A Brief Update

As usual I am scrambling for time, but as I prepare a longer post on what I've been up to, I thought I'd drop in with a few snippets of news.

The next full post will be about my grand day out in London last week, which involved the Prime minister's despatch box, Oliver Cromwell's head, Richard I's dining table William Marshal, Roger Bigod, and the most beautiful church interior I have ever seen.

Also last week I went to see the Dalai Lama at Nottingham Arena. What a lovely sane and sensible man he is, with a droll sense of humour and a wonderful fruity laugh. His spiritual message of respect and tolerance was one I wholeheartedly endorse.

The above excursions explain why I haven't had much time for writing and why I'm behind with the blog and need to put on my writing pants re the day job. However, concerning the latter I am happy to report that:

1. THE TIME OF SINGING is now copy edited Agent and editor both love it - which is a relief, although even more relief will be once it has passed muster with the readers. The cover is almost sorted too and I do like it a lot.

2. I have finished re-editing THE WILD HUNT, taking 15,000 words off it in the process while losing nothing of the story. I guess I've learned to control the waffle better these days! Editor is pleased with the rewrite, so again, that's another hurdle jumped. It has been interesting revisiting Guyon and Judith after all these years. I have a soft spot for them because it was their story that finally opened a publisher's door to me after almost seventeen years of writing as a hobby. It also won me a Betty Trask award and brought me to Whitehall to have my prize presented by Prince Charles - a bit different to stacking shelves in the local supermarket which is what I'd been doing before.

3. I am 3 chapters into the new novel - the story of William Marshal's daughter, and what a girl she is proving to be. Definitely strong-willed and uppity. That she became Marshal of England towards the end of her life comes as no surprise to me as I investigate her character.

Back in a short while. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a glimpse from the Luttrell Psalter film, due out June 6th. Just beautiful!

Cartmel - William Marshal's Prior(it)y

A few months ago a reader wrote to me - a Mr. Peter Douglas. He had enjoyed my novels about William Marshal - The Greatest Knight and The Scarlet Lion, particularly so because he is a Server and choir member at William's foundation of Cartmel Priory in Cumbria. Mr Douglas has been kind enough to send me a guide book and postcards relating to the Priory and I thought this was a good opportunity to write a blog about it in William's day and to say a public thank you to Mr Douglas for sending me information about the Priory.
Cartmel Priory stands in the Cartmel valley, not far from Grange Over Sands and just round the corner from the modern resort of Morecambe. Click here for a map of the region. http://tinyurl.com/25dtdl
William was granted the land on which Cartmel is built by Henry II in approximately 1186, and the plans for founding a priory probably got off the ground around that time. At this period, William was newly returned from the Holy Land and had been granted lands in the north of England. He was also granted the wardship of an heiress - Heloise of Kendal, and it may even be that Henry II expected William to marry her. However, William had grander prospects in mind and in 1189, following Henry's death, Richard Coeur de Lion rewarded William's service with the hand of Isabelle de Clare, one of the greatest heiresses in the land.
Her wealth gave William sufficient funds to begin work on Cartmel in earnest.
It was an Augustinian Priory and when it first started, its community was formed from monks at the Priory of Bradenstoke in Wiltshire. William's parents and other relatives were buried at Bradenstoke and his family had strong ties with the place, so it was an ideal source from which to draw the first brethren.
The foundation charter dates to 1189. We don't know where it was signed, but we do know that it was executed in a public assembly and quite likely a palace because of the presence among the witnesses of Geoffrey FitzPeter, the King's right hand man. Richard himself wasn't present, but his brother John, as lord of Lancaster was, and so were all of William's closest relatives and the senior knights of his household.
William declared that he had founded Cartmel 'for the widening of the field of the Holy Religeon' and 'for the soul of the lord King Henry II, and for the soul of the Young King Henry my lord, and for the soul of King Richard; for my soul and soul of my wife Isabel, and those of my ancestors and successors and our heirs.'
Although the monks were drawn from Bradenstoke, Cartmel was to be completely independent of the other house. It was William's alone - his personal concern. It was always to remain a priory and was never to become an abbey, because that would have meant the king would be able to interfere with the advocacy. William was the priory's patron and to him would fall the formal right of choosing the prior, in consultation with two canons sent to him by the priory's chapter.
When William wrote his foundation charter for Cartmel he was very concerned with the future security of his project. As well as insisting it remain a priory and thus keeping the advocacy secured to him and his family, he also made sure that it was protected by a curse upon anyone who messed with Cartmel or intended it harm. Professor Crouch, author of William Marshal: Knighthood, War and Chivalry, 1147-1219, is of the opinion that William was being doggedly traditional in writing this curse into the foundation charter (as he also did for his foundation at Duiske in Ireland). Apparently it was becoming a bit old fashioned by his day to do this. However, knowing William as I do, I suspect he had seen or heard about what had happened to various religeous establishments during the civil War between Stephen and Matilda (Wherwell and Wilton come immediately to mind). I also think that he himself had been involved in the robbery of churches and shrines with his own lord The Young King. (Our Lady of Rocamadour for example) and it is my own belief that the curse was born of those experiences and intended to warn off any such behaviour upon his own establishments.














In later years, although Cartmel did undergo some ravages due to the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII, it was saved from the fate of so many other establishments because it had been not only a monastery, but also a Parish church since its inception. The latter were unaffected by the Dissolution and thus Cartmel was permitted to remain in situ.
The Priory church of St Mary and St Michael at Cartmel has been a place of worship now for more than 800 years and continues today and very actively so as can be seen from the church's website. http://www.cartmelpriory.org.uk/index.htm I haven't gone into the later history of the church here, but the website has more details and I certainly hope to make my own visit there soon.

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!

In the Interim

While I'm preparing a new main post, (concerning the tall, dark, handsome knight who inspired me begin writing historical fiction in the first place when I was all of fifteen) I'm dropping by to say that the HNS Conference went very well indeed and I'll be posting a transcript of the Beyond The Looking Glass session in a future blog not too far down the line I hope. I am also hoping to write a piece about Cartmel Priory which William Marshal founded on his return from the Holy Land. I've got the will and the information. Now all I need is the time!

Folks in the London area over the next couple of months might be interested to know that the Temple Church has an Effigies exhibition. Plaster casts of the Marshal effigies have been borrowed from the Victoria and Albert Museum. These were made in the 19thC before the incendiary bomb of WWII made a mess of William Marshal I's effigies. Now's a chance to see him with a nose! There are various sketches and documents from the archive displayed on the walls too.
If you are thinking about visiting the Temple Church to pay your respects, now might be a good opportunity. Url to more information here: http://www.temple2008.org/pgeEffigies.html

HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY CONFERENCE

In a couple of weeks' time (April 12th), the Historical Novel Society will be holding its 6th conference at the National Railway Museum in York. http://www.nrm-events.org.uk/ I've copied and pasted the programme below. There may still be places available for any latecomers wishing to go. You can check for details at the HNS website. http://www.historicalnovelsociety.org/I've been a member of the HNS for ummm.... well since the mid 1990's anyway when it was founded by Richard Lee to raise the profile of historical fiction and rescue its reputation. I attended the first ever conference at Kirby Hall and gave a talk in medieval dress. Bernard Cornwell was there too and it was a great day - especially for historical fiction which had been in the doldrums. I sincerely believe that Richard's founding of the HNS made a strong contribution to turning the perception of the genre around.
I've also spoken for the HNS at a mini conference held in 2000 on the site of the battle of Hastings, with Helen Hollick and Deryn Lake among others. This year I'll be doing a double act with Akashic consultant Alison King as we discuss the 'time travel' method of research and our interractions and interviews with people from the past. We don't know what will happen when we're 'on air' but we're hoping it'll go well. The programme looks very interesting with something for everyone and a great venue. Hope to see some of you there!

An Akashic Record session in progress








Saturday, 12th April 2008
National Railway Museum, York

Programme:

9.15-10.00
Suzannah Dunn is not an historical novelist. Her words, not ours. Find out why as she talks about her two novels The Queen of Subtleties and The Sixth Wife and also gives us a preview of her forthcoming novel, The Queen’s Sorrow.

10.15-11.00
Crème de la Crime is already a major player in sharp crime fiction, including historical crime. Lynne Patrick tells us about this exciting new publisher and the kinds of historical fiction she wants to publish.

Break

11.15-12.00
Railway Memories.
The National Railway Museum is the appropriate venue to meet Andrew Martin, author of four crime novels, the latest of which is Murder at Deviation Junction. They arose from Andrew’s memories of the last days of York as a great railway town when you didn't need a railway museum because the whole territory around the station was bustling with activity.

Lunch

During which, Crème de la Crime launches The Unquiet Heart by Gordon Ferris, his follow-up to Truth Dare Kill.

1.45-2.45
1) Historical Fiction: The Next Ten Years.
A panel of ‘new’ writers, Sarah Bower (The Needle in the Blood), Roz Southey (Broken Harmony) and Russell Whitfield (Gladiatrix) discuss their paths to publication and what they see as the future of historical fiction. Audience participation is more than welcome in what is guaranteed to be a lively debate.

2) Rewriting Women’s History.
To a large extent, women have been written out of history: their lives and deeds have become lost to us. To uncover the buried histories of women, historical novelists must act as detectives, study the sparse clues that have been handed down to us, learn to read between the lines and fill in the blanks. Authors Jude Morgan and Melinda Hammond, and freelance reader and editor specialising in historical fiction jay Dixon join Mary Sharratt (The Vanishing Point) to discuss their unique take on rewriting women back into history.

Break

3.00-3.45
An Accomplished Novelist
From Hector Berlioz to Charles II, the subject and style of Jude Morgan’s novels are rich and varied. His latest novel, An Accomplished Woman, is a witty homage to Regency Romances and Jane Austen.

3.45-4:45
Beyond The Looking Glass.
What if history was recorded on the ether? What if some people could actually read those records? What effect would it have on historical research? Award-winning author Elizabeth Chadwick and Akashic consultant Alison King discuss and demonstrate the use of this unusual resource.

The Conference ends at 5pm.

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.

I'M WORTH IT (WITH APOLOGIES TO L'OREAL)

One of my book buys on a recent binge was a translation of The Trotula by Monica H. Green/University of Pennysylvania Press ISBN 978 0 8122 1808 4. Basically it's an ensemble of three works on women's medicine from 12th Century Italy and reflects some of the new theories, practices and medicines coming out of the Arabic world at that time.
As well as dealing with ailments specific to women, The Trotula also gives advice on child care and various interesting recipes for cosmetic beautification - one of which has found its way into a scene in The Time of Singing.
'But when she combs her hair, let her have this powder. Take some dried roses, clove, nutmeg, watercress and galangal. Let all these, powdered, be mixed with rose water. With this water let her sprinkle her hair and comb it with a comb dipped in this same water so that her hair will smell better. And let her make furrows in her hair and sprinkle on the above mentioned powder, and it will smell marvelously.'

I also mention this one in passing: If the woman wishes to have long and black hair, take a green lizard and, having removed its head and tail, cook it in common oil. Anoint the head with this oil. It makes the hair long and black.' I am quite tempted to try out the first one at a re-enactment event, but I'll leave the second one for more adventurous souls. This next one too is on my 'give it a miss for now' list. 'For whitening the hair. Catch as many bees as possible in a new pot and set it to burn, and grind with oil, and then anoint the head.'
Want white teeth? The teeth are whitened thus. Take burnt white marble and burnt date pits and white natron, a red tile, salt, and pumice. From all of these make a powder in which damp wool has been wrapped in a fine linen cloth. Rub the teeth inside and out. Hmm, must show this my dentist!
As a complexion aid: 'For whitening the face and clarifying it. Take the juice of pignut and mix steer or cow marrow with it, and let them be ground, and in these ground things add powder of aloe, cuttlefish bone, white natron, and dove dung. Let all these be ground, and let there be made an ointment. With this ointment the woman should anoint her face.'
One might think Yeeeukkk, until one starts to ponder on the ingredients for modern cosmetics.
I've just looked up the ingredients on my anti-frizz serum (see decent hair day photo!). I've chosen this because it has the least list of ingredients to type out I could find. I have no intention of copying the mile-long list from a body lotion bottle! the frizz-ease contains Cyclopentasiloxane, dimethiconol, ethylhexyl, methoxycinnamate, liquid paraffin (I've anglicised it!) hydrolized silk and algae extract. Who knows, the chemical compounds involved in lizard extremities could well be hidden in there! I guess that sometimes nothing really changes that much.

Much of The Trotula is concerned with discussions of women's ailments in relation to conception and childbirth. The treatments are often very different to today being based on different medical beliefs - although basic common sense is often spoken too. I'll save them for another post. However, to say that for any woman reading this who is thinking of taking a break from the Pill, it is probably not a good idea as an alternative to 'take a male weasel and let its testicles be removed and let it be released alive. Let the woman carry these testicles with her in her bosom and let her tie them in goose skin or in another skin, and she will not conceive.'