta is the place to be! Ha!

Elizabeth Chadwick said...

Misfit, yes, I think 'Time-suck' is the word. Just make sure the suck hole isn't too big! (ooerr!)
Amy, if Source Book sales do take off,then I may well be headed Stateside at some point! Must get my passport sorted out just in case.
As and when Sharon does get to England, health permitting, I think at least one double act is on the cards!

Anonymous said...

Those are amazing books... I like to pick one of them!!

Mikaela said...

I am definitely getting the second Robert Bartlett book, since I am writing a historical fantasy right now.

Anne Gilbert said...

It just occurred to me, due to some things in my own writing, that I ought to take a look at that Bartlett book, too!
Anne G