Tall, Dark and Handsome!

In the summer of 1972 I sat down to watch a children's TV programme called Desert Crusader ...and fell desperately in love. His name was Thibaud (pronounced Tee-bow). He was le Chevalier Blanche, the white knight, a half-French, half-Arab crusader knight adventuring around the Holy Land during the reign of King Fulke 1131-1143. As his name suggests, he was garbed in white robes, apart from his black sword belt, and was the epitome of the chivalrous warrior. I can remember being glued to each episode and not wanting to blink lest I miss a microsecond of my hero's performance. You have to realise that there were no video recorders or DVD's back then - nothing to record these episodes to rewatch. They had to be treasured in the memory.
Desert Crusader was a French made programme, its home-grown title being Thibaud ou les Croisades. It was dubbed for an English audience which made for interesting lip sync! Around the same time programmes of a similar format were popular in the UK. Belle, Sebastian and the Horses for example, or The Flashing Blade - which had a very catchy theme tune. See here for example http://tinyurl.com/6o9fax
Desert Crusader's theme music and opening titles can be accessed here http://tinyurl.com/62xhpe
You would not believe how much my heart used to pitter-pat at that intro once a week as I awaited my date with Thibaud! I had always told myself stories verbally but I never wrote anything down until I was 14. My first effort at a novel was a Tudor tale inspired by watching Keith Michelle in the 6 Wives of Henry VII, but I'd not got very far into it and had become bored with the storyline.
Now, a year later, in love with Thibaud (as portrayed by actor Andre Laurence) inspired by the programme as a whole, I wrote my first full length novel and actually thought that I'd love to become a writer for a career. My hero was loosely based on Thibaud - I suppose these days it would be called fan fiction but there was no name for it then. Although it started as 'fan-ficition' it quickly developed a life of its own and departed from the beaten track of the TV series, broadening out into a whole new landscape.
I wanted my writing to feel as real as possible, so I had to knuckle down and do the research. This involved hauling home from the library various tomes on the Middle East, the crusades, medieval weapons and culture, geography, horsemanship, food and drink. You name it, I set about reading far more diligently to feed my hobby/project than I would ever have dreamed of doing where my schoolwork was concerned!
My long-suffering mother despaired as instead of asking for clothes and makeup for Christmas and birthday presents as per a 'normal' teenage girl, I'd ask for books such as Runciman's History of the Crusades vols I and II, or the Oxford History of England. By the time I'd finished my first 500 page novel I was hooked. Yes, this was what I was meant to do. I wanted to write historial adventure fiction for a living. Of course in the real world it was a case of 'dream on' and those dreams in question, first given a solid framework and focus when I was fifteen, didn't materialise until I was 32 when I finally reached the slush pile of literary agent Carole Blake with my 8th novel The Wild Hunt. Carole took me on and seventeen years after first setting eyes on Thibaud, I achieved my goal. It is probably no coincidence that Guyon, the hero of The Wild Hunt, looks very much like Thibaud in my imagination!
I thought I had lost Thibaud and Desert Crusader forever. When I mentioned the programme at talks no one seemed to remember it, and dubbed programmes had fallen out of fashion. It was never likely to be repeated. But then a man called Philip McDonnell wrote to me saying that he remembered it well and it had triggered his own love of history. He had tracked it down and had discovered that all of the episodes were available from Amazon France. I am very grateful to him because it has meant, more than 30 years down the line, I have been able to obtain the full set and once again look upon the face of the character who began it all for me.
Has the programme stood the test of time? Well....yes and no. The acting has more ham than the deli counter at Waitrose's. The fight scenes are hysterical, the costumes are straight out of Men in Tights. Run it on Fast Forward and it looks like an episode from Benny Hill. However, Thibaud, I am happy to report is still absolutely gorgeous (freshly washed blow-dried hair notwithstanding). Amid all the ham and slapstick, serious themes are treated thoughtfully and actually with a touch that is far more subtle and in keeping with the period than something like Kingdom of Heaven. The interraction between Christians and Muslims is one of people rather than idealogies. There are good and bad Christians in the story lines and good and bad Muslims - and their religeon doesn't have anything to do with whether they are goodies or baddies. There are distinctions made between the different Muslim and Crusader factions. The Tuaregs and the Bedouins and the Egyptians all wear different garments and have cultural differences. Thibaud, born of a European father and Turkish mother, straddles the lines between the cultures and thus is a good observer of both sides and able to move between the two. There is a very amusing episode with a red-haired Scotsman (wearing a kilt!!) who speaks with an accent the French obviously thought of as British. I was also surprised at how brilliant the horsemanship is in this series. There is a lot of riding about in the episodes, usually at a rapid trot or full on canter. Thibaud (Andre Laurence) is absolutely at home leaping on and off his mount, performing tricks such as leaping from one to another at full gallop, and just by his very body language, showing how much at ease he is around horses. This too helps to balance the authenticity of some of the less credible material and certainly enabled me to suspend my disbelief. For certain a knight would be able to ride as if it were second nature to him. It's interesting to hear the actors speaking in rapid French. I am sure that the Norman French of the period didn't sound exactly like this, but it is a step closer to the original than full on English, so although I don't understand all that is said, it helps my imagination to soar.
I am so glad to have found Thibaud again. I feel as if a piece of my past has been restored to complete the circle. I leave you with a particular close up. No wonder I was head over heels from the start. One look into these and I never stood a chance - thank goodness!

THE TROTULA RIDES AGAIN!

In my previous post I'd been busy reading The Trotula and giving examples of the cosmetic recipes available within its pages. However, there is more to the The Trotula than cosmetic recipes: The Trotula is composed of three independent works by three different authors, although all probably writing in the area of Salerno in the twelfth century. On the Conditions of Women and On Women's Cosmetics are penned by anonymous authors. Treatments for Women, however, can be ascribed to one Salernitan woman healer called Trota about whom nothing is known. The modern translator, Monica H. Green has written a thoroughly erudite and informative introduction concerning the medical traditions on which the treatments are based, with recourse to Galen, Soranus and Hippocratic teachings. I'm not going to go into all that here, but the book's out there if you want to read up for yourself! I am certainly going to find it useful in further understanding the mindsets of the Middle Ages. Beyond cosmetics and beautification treatments, The Trotula provides a handy reference work for the 12thC healer and physician on how to cope with various medical situations mostly applicable to women. I say mostly, as there are one or two pieces of advice that do refer to men.
Since the previous post details contraceptive advice, here's one for those who have done away with the weasel's testicles and desire to conceive. Again, testicles are required but they should be those of an uncastrated male pig or a wild boar (a bit difficult getting them from a castrated one I should imagine!) 'and dry them and let a powder be made, and let her drink this with wine after the purgation of the menses. Then let her cohabit with her husband and she will conceive.' Assuming the above ploy is successful and the woman conceives, there are certain signs to be watched for. In order to know whether a woman is carrying a male or female, take water from a spring and let the woman extract two or three drops of blood or milk from her right side and let those be dropped in water. And if they fall to the bottom, she is carrying a male; if they float on top, a female. There are comments on the development of the embryo. In the first month there is purgation of the blood, in the second there is expression of the blood and the body. In the third month, the fetus produces nails and hair. In the fourth month it begin to move and for that reason women are nauseated. In the fifth month the fetus takes on the likeness of its father or its mother. In the sixth month the nerves are constituted. In the seventh month the fetus solidifies its bones and nerves. in the eighth month, Nature moves and the infant is made complete in the blessing of all its parts. In the ninth month it proceeds from the darkness into the light.' However, proceeding into that light can be a tricky business and if everything doesn't go to plan remedies suggested include having the expectant mother hold a magnet in her right hand. She should try drinking ivory shavings. 'Likewise the white stuff which is found in the excrement of the hawk, given in a potion is good.' I am not convinced!
The Trotula understands the seriousness of a retained afterbirth and says 'haste must be made to eject it. Therefore let sneezing be provoked, and let this be done with the mouth and nose closed.' Alternatively the woman should be made to vomit, as again, this would aid in bearing down. An emetic was to be made from the cinders of an ash tree mixed with one dram of powder of the seed of marsh mallow.
The Trotula has some interesting things to say about the care of the newborn. It says its ears should be pressed immediately over and over again, so that milk does not enter them, or its nose when the child is nursing. The umbilical cord should be tied 'three fingers from the belly, because according to the retention of the umbilical cord the male member will be greater or smaller.' To aid the child to talk more quickly, its palate should be anointed with honey and its gums with warm water. The baby should be kept clean and all mucus secretions wiped away. It should be massaged all over and then bound in swaddling. If its belly and loins become too humid and oily, they should be left free to dry out. After breastfeeding, a baby should be massaged. The next passage might almost come from a modern childcare manual. 'There should be different kinds of pictures, cloths of diverse colours, and pearls placed in front of the child, and one should use nursery songs and simple words, neither rough nor harsh words (such as those of the Lombards) should be used in singing in front of the child.' One wonders if Lombard songs were the equivalent of today's rugby chants!
Other headings in The Trotula's medical section deal with a cure for 'Sterility on the Part of the Man', a cure for 'Worms of the Ears', what to do about 'pain of the intestine' and 'itching and excoration of the pudenda.'
While many of the remedies make one thank heaven to be living in the 21st century, this book is a fascinating window on the world of medieval medicine and definitely one of my desert Island keepers.