Catherine Meyrick's Blog, page 35
May 10, 2019
Book Review – The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey
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Set in the fictional village of Oakham, Somerset, The Western Wind starts on Shrove Tuesday 1491. This is Day 4 of the story as this novel is told backwards over four days from Shrove Tuesday to the previous Saturday. It is the first person narrative of the parish priest, John Reve, a gentle and compassionate man coping with the death of his friend Thomas Newman who had drowned in the local river early on that Saturday.
The village of Oakham is out of step with the world around it, cut off...
May 3, 2019
My Reading – April 2019
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Tombland by C J Sansom
I had been in my chambers at Lincoln’s Inn when the messenger came from Master Parry, asking me to attend him urgently.
A Pure Clear Light by Madeleine St John
‘Simon, there’s a woman over there who keeps looking at us.’
April 26, 2019
Book Review – The Innocents by C A Asbrey
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The Innocents is set in the American West in 1868. ‘The Innocents’ are Nat Quinn and Jake Conroy, a nephew and uncle team, who rob only banks and railways and are courteous to the ordinary people they may discommode during the course of a robbery. Abigail McKay, a Scottish woman, has spent weeks travelling by train in the hope of coming face to face with them and observing them. She is a Pinkerton detective at a time when even most of the other Pinkerton detectives are surprised and perturbe...
April 20, 2019
Easter in Early Modern England
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The Lenten and Easter season in pre-Reformation England was rich in sights and sounds and smells. Shrove Tuesday was celebrated with pancakes and football games, plays and masquerades. Ash Wednesday brought the blessing of ashes and their application by the priest to the foreheads of the faithful with the injunction ‘Remember O man that thou are dust and to dust thous shalt return’. Statues and images were veiled in cloth and a Lenten veil hung, obscuring the chancel from the laity. The Lent...
April 5, 2019
My Reading – March 2019
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The Familiars by Stacey Halls
I left the house with the letter because I did not know what else to do.
The Innocents by C. A. Asbrey
The blade slipped through the skin, twisting and gouging over and over again until the soft flesh was mushy and yielding to the blade.
The Watermelon Boys by Ruqaya Izzidien
The present is an arrogant time in which to live, always has been.
March 15, 2019
It’s My Book’s Birthday!
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A year ago today I published Forsaking All Other, an Elizabethan love story set against the war in the Netherlands abroad and Catholic plots at home. Forsaking All Other has been almost continuously in the top 50 bestsellers in Amazon’s Tudor Historical Romance Category for the last eight months – and for a brief shining moment even made it to number 4.
Thank you to all the wonderful readers who have bought it, read it, enjoyed it or reviewed it. You have made it an amazing year.
‘If I were...
Elizabethan Magpie Pickings
The Australian Magpie – better known for swooping in and pecking rather than picking.
I have something of a magpie brain—I like to collect shiny bits of information, not necessarily immediately useful but interesting, to me at least. Over the past few weeks I have been heavily revising my current work in progress, The Bridled Tongue, and checking that I have no glaring anachronisms. These are some of the interesting things I have discovered either in my notes or in more recent reading.
In man...
March 1, 2019
My Reading – February 2019
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The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey
Dust and ashes though I am, I sleep the sleep of angels.
How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain by Ruth Goodman
Welcome to a century of bad behaviour.
How To Be a Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Tudor Life by Ruth Goodman
Just before dawn the cockerels began their morning chorus and people clambered out of bed.
The Heir’s Tale by April Munday
Ancelin Montfort stiffened as he heard the sounds of a soldier taking his pleasure with a woman.
February 22, 2019
Book Review – The Heir’s Tale by April Munday
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The Heir’s Tale is the first book in the series, Soldiers of Fortune, tracing the fortunes of the sons of the Earl of Somerton following the Battle of Poitiers. In 1357, Ancelin Montfort, the Earl’s second son, returns home bringing with him the news of his elder brother John’s death in that battle. Ancelin does not welcome the new responsibilities that come with his new position as heir to the earldom.
Ancelin had been betrothed before leaving for France and is expected to marry on his retu...
February 15, 2019
Favourite Books
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While each year I read dozens of excellent and memorable books, there are few that I feel compelled to reread. There are a handful, though, that I keep coming back to. No doubt the primary reason for re-reading is that these particular books have an emotional appeal. There is the added delight of discovering new layers within the story each time I reread whether it is the depth of characterization, the plotting or the beauty of the prose.
[image error]Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell – Read five t...
