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gargoyle-doyle · 1 year ago

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W.B Obbly's Obelisk Observer Society (@lyndwyrm0)

John Felton Death and Life Post 💔🗡️

John Felton, who had very kindly decided to strike a swanky pose with the knife before killing Mr Villiers. (Richard Sawyer, 15 May 1830, nearly 200 years after Felton died, so for a corpse, he's looking pretty good here) ^

Felton is a mystery man, possibly born in Suffolk in possibly 1595, but since he didn't slide out the womb with FUTURE ASSASSIN branded across his forehead, no one cares much enough to keep track.

His life continued in obscurity until the 1620s where he is on record for the Cadiz Expedition of 1625, which was backed by Villiers and went about as well as a military operation would go if you were blind folded and had your hands tied together. Plenty died from starvation and disease and the reputation of Villiers was on the decline. Which is fair enough when you consider this killed around 7000 men and lost a handful (62) shops. (Which is more ships lost than Odysseus and you do NOT want to be like Odysseus). I fucking hate Odysseus.

Felton had some in-between gigs but nothing too major until the anglo-french war in which he was rejected to join Villiers fleet. But two months later in August 1627, Villiers said something along the lines of 'yeah go for it' and Felton was off the bench and on the team, now serving as Lieutenant.

BANG CRASH DWOLLOP

it was a fucking nightmare. Not for Felton or Villiers those guys were actually fine but everyone else, not so much. At Saint Martin-De-Re in October the same year, their siege failed (due to poor, planning, poor weapons, terrible ladders, and an all around poor time) and 5000 troops were lost despite retreating. Despite surviving, Felton did not have it easy, his family describes him as a man plagued with nightmares, to quote his sister he was 'much troubled by dreams of fighting'. Which is how I describe myself when someone bids higher than me on eBay and steals the item i desire >:-(

Felton, living in delusion, requested 80 squid and the job role as captain. Having no experience (and no boyfriend who is also the king) he did not get either. This sent him into a rage and on Saturday 23 August 1628, the VILLAIN struck and stabbed Villiers in the chest, killing him.

Genuinely awful picture ^

Now you don't just kill the ex king's (died in 1625) bosom friend and live to tell about it (that's the job of angst poets and teenagers in obelisk observation societies). Though many believed that Felton's actions saved the kingdom and secured Charles Is reign (at least for a bit). But at Tyburn on 29 November 1628, Felton was hung (hanged????) And course, it's quite a bit hard to bounce back from something like that.

He was then moved to Portsmouth (wooo!) And strung in a Gibbet for all to gaze at.

I actually cannot put into words, there are no phrases no single way to explain how much I would do to see this gibbet, the see the Lisk, it's truly unreal. No eBay bidder can out bid my desire on this one.

These two men (erm ignore the malicious ghost) recreated the murder on the 5th September. It was so cool, my heart was racing. I was zazzed, not even over the moon, I was doing laps of it. Unreal. ^

Below is a report from the 1880s

"A relic has been exposed by workmen engaged in erecting the new refreshments and retiring rooms upon Southsea Pier. It is none other than a portion of the veritable gibbet on which the body of the murderer of the Duke of Buckingham was suspended in chains upon Southsea Beach. The murder occurred in 1628. The criminal was hanged at Tyburn, but it was customary to return remains to the scene of the crime. The gibbet bears the Borough arms and a date - but the latter is the day on which it was decided that the gibbet (which was then a well-known landmark) should act as one of the borough boundaries. It is also studded with leaden bullets, from which it would appear that soldiers had been in the habit of discharging their muskets at it. The relic is now lying full length on the pier, but it will be as soon as possible once more erected upon its old site by Mr. Adams, the Borough Engineer. (Later it was replaced by an obelisk)"

The Obelisk, and perhaps the heart of Felton, marked the site from 1782 onwards.

I suppose it must not be all that nice to have your life summarized into just some assassin, and one barely anyone remembers. Felton would only have been in his early thirties when he was killed. :-(

#john felton #duke of buckingham #George villiers #gibbet #obelisk #wb obbly #obelisk observer society

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nellygwyn · 4 years ago

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I thought I would share some portraits/info about notable black men and women who worked and lived in Georgian Britain. This is not an extensive list by any means, and for some figures, portraits are unavailable:

1. Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) was a writer, abolitionist and former slave. Born into what would become southern Nigeria, he was initially sold into slavery and taken to the Caribbean as a child, but would be sold at least twice more before he bought his freedom in 1766. He decided to settle in London and became involved in the British abolitionist movement in the 1780s. His first-hand account of the horrors of slavery 'The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano' was published in 1789 and it really drove home the horrors of slavery to the general British public. He also worked tirelessly to support freed slaves like himself who experienced racism and inequality living in Britain's cities. He was a leading member of the Sons of Africa, an abolitionist group, whose members were primarily freed black men (the Sons of Africa has been called the first black political organisation in British history). He married an English woman, Susannah, and when he died in 1797, he left his fortune of roughly £73,000 to his daughter, Joanna. Equiano's World is a great online resource for those interested in his life, his work, and his writings.

2. Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780) was a bit of a jack-of-all-trades (he's described as an actor, composer, writer, abolitionist, man-of-letters, and socialite - truly the perfect 18th century gentleman). He was born in the Middle Passage on a slave ship. His mother died not long after they arrived in Venezuela and his father apparently took his own life rather than become a slave. Sancho's owner gave the boy to three sisters living in London c. 1730s (presumably as a sort of pet/servant) but whilst living with them, his wit and intellect impressed the 2nd Duke of Montagu who decided to finance his education. This was the start of Sancho's literary and intellectual career and his association with the elite of London society saw him ascend. He struck up a correspondence with the writer, Laurence Sterne, in the 1760s: Sancho wrote to press Sterne to throw his intellecrual weight behind the cause of abolition. He became active in the early British abolitionist movement and be counted many well-known Georgians amongst his acquaintance. He was also the first black man known to have voted in a British election. He married a West Indian woman and in 1774, opened a grocer's shop in London, that attempted to sell goods that were not produced by slave labour. Despite his popularity in Georgian society, he still recounts many instances of racist abuse he faced on the streets of London in his diaries. He reflected that, although Britain was undoubtedly his home and he had done a lot for the country, he was 'only a lodger and hardly that' in London. His letters, which include discussions of domestic subjects as well as political issues, can be read here.

3. Francis 'Frank' Barber (1742-1801) was born a slave on a sugar plantation in Jamaica. His owner, Richard Bathurst, brought Frank to England when Frank turned 15 and decided to send him to school. The Bathursts knew the writer, Samuel Johnson, and this is how Barber and the famous writer first met (Barber briefly worked as Johnson's valet and found him an outspoken opponent of the slave trade). Richard Bathurst gave Frank his freedom when he died and Frank immediately signed up for the navy (where he apparently developed a taste for smoking pipes). In 1760, he returned permanently to England and decided to work as Samuel Johnson's servant. Johnson paid for Frank to have an expensive education and this meant Frank was able to help Johnson revise his most famous work, 'Dictionary of the English Language.' When Johnson died in 1784, he made Frank his residual heir, bequeathing him around £9000 a year (for which Johnson was criticised in the press - it was thought to be far too much), an expensive gold watch, and most of Johnson's books and papers. Johnson also encouraged Frank to move to Lichfield (where Johnson had been born) after he died: Frank duly did this and opened a draper's shop and a school with his new wife. There, he spent his time 'in fishing, cultivating a few potatoes, and a little reading' until his death in 1801. His descendants still live at a farm in Litchfield today. A biography of Frank can be purchased here. Moreover, here is a plaque erected on the railings outside of Samuel Johnson's house in Gough Square, London, to commemorate Johnson and Barber's friendship.

4. Dido Elizabeth Belle (1764-1801) was born to Maria Belle, a slave living in the West Indies. Her father was Sir John Lindsay, a British naval officer. After Dido's mother's death, Sir John took Dido to England and left her in the care of his uncle, Lord Mansfield. Dido was raised by Lord Mansfield and his wife alongside her cousin, Elizabeth Murray (the two became as close as sisters) and was, more or less, a member of the family. Mansfield was unfortunately criticised for the care and love he evidently felt for his niece - she was educated in most of the accomplishments expected of a young lady at the time, and in later life, she would use this education to act as Lord Mansfield's literary assistant. Mansfield was Lord Chief Justice of England during this period and, in 1772, it was he who ruled that slavery had no precedent in common law in England and had never been authorised. This was a significant win for the abolitionists, and was brought about no doubt in part because of Mansfield's closeness with his great-niece. Before Mansfield died in 1793, he reiterated Dido's freedom (and her right to be free) in his will and made her an heiress by leaving her an annuity. Here is a link to purchase Paula Byrne's biography of Dido, as well as a link to the film about her life (starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Dido).

5. Ottobah Cugoano (1757-sometime after 1791) was born in present-day Ghana and sold into slavery at the age of thirteen. He worked on a plantation in Grenada until 1772, when he was purchased by a British merchant who took him to England, freed him, and paid for his education. Ottobah was employed as a servant by the artists Maria and Richard Cosway in 1784, and his intellect and charisma appealed to their high-society friends. Along with Olaudah Equiano, Ottobah was one of the leading members of the Sons of Africa and a staunch abolitionist. In 1786, he was able to rescue Henry Devane, a free black man living in London who had been kidnapped with the intention of being returned to slavery in the West Indies. In 1787, Ottobah wrote 'Thoughts And Sentiments On The Evil & Wicked Traffic Of The Slavery & Commerce Of The Human Species,' attacking slavery from a moral and Christian stand-point. It became a key text in the British abolition movement, and Ottobah sent a copy to many of England's most influential people. You can read the text here.

6. Ann Duck (1717-1744) was a sex worker, thief and highwaywoman. Her father, John Duck, was black and a teacher of swordmanship in Cheam, Surrey. He married a white woman, Ann Brough, in London c. 1717. One of Ann's brothers, John, was a crew-member of the ill-fated HMS Wager and was apparently sold into slavery after the ship wrecked off the coast of Chile on account of his race. Ann, meanwhile, would be arrested and brought to trial at least nineteen times over the course of her lifetime for various crimes, including petty theft and highway robbery. She was an established member of the Black Boy Alley Gang in Clerkenwell by 1742, and also quite frequently engaged in sex work. In 1744, she was given a guilty verdict at the Old Bailey after being arrested for a robbery: her trial probably wasn't fair as a man named John Forfar was paid off for assisting in her arrest and punishment. She was hanged at Tyburn in 1744. Some have argued that her race appears to have been irrelevant and she experienced no prejudice, but I am inclined to disagree. You can read the transcript of one of Ann Duck's trials (one that resulted in a Not Guilty verdict) here. Also worth noting that Ann Duck is the inspiration behind the character Violet Cross in the TV show 'Harlots.'

7. Bill Richmond (1763-1829) was a prize winning bare-knuckle boxer of the late 18th and early 19th century. He was born a slave in New York (then part of British America) but moved permanently to England in 1777 where he was most likely freed and received an education. His career as a boxer really took of in the early 19th century, and he took on all the prize fighters of the time, including Tom Cribb and the African American fighter, Tom Molineaux. Richmond was a sporting hero, as well as fashionable in his style and incredibly intelligent, making him something of a celebrity and a pseudo-gentleman in his time. He also opened a boxing academy and gave boxing lessons to gentlemen and aristocrats. He would ultimately settle in York to apprentice as a cabinet-maker. Unfortunately, in Yorkshire, he was subject to a lot of racism and insults based on the fact he had married a white woman. You can watch a Channel 4 documentary on Richmond here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

8. William Davidson (1781-1820) was the illegitimate son of the Attorney General of Jamaica and a slave woman. He was sent to Glasgow in Scotland to study law at the age of 14 and from this period until 1819, he moved around Britain and had a number of careers. Following the Peterloo Massacre in 1819, Davidson began to take a serious interest in radical politics, joining several societies in order to read radical and republican texts. He also became a Spencean (radical political group) through his friendship with Arthur Thistlewood and would quickly rise to become a leading member of the group. In 1820, a government provocateur tricked Davidson and other Spenceans, into being drawn into a plot to kill the Earl of Harrowby and other government cabinet officers as they dined at Harrowby's house on the 23rd February. This plot would become known as the Cato Street Conspiracy (named thus because Davidson and the other Spenceans hid in a hayloft in Cato Street whilst they waited to launch their plan). Unfortunately, this was a government set up and eleven men, including Davidson, were arrested and charged with treason. Davidson was one of five of the conspirators to not have his sentence commuted to transportation and was instead sentenced to death. He was hanged and beheaded outside of Newgate Prison in 1820. There is a book about the Cato Street Conspiracy here.

9. Ukawsaw Gronniosaw (1705-1775) was born in the Kingdom of Bornu, now in modern day Nigeria. As the favourite grandson of the king of Zaara, he was a prince. Unfortunately, at the age of 15, he was sold into slavery, passing first to a Dutch captain, then to an American, and then finally to a Calvinist minister named Theodorus Frelinghuysen living in New Jersey. Frelinghuysen educated Gronniosaw and would eventually free him on his deathbed but Gronniosaw later recounted that when he had pleaded with Frelinghuysen to let him return to his family in Bornu, Frelinghuysen refused. Gronniosaw also remembered that he had attempted suicide in his depression. After being freed, Gronniosaw set his sights on travelling to Britain, mainly to meet others who shared his new-found Christian faith. He enlisted in the British army in the West Indies to raise money for his trip, and once he had obtained his discharge, he travelled to England, specifically Portsmouth. For most of his time in England, his financial situation was up and down and he would move from city to city depending on circumstances. He married an English weaver named Betty, and the pair were often helped out financially by Quakers. He began to write his life-story in early 1772 and it would be published later that year (under his adopted anglicised name, James Albert), the first ever work written by an African man to be published in Britain. It was an instant bestseller, no doubt contributing to a rising anti-slavery mood. He is buried in St Oswald's Church, Chester: his grave can still be visited today. His autobiography, A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an African Prince, as Related by Himself, can be read here.

10. Mary Prince (1788-sometime after 1833) was born into slavery in Bermuda. She was passed between several owners, all of whom very severely mistreated her. Her final owner, John Adams Wood, took Mary to England in 1828, after she requested to be able to travel as the family's servant. Mary knew that it was illegal to transport slaves out of England and thus refused to accompany Adams Wood and his family back to the West Indies. Her main issue, however, was that her husband was still in Antigua: if she returned, she would be back in enslavement, but if she did not, she might never see her husband again. She contacted the Anti-Slavery Society who attempted to help her in any way they could. They found her work (so she could support herself), tried tirelessly to convince Adams Wood to free her, and petitioned parliament to bring her husband to England. Mary successfully remained in England but it is not known whether she was ever reunited with her husband. In 1831, Mary published The History of Mary Prince, an autobiographical account of her experiences as a slave and the first work written by a black woman to be published in England. Unlike other slave narratives, that had been popular and successful in stoking some anti-slavery sentiment, it is believed that Mary's narrative ultimately clinched the goal of convincing the general British population of the necessity of abolishing slavery. Liverpool's Museum of Slavery credits Mary as playing a crucial role in abolition. You can read her narrative here. It is an incredibly powerful read. Mary writes that hearing slavers talk about her and other men and women at a slave market in Bermuda 'felt like cayenne pepper into the fresh wounds of our hearts.'

#18th century history #georgian britain #black history #olaudah equiano #ignatius sancho #francis barber #dido elizabeth belle #ottonah cugoano #ann duck #bill richmond #william davidson #uksawsaw gronniosaw #mary prince

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justforbooks · 3 years ago

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Summer reading: from missing lighthouse keepers to the healing power of trees...

50 new fiction and nonfiction books to enjoy. Plus recent paperbacks to pack and the best children’s stories!

No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

What is the internet doing to our minds and hearts? The American comic memoirist’s first novel, shortlisted for the Women’s prize, begins as a savagely witty deep dive into the black hole of social media, then confronts real-life tragedy and transcendence.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Klara, the “artificial friend” to sickly teenager Josie, is our naive guide through Ishiguro’s uneasy near-future, in which AI and genetic enhancement threaten to create a human underclass. Klara’s quest to understand the people and systems around her, and to protect Josie at all costs, illuminates what it means to love, to care – to be human.

Luster by Raven Leilani

This Dylan Thomas prize winner introduces a brilliant new voice. Edie is a young black woman in New York who starts a relationship with an older white man, and gets complicatedly close to his wife and adopted black daughter. The sentences crackle in a virtuosic skewering of race, precarious modern living and the generation gap.

That Old Country Music by Kevin Barry

The third short-story collection from a stylist to savour brings more exhilarating, darkly witty tales of oddballs yearning after love and enchantment in the wild west of Ireland.

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex

Based on a real-life mystery, this stylishly written debut interweaves a range of voices to explore the disappearance of three Cornish lighthouse keepers in 1972. Both a slow-growing, atmospheric portrait of claustrophobic relationships and a relentless page-turner, this is a hugely satisfying read and a passionate love letter to the sea.

The Great Mistake by Jonathan Lee

A deeply enjoyable panoramic novel about gilded age New York, which explores the transformation of the city through the life and sudden death of the man who built Central Park.

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

This account of a life derailed by mental illness is both darkly funny and deeply touching. Martha looks back on her failed marriage to Patrick, a family friend, but the real love story in this novel, billed as “Fleabag meets Patrick Melrose”, is with her wry sister, Ingrid.

How to Kidnap the Rich by Rahul Raina

Written with enormous verve and energy, this crime caper satirising aspiration, inequality and corruption in India centres on an “examinations consultant” who fraudulently acquires qualifications for the children of the wealthy. Fast, furious and lots of fun.

Second Place by Rachel Cusk

A stranger comes to stay in this fascinating, uncomfortable exploration of creativity, the male gaze and the gendered experience of freedom. Cusk’s story of a female writer’s power struggle with a male artist is one of the first novels to take inspiration from lockdown.

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

A young author’s tender debut about a contemporary London love affair explores race, sex and masculinity, as well as being a joyous hymn to black art and culture.

A Net for Small Fishes by Lucy Jago

Described as “the Thelma and Louise of the 17th century” and based on a real-life scandal at the court of James VI and I, this irresistibly immersive novel follows a friendship between two women that leads to Tyburn and the Tower.

Civilisations by Laurent Binet, translated by Sam Taylor

In this hugely entertaining counterfactual history of the making of the modern world, it’s the Incas who invade Europe. Binet has riotous, brainy fun in a rollicking story of the urge to power, which delights in turning received ideas upside down.

Girl A by Abigail Dean

The premise of this thriller debut – that “Girl A” is the sibling who escaped incarceration by abusive parents in a “house of horrors” – may sound overly grim, but this is a carefully judged and propulsive story of survival and redemption, as Lex comes to terms with her past.

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

“Get Out meets The Devil Wears Prada”: in this buzzy, up-to-the-minute debut, twentysomething Nella is pleased to no longer be the only black employee in her New York publishing company when new recruit Hazel joins her desk. But then things get sinister … A twisty, darkly comic satire of office culture, identity politics and white expectations.

Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford

Spufford follows his 18th-century romp Golden Hill with a brilliantly achieved interweaving of working-class lives in postwar south London. The book’s metaphysical conceit – that the children whose stories he spins, from the blitz into the 21st century, died when a German bomb dropped on Woolworths – infuses this tale of the miracle of everyday existence with an elegiac profundity.

The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox

A magical book; doors between worlds; talking birds, vicious fairies and a trip to Purgatory ... Stuffed with literary allusion and mythic echoes from the Norse legends to Alan Garner, straddling dimensions and hopping genres with ease, this is a capacious, one-of-a-kind fantasy novel that’s worth getting lost in.

My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley

A short, sharp shock of a novel that anatomises a toxic relationship between mother and daughter. Riley’s icy style and uncanny ear for dialogue create unflinching prose that is funny and devastating by turns.

Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

This intricately written and absorbing historical crime thriller spans all levels of Georgian London, as a woman with her own secrets investigates a murder in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens.

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

Shortlisted for the Women’s prize, this follow-up to Homegoing confirms Gyasi’s blazing talent. Focusing on a family who emigrate from Ghana to the deep south in the US, it’s an investigation of science and faith, addiction and ambition, and the way trauma is passed down the generations.

In. by Will McPhail

The debut graphic novel from the New Yorker cartoonist is a beautiful, bittersweet portrait of modern life, with black and white panels bursting into sublime colour when isolated hipster Nick makes a genuine connection with others. McPhail is very funny on urban coffee-shop existence – “croissants aren’t making me happy any more” – but his tragicomedy will also make the heart swell.

Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan

An Edinburgh tenement building is haunted by tall stories and unnerving strangers, from William Burroughs to the devil’s daughter, in this weird and wonderful gothic confection.

The Manningtree Witches by AK Blakemore

Based on documents from the time, a striking debut about the women victimised in the 17th-century Essex witch trials that is both an amazingly fresh historical novel and a timeless meditation on the male abuse of power.

A River Called Time by Courttia Newland

A speculative epic of parallel Londons, set in a world where colonialism and slavery never happened, enables a superhero story that’s thought-provoking as well as action-packed.

The Rules of Revelation by Lisa McInerney

The rollercoaster conclusion to the Women’s prize-winning “unholy trinity” of big-hearted, sharp-mouthed novels set amid Cork’s seamy underbelly. A sideways look at modern Ireland, and a comic treat.

The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, translated by Philip Boehm

This year’s essential literary rediscovery was written as darkness descended in Nazi Germany. With the nightmarish absurdism of Kafka and the pace of a thriller, it follows a German-Jewish businessman’s attempts to flee the country: tense, terrifying and still horribly relevant today.

This One Sky Day by Leone Ross

Gloriously inventive magic realism set over a single day on a fictional Caribbean archipelago, where every inhabitant has a touch of supernatural power. Whimsy, romance, erotica and adventure collide in a literary feast for the senses.

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

A soaring epic of female adventure and wanderlust that ranges across decades and continents, from the early 20th century to the 21st, as a Hollywood star investigates the mysterious disappearance of an early aviator.

Slough House by Mick Herron

Spymaster Jackson Lamb may be getting a little cartoonish in this latest outing for the screwups and rejects of MI5, but Herron’s bone-dry farce of corruption and intrigue remains as delicious as ever.

Animal by Lisa Taddeo

Taddeo follows a nonfiction investigation of female desire, Three Women, with an excoriating debut novel that puts female rage in the spotlight. Her transgressive antiheroine, making a US road trip of revenge and self-discovery, is a wisecracking voice to relish (out on 24 June).

The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam

In this sparky satire of startup culture and the modern search for meaning, a computer scientist who launches a social media app with her husband has to find her own voice, both in the boardroom and her marriage. Smart and funny on culture clashes, male-female dynamics and the cult of wellness.

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders

Why is fiction important and what makes a great story? The Booker winner teaches Russian literature at Syracuse University in the US and this enjoyable collection of essays channels that expertise, diving into classic short stories by Chekhov, Tolstoy and Gogol. A masterclass from a warm and engagingly enthusiastic companion.

Real Estate by Deborah Levy

The concluding book in Levy’s “living autobiography” trilogy sees her travelling between London, New York, Mumbai and Paris reflecting on creativity, security and what makes a home as she approaches her 60th birthday. Witty, honest and hypnotically allusive, this brilliantly crafted memoir interrogates women’s quest for artistic and emotional freedom.

Rememberings by Sinéad O’Connor

From childhood thieving to publicly ripping up a picture of the Pope, O’Connor is known for sticking two fingers up at authority. This unapologetic account of her rollercoaster life and career is full of heart, humour and cameos from figures such as Prince, or as she calls him “ol fluffy cuffs”.

Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain by Sathnam Sanghera

A concise, well researched and accessible primer to a history too often whitewashed or overlooked, Empireland shows how the legacy of our colonial past saturates so much of the “Britishness” that we take for granted today.

Breathtaking: Inside the NHS in a Time of Pandemic by Rachel Clarke

Written from the frontline of history – at nights, on a palliative care ward – this is a book filled with rage and compassion that should become required reading for anyone considering a career in medicine or politics.

Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston

In an entertaining account of the life and death of Robert Maxwell, the author of A Very English Scandal charts the press baron’s vast appetites, ambition and feud with Rupert Murdoch. It ends with the man Private Eye nicknamed “the bouncing Czech” emptying the Mirror pension fund before disappearing from his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine – named after the now equally infamous youngest of his nine children.

The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel

If you’ve never read a deeply personal, stomach-shakingly funny, existential graphic memoir about exercise, mortality and self-improvement, start with this one by the talented artist behind Fun Home.

In the Thick of It: The Private Diaries of a Minister by Alan Duncan

Some politicians’ diaries disappoint by pulling their punches and offering little in the way of political gossip. This isn’t one of them. Duncan describes Gavin Williamson as a “venomous self-seeking little shit”, Priti Patel a “brassy monster”, and Michael Gove an “unctuous freak”. And that’s to say nothing of Boris Johnson and Brexit …

The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020 by Rachel Kushner

In a collection spanning 20 years, Kushner is as sharp writing about partying as politics, cultural history or motorbike racing. To a great writer, everything is copy, and Kushner has a more interesting life to draw on than most.

The Heartbeat of Trees: Embracing Our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature by Peter Wohlleben

A simultaneously stimulating and soothing blend of nature writing and science, this detailed examination of the consciousness of trees may disappoint readers who want to commune with the forest, but strongly encourages tree hugging for our own, human sake.

I Belong Here: A Journey Along the Backbone of Britain by Anita Sethi

After she was subjected to a racist attack on a train, Mancunian writer Sethi was left anxious, claustrophobic and longing for open spaces. This account of her pilgrimage across the Pennines explores ideas of estrangement, home and belonging.

Many Different Kinds of Love by Michael Rosen

In the darkest days of the pandemic last year came news that the former children’s laureate was seriously ill with Covid. This affecting anthology is his attempt to piece together the 47 days he spent in intensive care. Darkly funny poems sit alongside messages from his wife, Emma, and extracts from his “patient’s diary” recorded by the nurses and care workers who saved his life.

Ancestors: A Prehistory of Britain in Seven Burials by Alice Roberts

A winning combination of groundbreaking genetic science and real, human empathy, this exploration of seven burial sites explains who we are and how we came to be here.

One of Them: An Eton College Memoir by Musa Okwonga

An elegantly crafted memoir that weaves together the two strands of Okwonga’s early life takes in the rise of the far right in his mostly white, working-class hometown and his time at Eton. The result is a unique insight into race and class in Britain today.

The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of the Social Life of Illness by Suzanne O’Sullivan

Some people call it mass hysteria; some grisi siknis (crazy sickness) or “mass psychogenic illness”. What neurologist O’Sullivan makes clear, in this fascinating and compassionate account, is that these illnesses are real, that they sometimes allow voiceless people to make themselves heard and that, with the right support, those people can be helped.

From Spare Oom to War Drobe: Travels in Narnia with My Nine-Year-Old Self by Katherine Langrish

A wonderful companion to CS Lewis’s Narnia novels, which captures the magic of books as a doorway into other worlds while also thoughtfully exploring Lewis’s religious didacticism.

How to Make the World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers by Tim Harford

As presenter of Radio 4’s More or Less, Harford is a calm voice in the often confusing and clamorous world of statistics. With its 10 simple rules for understanding numbers, this book demystifies maths and gives its power back to the people, taking away the advantage from those who would use statistics to bamboozle us.

Stronger: Changing Everything I Knew About Women’s Strength by Poorna Bell

Bell took up powerlifting after the death of her husband and can now lift more than twice her own body weight. In this defiant and reflective memoir she examines ideas around women and strength, resulting in a challenging, positive and powerful call to arms. Muscled arms.

Helgoland by Carlo Rovelli, translated by Erica Segre and Simon Carnell

Travelogue meets biography meets a masterful explanation of quantum theory in this warm and fascinating account of what happened when young Werner Heisenberg went to Helgoland in 1925.

All the Young Men: A Memoir of Love, Aids and Chosen Family in the American South by Ruth Coker Burks

A perfect real-life counterpoint to Russell T Davies’s It’s a Sin, All the Young Men recalls how Burks held hands, cooked meals and fought for care for hundreds of men stigmatised and abandoned as they died of Aids. It’s a tender and bracing reminder of all-too-recent history.

Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes

Pandora didn’t have a box – and that’s just one of the things you’ll learn from this funny, geeky guide to Greek myth by the standup classicist.

Explaining Humans: What Science Can Teach Us about Life, Love and Relationships by Camilla Pang

A writer with autism spectrum disorder uses scientific concepts to help her understand human behaviour – and other humans have a lot to learn from her about both.

Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre

The stranger-than-fiction story of Ursula Kuczynski, a 20th-century secret agent whose remarkable work changed the course of history.

Thinking Again by Jan Morris

A collection of diary entries, this last book by the celebrated travel writer shows a remarkable mind, a generous spirit and an imagination undimmed.

Bessie Smith by Jackie Kay

Originally published in 1997, this richly inventive biography details the Scottish poet’s lifelong love affair with a “libidinous, raunchy, fearless blueswoman”.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

This family saga about black twins in the US, one of whom takes on a white identity, has been a critical and commercial smash.

Summer by Ali Smith

The triumphant conclusion to Smith’s seasonal quartet explores the biggest themes – war, love, family, climate, art – with wit and heart.

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Soaked in love, agony and booze, the Booker-winning tale of a young boy and his alcoholic mother in 1980s Glasgow.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

The Pointless host’s all-conquering crime debut is a cosy caper in an upmarket retirement village.

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell

Shortlisted for the International Booker, unsettling ghost stories from the Argentinian author.

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

A virgin birth in postwar south London? This wry, witty tale of a stifled journalist finding new horizons as she investigates an unlikely claim is a bittersweet treat.

The Gospel of the Eels: A Father, a Son and the World’s Most Enigmatic Fish by Patrik Svensson

A gorgeously evocative blend of science, nature writing and family memoir that explores a father-son relationship – and eels.

Wild Child: A Journey Through Nature by Dara McAnulty, illustrated by Barry Falls

From the prize-winning young naturalist, this is a dreamy dive into the natural world to thrill wildlife fans of six-plus.

Good News: Why the World Is Not as Bad as You Think by Rashmi Sirdeshpande, illustrated by Adam Hayes

Learn to spot fake news and celebrate the best of humanity in this mood-lifting global overview for readers of seven and up.

Noah’s Gold by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, illustrated by Steven Lenton

What happens when a school trip leaves six kids stranded on an island – and the entire internet is turned off? A gently funny story for eight-plus, with a warm, classic feel.

The House of Serendipity by Lucy Ivison, illustrated by Catharine Collingridge

Scandalous secrets meet riotous hilarity in this glorious 1920s-set romp starring a young dressmaking duo, perfect for readers of nine to 12.

Starboard by Nicola Skinner, illustrated by Flavia Sorrentino

An escaped steamship, estranged best friends, a talking map and a fabulous voyage add up to a thrillingly original story for 10-plus.

Something I Said by Ben Bailey Smith

Smart young comedian Carmichael Taylor is on a journey of self-discovery – from trouble at school to American TV star (maybe). Witty and touching, this book is ideal for 10-plus readers who love wordplay and wild, looping tangents.

You’re the One That I Want by Simon James Green

Shy, ordinary Freddie is terrified of auditioning for Grease, but gorgeous newcomer Zach seems determined to seduce him in the props cupboard. A hilariously rude, sweetly addictive YA romance.

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Only two black students attend an exclusive US high school – and now an anonymous texter is trying to destroy their reputations in this tense, compelling YA thriller that will appeal to fans of Karen McManus.

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

Three sisters vanished as children and came back strangely changed. Now Grey, the eldest, has vanished again. Can she be saved once more? A gorgeous, grisly modern fairytale for 14-plus.

Bad Habits by Flynn Meaney

When rebel girl Alex sets out to stage The Vagina Monologues at her Catholic boarding school, she’s hoping to be expelled – but things don’t go according to plan. A frank, feminist and outrageously funny YA novel.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

#JUST FOR BOOKS #Book List #book review

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meddlewithmycase · 4 years ago

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Catherine Howard (c. 1523 – 13 February 1542) was queen consort of England from 1540 until 1541 as the fifth wife of Henry VIII. She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, cousin to Anne Boleyn (the second wife of Henry VIII), and niece to Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. Thomas Howard was a prominent politician at Henry's court, and he secured her a place in the household of Henry's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, where she caught the King's interest. She married him on 28 July 1540 at Oatlands Palace in Surrey, just 19 days after the annulment of his marriage to Anne. He was 49, and she was still a teenager, at about 17 years old.

Catherine was one of the daughters of Lord Edmund Howard (c. 1478 – 1539) and Joyce Culpeper (c. 1480 – c. 1528). Her father's sister, Elizabeth Howard, was the mother of Anne Boleyn. Therefore, Catherine Howard was the first cousin of Anne Boleyn, and the first cousin once removed of Lady Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth I), Anne's daughter by Henry VIII. She also was the second cousin of Jane Seymour, as her grandmother Elizabeth Tilney was the sister of Seymour's grandmother Anne Say. As a granddaughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk (1443–1524), Catherine had an aristocratic pedigree. Her father was not wealthy, being the third son among 21 children and disfavoured in the custom of primogeniture, by which the eldest son inherits all his father's estate.

Catherine was sent with some of her siblings to live in the care of her father's stepmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. The Dowager Duchess presided over large households at Chesworth House in Horsham in Sussex, and at Norfolk House in Lambeth where dozens of attendants, along with her many wards—usually the children of aristocratic but poor relatives—resided. While sending young children to be educated and trained in aristocratic households other than their own was common for centuries among European nobles, supervision at both Chesworth House and Lambeth was apparently lax. The Dowager Duchess was often at Court and seems to have had little direct involvement in the upbringing of her wards and young female attendants.

As a result of the Dowager Duchess's lack of discipline, Catherine became influenced by some older girls who allowed men into the sleeping areas at night for entertainment. The girls were entertained with food, wine, and gifts stolen from the kitchens. Catherine was not as well educated as some of Henry's other wives, although, on its own, her ability to read and write was impressive enough at the time. Her character has often been described as vivacious, giggly and brisk, but never scholarly or devout. She displayed great interest in her dance lessons, but would often be distracted during them and make jokes. She also had a nurturing side for animals, particularly dogs.

In the Duchess's household at Horsham, in around 1536, Catherine began music lessons with two teachers, one of whom was Henry Mannox. Mannox's exact age is unknown; although it has recently been stated that he was in his late thirties, perhaps 36, at the time, this is not supported by Catherine's biographers. Evidence exists that Mannox was not yet married, which would be highly unusual for someone from his background at the time to have reached mid-thirties without being married - he married sometime in the late 1530s, perhaps 1539, and there is also some evidence that he was of an age with two other men serving in the household, including his cousin Edward Waldegrave (who was in his late teens or early twenties from 1536-8). These pieces of evidence indicate that Mannox too was in his early to mid-twenties in 1538.

Catherine's uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, found her a place at Court in the household of the King's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. As a young and attractive lady-in-waiting, Catherine quickly caught Henry's eye. The King had displayed little interest in Anne from the beginning, but on Thomas Cromwell's failure to find a new match for Henry, Norfolk saw an opportunity. The Howards may have sought to recreate the influence gained during Anne Boleyn's reign as queen consort. According to Nicholas Sander, the religiously conservative Howard family may have seen Catherine as a figurehead for their fight by expressed determination to restore Roman Catholicism to England. Catholic Bishop Stephen Gardiner entertained the couple at Winchester Palace with "feastings".

As the King's interest in Catherine grew, so did the house of Norfolk's influence. Her youth, prettiness and vivacity were captivating for the middle-aged sovereign, who claimed he had never known "the like to any woman". Within months of her arrival at court, Henry bestowed gifts of land and expensive cloth upon Catherine. Henry called her his 'very jewel of womanhood' (that he called her his 'rose without a thorn' is likely a myth). The French ambassador, Charles de Marillac, thought her "delightful". Holbein's portrait showed a young auburn-haired girl with a characteristically hooked Howard nose; Catherine was said to have a "gentle, earnest face." King Henry and Catherine were married on 28 July 1540, the same day Cromwell was executed. She was a teenager and he was 49. Catherine adopted the motto, Non autre volonté que la sienne or "No other wish but his" using the English translation from French.

Catherine may have been involved during her marriage to the King with Henry's favorite male courtier, Thomas Culpeper, a young man who "had succeeded him in the Queen's affections", according to Dereham's later testimony. She had considered marrying Culpeper during her time as a maid-of-honor to Anne of Cleves. Culpeper called Catherine "my little, sweet fool" in a love letter. It has been alleged that in the spring of 1541 the pair were meeting secretly. Their meetings were allegedly arranged by one of Catherine's older ladies-in-waiting, Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford the widow of Catherine's executed cousin, George Boleyn, Anne Boleyn's brother.

Culpeper and Dereham were arraigned at Guildhall on 1 December 1541 for high treason. They were executed at Tyburn on 10 December 1541, Culpeper being beheaded and Dereham being hanged, drawn and quartered. According to custom, their heads were placed on spikes atop London Bridge. Catherine was beheaded with a single stroke of the executioner's axe.

Lady Rochford was executed immediately thereafter on Tower Green. Both bodies were buried in an unmarked grave in the nearby chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula, where the bodies of Catherine's cousins Anne and George Boleyn also lay.

*some portraits here are not of Catherine. The only one known to survive is done by Hans Holbein the younger.

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lawrenceop · 4 years ago

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HOMILY for Christ the King (EF)

Col 1:12-20; John 18:33-37

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the canonisation in 1970 of the forty martyrs of England and Wales by Pope St Paul VI, in St Peter’s Basilica. Today, we recall the heroic sacrifice and brave witness to the truth of forty of our countrymen, from the Prior of the London Charterhouse, St John Houghton, executed at Tyburn in 1535, to the Welsh Jesuit St David Lewis, executed in 1679. Over the course almost 150 years, hundreds of faithful Catholics from every walk of life in English society were executed by the State, martyred for their refusal to allow the State to interfere with the fundamental rights of the Church.

For as Pope Pius XI said in 1925 when he instituted today’s annual feast of Christ the King: “[The Church] has a natural and inalienable right to perfect freedom and immunity from the power of the state; and that in fulfilling the task committed to her by God of teaching, ruling, and guiding to eternal bliss those who belong to the kingdom of Christ, she cannot be subject to any external power.” (Quas primas, 31) The Church and her bishops may, of course, prudently choose to co-operate with the State, but only if this does not hinder the mission and raison d’être of the Church, which is to lead souls to Christ through the preaching of the Gospel in its fullness, and through the faithful administration of the Sacraments of salvation.

For, beautiful and valuable and precious though our life and our friendships in this present lifetime are, today’s feast, and the deaths of the martyrs remind us of an often forgotten truth in our secularised world. We live, ultimately, not for this life and its joys and pleasures, but rather, all of this present life, whether it be long or short, is a preparation for the life of the world to come; this life on earth is that short time given to us in God’s providence during which we learn to forsake sin and, by the grace of Christ, we hope to increase in charity, so that we can become true citizens of God’s heavenly Kingdom. So, on the wall of his cell in the Tower of London St Philip Howard scratched these words: “Quanto plus afflictionis pro Christo in hoc saeculo, tanto plus gloriae in futuro”; ‘The more suffering for Christ in this life, the more glory in heaven’. Fittingly then, in 2020, on this feast day of Christ the King, do we recall the witness of these faithful servants of Jesus Christ who would deny their worldly earthly kings rather to forsake Christ the true and universal King. Hence St Thomas More famously said that he died “the king’s good servant, but God’s first.”

The Church, therefore, must always point beyond this world, and call humanity to serve God’s kingdom, to repent of sin and prideful error, and so to be saved by Christ the King. Thus, commenting on today’s Gospel, Pope Pius XI said: “Before the Roman magistrate [Christ] declared that his kingdom was not of this world. The gospels present this kingdom as one which men prepare to enter by penance, and cannot actually enter except by faith and by baptism, which, though an external rite, signifies and produces an interior regeneration. This kingdom is opposed to none other than to that of Satan and to the power of darkness. It demands of its subjects a spirit of detachment from riches and earthly things, and a spirit of gentleness. They must hunger and thirst after justice, and more than this, they must deny themselves and carry the cross.” (Quas primas, 15)

The forty martyrs who we especially remember today exemplify the ultimate self-denial and carrying of the Cross that is demanded of us Christians. This group of English and Welsh Martyrs, just a small representation of the hundreds executed during the so-called Reformation, is composed of 13 diocesan priests (or secular clergy), 3 Benedictines, 3 Carthusians, 1 Brigittine, 2 Franciscans, 1 Augustinian, 10 Jesuits and 7 members of the laity, including 3 mothers. And all of them sacrificed everything for the sake of the Holy Mass and the Sacraments; for the unity of Christ’s Church in communion with the Pope; for the sake of the sacred Priesthood through whom we receive the Sacraments; and for the sake of Christ’s teaching on the sanctity of marriage and family life. Therefore, in our times and in our country, we honour these holy men and women, and we show ourselves to be their friends, if we love what they love. So, let us love the Mass and the one holy Catholic and apostolic Church; love the Holy Father and pray for him; love your clergy, pray for them and uphold them with care and help; love your husband, your wife, and as a family bear witness to the love and joy of the Gospel. For as Pope Francis says: “The triune God is a communion of love, and the family is its living reflection.” (Amoris lætitia, 11) The Christian family, therefore, bears witness as a vestige of the Holy Trinity; the presence of the loving God at work among us, extending the reign of Christ one household at a time. Therefore, enthrone Christ in your homes, in your families, and in your own hearts.

What does this entail? Pope Pius XI said, Jesus Christ “must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls”. The forty martyrs, again, demonstrate the consequence of being given over to the reign of Christ: we would be willing to die for the truths of the Gospel; willing to give up sin and to behave and act in ways that please God; willing to work and suffer in order to uphold the Kingdom of God in our world, while labouring to defeat the lies and falsehoods of the Enemy. However, it is most noteworthy in the accounts of their lives and their final words that the forty martyrs of England and Wales did all this without rancour or bitterness or anger or hatred. Instead, they spoke with humour, serenity, and humility, always acting with charity. For this is the genuine sign that Christ is their King. Let it be so for each of us too, especially in these difficult and polarised times. Hence Pope Pius XI said: “in a spirit of holy joy [let us] give ample testimony of [our] obedience and subjection to Christ.” For, as Pope Francis says, “we all have to let the joy of faith slowly revive as a quiet yet firm trust, even amid the greatest distress.” (Evangelii gaudium, 6) It is a joy that flows from a childlike confidence and trust in God’s love, in the victory of the Risen Lord Jesus; a joy that springs from a firm faith in divine Providence.

This is the joy of the martyr, of the subjects of Christ the King, for they know that, at the end, all of creation, all human history, all time and creatures shall fall “under the dominion of Christ. [And] in him is the salvation of the individual, in him is the salvation of society.” (Quas primas, 18) Hence Pope Pius XI, reflecting on the set-backs and seeming defeats that the Church has endured, and on the crises caused by persecutions and martyrdoms, gave witness to his trust in God’s Providence and his Kingship. He said: “the admirable wisdom of the Providence of God, who, ever bringing good out of evil, has from time to time suffered the faith and piety of men to grow weak, and allowed Catholic truth to be attacked by false doctrines, but always with the result that truth has afterwards shone out with greater splendour, and that men's faith, aroused from its lethargy, has shown itself more vigorous than before.” (Quas primas, 22)

My brothers and sisters, such is the time we live in: we witness the daily rise of anti-clericalism, the burning of churches and the destruction of Christian statues and images; doctrinal confusion and laxity, and the corruption of morals in every strata of society, and so on. And yet, with great confidence in the triumph of Gospel truth; with faith in the victory of the Lamb that was slain (as we recalled in today’s Officium); and with hope in the universal Kingship of Jesus Christ over the hearts of men and women, we can repeat in our time these words of St Robert Southwell, the Jesuit priest who was caught ministering in London. Shortly before his martyrdom at Tyburn he said: “It seems to me that I see the beginning of a religious life in England, of which we now sow in seeds of tears, that others hereafter may with joy carry in sheaves.”

May the joy of acknowledging Christ as King reign now in our hearts, and may God’s all powerful grace convert the hearts of our England and Wales, and all nations. As we prayed in today’s Collect, may “all the families of nations… be brought under the sweet yoke of [Christ’s] rule.” Amen!

#forty martyrs #england and wales #Church #Christ the King #salvation #heaven #hope #providence

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cicaklah · 4 years ago

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Okay I gotta ask about 'contractually obligated to write good omens fic'

Excellent because I’m very unlikely to ever finish it. This is based on an Actual Afternoon I Had with a good friend, the pub, the cheese plate, the polish barman with the salacious wink are all real, as is the memorial to war animals I lost my shit over. Sadly I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it.

I’m EXTREMELY old school GO fan, and didn’t really enjoy the series as much as I hoped I would, so I was going for more book vibe? idk.

Oh wait there's also this bit which sums up why this never got finished:

Me: I should write a GO fic about the bits of London I know and love

Me: Proceeds to write fic about bit of London I barely have been to.

The thing about London is that there is always a new pub, even if that pub has been there for four hundred years. That pub is new to you, therefore it is a new pub. In the case of The Running Horse, just up from Claridges, it was new to Crowley.

Aziraphale had recommended they meet there. “Fancy something a bit different hmm? I remember it being good. Went recently I think” he said. “Useful for a glass or two before the hangings.”

“They stopped hanging people at Tyburn two hundred years ago, angel,'' Crowley said.

It was a very nice pub though.The barman, handsome and Polish, handed him a generous, non regulation glass of whisky, and winked in a way that made Crowley think that the young man must have satanic heritage.*

*Satanic nuns always broke their vows, that was part of the job. Crowley himself had once wiled away a pleasant afternoon with an infernal sister, but ultimately, it didn’t really count as a temptation, and so felt like cheating on his diet.

He ordered the cheese plate, a good bottle of Champagne (that he didn’t even have to curse into oblivion), and waited for his heavenly partner.

Three hours later, an angel and a demon are staggering down Upper Brook Street and the gold plaques that indicate the better class of money launderer, and sloped semi-newtonianly towards Hyde Park. Aziraphale is talking about frogs, and frog spawn. Crowley says something about the French, because it is important to keep up appearances when currently (and seemingly eternally) British. You never know when someone will be watching.

They cross the road, sloshing as they go. The sunlight is golden, long summer evenings just as magical as they always are.

“THEY HAD NO CHOICE” the memorial read. The noble animals, carved in marble, gaze into the middle distance.

#meme me #wip ass pussy #wip meme #good omens #skylightpirate

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jezabelofthenorth · 5 years ago

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Maybe 2020 will be our year guys. I’ve compiled late 209 early 202 releases, I think we may be on to a promising star, maybe we’ll get that Tudor craze we’re always hearing about

Following in the Footsteps of Henry Tudor by Phil Carradice (30th September 2019)

In Following in the Footsteps of Henry Tudor, we hear of the many fascinating stories from Henry’s march and the places he visited – a journey that took just over two weeks. It was a time of treachery and double dealing but it culminated with the establishment of the Tudor dynasty, the end of the Wars of the Roses and the beginnings of the modern world.

Uncrowned Queen: The Fateful Life of Margaret Beaufort, Tudor Matriarch by Nicola Tallis (7 November 2019)

Against all odds, in 1485 Henry Tudor was victorious on the battlefield at Bosworth. Through Margaret’s royal blood Henry was crowned Henry VII, King of England, and Margaret became the most powerful woman in England – Queen in all but name.

The Brothers York: An English Tragedy by Thomas Penn (September 27th 2019) Brothers York is the story of three remarkable brothers, two of whom were crowned kings of England and the other an heir presumptive, whose antagonism was fuelled by the mistrust and vendettas of the age that brought their family to power. The house of York should have been the dynasty that the Tudors became. Its tragedy was that it devoured itself.

Martyrs of Henry VIII: Repression, Defiance, Sacrifice by John Matuiak ( 1 November 2019)

For these three unique individuals of widely contrasting backgrounds, temperaments and motives, drawn together at a critical watershed in English history by a common cause and destiny, the path to Tyburn was a long and painful one, paved with fear, hardships, vilification and intrigue.

The Sister Queens: Isabella & Catherine de Valois by Mary McGrigor (16 September 2019)

Two sisters: born nine years apart to a mad French king during the turbulent years of the Hundred Years War, the bitter series of conflicts that set the House of Plantagenet against the House of Valois. Catherine de Valois, the beautiful young bride of Henry V, conducted a passionate love affair with the young Owain Tudor, with whom she was to found the entire Tudor dynasty. Her sister Isabella was married aged seven to Richard II, subsequently fled England following his murder, only to find her country fatally divided. A gripping tale of love, exile and conflict in a time when even royal women had to fight for survival.

The Man Behind the Tudors: Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk by Kirsten Claiden-Yardley (30 January 2020)

During the course of the fifteenth century, he and his father would rise through the political and social ranks as a result of their loyal service to Edward IV and Richard III. In a tragic turn of events, all their hard work was undone at the Battle of Bosworth and his father was killed fighting for King Richard. Imprisoned for treason and stripped of his lands and titles, Thomas had to start from the beginning to gain the trust of a new king. He spent the next thirty-five years devoting his administrative, military and diplomatic skills to the Tudors whilst rebuilding his family fortunes and ensuring that his numerous children were well-placed to prosper

Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies by Hayley Nolan ( 1 November 2019)

So leave all notions of outdated and romanticised folklore at the door and forget what you think you know about one of the Tudors’ most notorious queens. She may have been silenced for centuries, but this urgent book ensures Anne Boleyn’s voice is being heard now.

Katherine Parr: Queen, Sinner, Survivor by Don Matzat (15 Apr 2020)

Unlike other biographies, which have focused on the court politics of the Tudor era, the romantic desires of Henry VIII that drove his serial marriages, and the military and economic challenges to England at the time, this biography remembers the central influence of religious belief on the king and queen, and explains how Katherine's devotion to the self-questioning protestant ethos had a directing influence on her actions. In particular, the author identifies her seminal work, 'The Lamentation of a Sinner', as the key to unlocking Katherine's personality.

Mary and Philip: The Marriage of Tudor England and Habsburg Spain by Alexander Samson (31 Jan 2020)

The co-monarchy of Mary I and Philip II put England at the heart of early modern Europe. This positive reassessment of their joint reign counters a series of parochial, misogynist and anti-Catholic assumptions, correcting the many myths that have grown up around the marriage and explaining the reasons for its persistent marginalisation in the historiography of sixteenth-century England

#books #book recommendations #henry vii #margaret beaufort #catherine of valois #anne boleyn #mary i #catherine parr

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sixth-light · 5 years ago

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You know which bit of recent demimonde history I’d love to hear about in a future RoL book? Exactly what happened between Mama Thames and Lea when Mama Thames took over the tidal Thames. Obviously by ~2012 Lea is part of the family, but how did they interact in 1960-whatever? What did that feel like for both of them? Did Lea give Mama Thames genius loci tips and/or introduce her to people? What was Lea’s relationship with the upper Thames family like before and after that? How do they think of their relationship - the rest of the tidal Thames family are Mama Thames’ daughters, do they consider themselves as friends or sisters or cousins or...? How did Mama Thames introduce Lea to her nursing friends?

Also, why did Lea become part of Mama Thames’ family and Walbrook didn’t? Obviously Walbrook has a lot of painful history about family, but I wonder if there was ever a point or opportunity where they could have connected, and it didn’t happen. And, leading on from that, Walbrook’s been a genius loci for about forever, she’s about the same age as or older than Father Thames (it’s interesting that Beverley says ‘nobody’s that old’ when Peter asks if Walbrook could be older, when Miss Tefeidiad is older and Bev’s spent time with her). We know she doesn’t get on with Mama Thames and her daughters, but I wonder what her relationship was like with Father Thames and male!Beverley, William of Tyburn, etc, or if it was the same as it is now, and they just didn’t speak.

#rivers of london #the Rivers #genii locorum #lea #walbrook #mama thames

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mansdominerad · 1 year ago

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Death, plague and poverty

Are suffered by the living

Still, for the restless, angry dead

There will be no forgiving

#pers #love this song so much #i am crazy about this motif #Spotify

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shalebridge-cradle · 4 years ago

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Historical References in What Are You Going to Do With Your Life? Chapters 4-6

Chapter 4

Whoever is getting executed… would probably be better off at Tyburn, for all the indignity they will suffer. Tyburn was where the regular criminals got hanged, including the ringleaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace (see below). Tower Hill was the next step up (this is where George Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell and both Thomas and Edward Seymour were executed), then Tower Green, where Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard were beheaded.

The song Anne sings (and is referenced in the opening notes) is called With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm, written in 1934 and found here. The three queens referenced in the last verse are the same three that appear in this scene – Jane Seymour, Anne Boleyn, and Catherine Parr.

Anne Boleyn is trying hard not to reference all the people she saw tortured and killed while haunting the Tower, including her sister-in-law Jane Parker-Boleyn and her cousin Katherine Howard. And also likely bemoaning the fact she can’t play with Henry’s mace-gun.

Catherine’s attempted mugging is a reference to two things – her near-execution for heresy during her third marriage, and being held hostage by the Pilgrimage of Grace during her second (a rebellion against Henry’s break from the Catholic church – her husband at the time, John Neville, was a Catholic who wasn’t directly involved, and some participants attempted to force him to support their cause).

Catherine Parr was the first English queen to be Queen of both England and Ireland, following Henry’s adoption of the title of King of Ireland in 1542.

Chapter 5

Anne Boleyn was charged with adultery, treason and incest – but not witchcraft. Henry VIII, however, did claim he had been seduced into the marriage by ‘sortilege’, a French word meaning either ‘deception’ or ‘spells’.

Anna’s comment about Parr’s looks was recorded by Eustace Chapuys, Holy Roman ambassador to England. Cleves was quoted saying regarding the marriage, “Madam Parr is taking a great burden on herself”. She was right.

“When you started opening and closing that locket in front of me, it made me feel… angry. Is that what you want?” Henry gave Jane Seymour a locket with a miniature portrait of himself in it, which Jane started opening and closing in Queen Anne’s presence. Anne ripped the locket off of her with such force, she injured her hand in doing so.

Jane Seymour’s only reported involvement in her husband’s politics was in 1536, where she asked the king to pardon the participants of the Pilgrimage of Grace. The king refused, and supposedly reminded her of Boleyn’s fate should she go against him in the future.

‘Yea’ and ‘Nay’ were used concurrently with ‘Yes’ and ‘No’, but in different contexts. ‘Yea’ and ‘Nay’ were used for positively-phrased questions (“Will they go?” “Do you think he deserved it?”), with yea as confirmation and nay as contradiction.‘Yes’ and ‘No’ were for negatively-phrased questions (“Will they not go?” “Doesn’t that hurt?”), with no as confirmation and yes as a contradiction.

The false claims Anne makes about her personal appearance are most likely to be attributed to Nicholas Sander, a Catholic propagandist who was in exile during the reign of Elizabeth I. Her skeleton was exhumed during Queen Victoria’s reign – she was about 5’ 3”, and did not have a sixth finger on either hand.

Parr’s comments are in reference to The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir. The assumption about Howard being an ‘empty-headed wanton’ is made on page 3.

Chapter 6

Boleyn was “going through some stuff” in the 1600s because Elizabeth I died in 1603. The events she makes reference to are the Great Plague of London, the Great Fire of London, and the English Civil War.

How is it that the country thought the best move was to decapitate the body politic? The ‘body politic’ is a long-standing metaphor by which a state, society or church is compared to a biological organism (usually a human body). In a monarchy, the king was usually depicted as either the heart or the head of this body, the latter shown in this terrifying book cover.

Parr’s nightmare is reference to when her tomb was opened in 1782 by John Locust. He reports that the body was in good condition, than that the flesh on her arm was ‘white and moist’, and that he took a few locks of her hair before sealing her up again. The next time the coffin was opened, nothing was left but a skeleton.

Maria? I cannot see you. Do not leave me alone. Where are you? María de Salinas, Baroness Willoughby de Eresby and ‘Maria on the drums’, reportedly held Catherine of Aragon as she died, having forced her way into Kimbolton Castle to see her. Catherine Parr was reported to have learned Spanish after becoming queen, and so the language is translated.

Henry VIII’s last wife was young enough to be named after his first. Gross.

“What happened to Mary? Was she queen? Was she happy?” Queen? Yes. Happy? Hard no. Mary I was reported to have executed roughly 300 or so people during her reign. Even if we use the lower estimate of 50,000 people over 36 years, Henry VIII executed significantly more of his subjects per year (about 1400) than Mary did throughout her whole tenure as queen. It does not in any way excuse her actions (or the actions of monarchs before and after her), but the name ‘Bloody Mary’ likely comes from being on the wrong side of England’s conflict of faith.

The card game being played by Boleyn, Howard and von Kleve is Primero, which was popular in the Tudor period. You knock on the table and say “Vada” (Go) when you’re happy with your hand. If someone else has also knocked, you face off – the better hand wins.

‘The Cat Came Back’ is a comic song written in 1893 about a cat (colour varies depending on the version) that refuses to leave, despite what his reluctant owner does. I hate the song, but I like the pun.

The word beginning with ‘p’ that Howard was going to say was ‘poison’. There were rumours, also thrown around after the deaths of Catherine Parr and Edward VI, that Catherine of Aragon was poisoned. The black growth discovered on her heart during embalming wasn’t understood to be cancer at the time. This theory was mentioned by Christina of Denmark, one of Henry’s potential fourth wives and relative to Catherine of Aragon, as a reason she had no desire to marry Henry (amongst others). Boleyn refutes this potential cause of death; she, along with Henry, was a possible suspect.

(Side note: Christina of Denmark was pretty great. She reportedly struggled to keep a straight face while the English ambassador told her how gentle and kind Henry was, and supposedly said “If I had two heads, one should be at the King of England’s disposal”. She was out of the running pretty definitively, though not due to her ‘match with the Duke of Milan’ as per the show. He was dead as of 1535, and Christina was still a widow from 1537 to 1539, when Henry was pursuing her. She was married to the future Duke of Lorraine (Anne of Cleves’ old betrothed) in 1541.)

“…even though Boleyn will probably outplay me again.” I was researching whether or not Catherine of Aragon was reported to have played cards, and in doing so found many Etsy listings and one oil painting by a William Maw Egley. The line is a reference to both the events of the painting and Anne taking the position of queen from Catherine.

#the cradle will write #What Are You Going to Do With Your Life: Work

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Saint of the day September 07

Bl. John Duckett, 1644 A.D. Martyr of England, born in Underwinder, Yorkshire, John was ordained in 1639 at Douai. He studied three years in Paris and then returned to the English mission at Durham, where he worked until his arrest and martyrdom on September 7 at Tyburn with Blessed Ralph Corby. They were hanged, drawn, and quartered. Both were beatified in 1929.

Bl. Ralph Corby, 1644 A.D. Jesuit martyr of England, also known as Ralph Corbington. Born in Maynooth Ireland, on March 25, 1598, he was trained at St. Omer, France, Seville, and Valladolid, Spain, before receiving ordination. He entered the Jesuits in 1631, and volunteered in 1632 for the dangerous mission in England He was given responsibility for the area around Durham Ralph worked for twelve years before he was arrested near Newcastle with Blessed John Duckett. He was martyred by being hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tybum on September 7. Ralph was beatified in 1929.

St. Alcmund, 781 A.D. Bishop and miracle worker, also called Alchmund in some lists. He was the bishop of Hexham in Northumberland, England, in 767, succeeding to the see established by St. Wilfrid. His tenure as bishop lasted until his death on September 7, 781. He was buried near St. Acca beside the Hexham church, but invasions by the Danes decimated that area of England, and the grave was forgotten. In the eleventh century, St. Alcmund appeared to a parishioner, telling him to inform the sacrist of Durham, a man named Alfred or Alured, to move the bones. Alfred agreed, but he took one bone from the remains when the grave was opened. No one could move the remains of St. Alemund until that one bone was placed among the rest. In 1154, Hexham was again invaded, and the bodies of the Hexham saints were gathered into one shrine. These remains were destroyed in 1296, when Scottish Highlanders attacked the region.

St. Tilbert, 789 A.D. Bishop of Hexham, England, from 781 A.D. He was the eighth bishop of that see. Simeon of Durham wrote of him.

St. Diuma, 7th century. Bishop of Mercia and companion of St. Cedd. An Irishman, Diuma was praised by St. Bede.

St. Madalberta. Benedictine abbess, the daughter of Sts. Vincent Madelgarus and Waldetrudis. St Aldegund was her superior and aunt who founded. Maubeuge, where Madalberta took the veil. She became abbess in 697. Her sister was St. Aldetrudis.

St. Regina. She was betrothed to the proconsul Olybrius, but refused to renounce her faith to marry him, for which she was tortured and was beheaded at Alesia. Feastday, September 7

St. Grimonia. French legend relates that St. Grimonia was the daughter of a pagan Irish chief, and that when she was twelve years old; she was converted to Christianity and made a vow of perpetual virginity. Her father, in defiance of or not understanding such a vow, wished her to marry, and when she refused, shut her up. Grimonia escaped and fled to France, where she became a solitary in the forest of Thierache in Picardy. Here the contemplation of the beauty of created things would often bring her to the state of ecstasy. After a prolonged search, the messengers of her father traced her to her retreat, where they before her the alternatives of return in a forced marriage or death. Grimonia remained firm and so she was beheaded on April 20th in an unknown year. A chapel was built over her grave which became famous for miracles, and around it, grew up a town called from its origin, LaChapelle. On September 7, 1231, her relics, together with those of Saint Proba (Preuve), another Irish woman, who is supposed to have suffered with Grimonia, were enshrined at Les Quielles. The facts about St. Grimonia are hard to come by; she may have been a solitary who lost her life in defending her chastity.

Bl. John Maid, Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr of Japan, the adopted son of Blessed Louis Maki. A Christian, he refused to abjure the faith when arrested and was burned alive at Nagasaki. Feastday, September 7.

Bl. Louis Maki, Roman Catholic Martyr of Japan. He was a Japanese layman who allowed Blessed Thomas Tsughi to celebrate Mass in his home. Arrested, Louis was burned alive at Nagasaki, Japan. Feastday Sept 7

The Martyrs of Kosice, Martyrs of Hungary, sometimes called Mark Crisin. He was born into a famed Croat family and studied at the Germanicum in Rome. Ordained, he returned to Hungary and became a canon at Esztergom. He was assigned to missionary work near Kosice, Slovakia, with two Jesuits - Hungarian Stephen Pongracz and Melchior Grodecz, a Czech. In 1619 they were taken prisoner by invading Calvinist troops under George Racoczk. Tortured, Marek and his companions were martyred. They were canonized in 1995 as the Martyrs of Kosice by Pope John Paul II. Sept. 7

S.G. Francis Mary Galluzzi, SJ https://www.jesuit.org.sg/sept-francis-mary-galluzzi-sj/

Blessed Ralph Corby, SJ https://www.jesuit.org.sg/sept-ralph-corby-sj/

Blessed Thomas Tsuji, SJ https://www.jesuit.org.sg/sept-thomas-tsuji-sj/

Saints Melchior Grodziecki and Stephen Pongracz , SJ https://www.jesuit.org.sg/sept-melchior-grodziecki-stephen-pongracz-sj/

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