Air Conditioned Comfort

My dreams of becoming a writer of something worthwhile have, since the UK2010 trip, crashed and burned, with scorched wings trembling on a gritty ground. I have all the physical tools - now and iPad among them - but they all lie dormant save this one currently being used. This dream death has left me a little breathless, with the wind whooshed out of me.

But, you see, it may be a good thing - it may be like growing up. It may seem a yawning hopelessness now, but this loss may lead to some grounding in the present that has been lacking in my psyche. Approaching the workplace with some seriousness now, I am thinking about my job as more important than I have done. There was within a feeling of "just passing through", and now I see that my innate mother-given respect for any task in front of me has stood by me well. This attitude was drilled in me and I am glad of it.

On a domestic note, my spouse has laudably ripped the rug out from under all the living and dining room furniture (well, he did move it all first), exposing quite a nice dark hardwood floor. The rug had been there, we estimate, about 40 years. It appeared so anyway. This deed will completely change how we interact with our living room space in a good way. Also, the air conditioner in my office is up and humming. Let summer come in!

Enough about me. I am reading Robert Hutchinson's "House of Treason" and find it very informative regarding the ill-fated Tudor House of Howard, which brought two queens to be beheaded along with a cast of several men who sojourned in the Tower. Hopefully I will bring together some thoughts about these folks soon.

In a Good Place

There's our Henry Sext, contemplative in York Minster, next to his father, who ruled with the sword. He has the look of melancholy, and is the last in the line of sculpted kings here.

The UK trip, my first overseas trip in nearly twenty years, was a mixture of glorious sightseeing and personal discomfort, as I contracted pneumonia, probably on the plane ride over, and never fully recovered. That said, my mother and I did not hesitate to tramp around York, a city with a vivid center core. She picked up my ailment in the second week, making travel home challenging. The grounding of everything due to the effects of the ash of the Icelandic volcano ended the day before we were set to fly - and we were able to get home with hopes that we did not cause much trouble.

My book buying sickness was rampant, as I had to buy a piece of carryon luggage to deal with its results. Hopefully, they will fuel this blog. Now to get beyond the travel letdown and go back to my career as a tax collector in this New York city. Much to digest and learn - and grateful for the time away.

Silken Bonds

A few years ago I first bumped into Jane Shore, the celebrated mistress of King Edward IV. She was being examined by a biographer, who was fleshing out a likely picture of her life as a late 15th century courtesan. Recently, however, I met her in a pleasantly lively novel by Vanora Bennett - "Figures in Silk". However, it is her sister Isabel who turns into an achiever of another type - that of a prosperous silk merchant.

Her capability and verve in establishing the prominence of the House of Claver is set against a hopeless and intense affair with an unattainable personage. This is almost a bifurcation, aptitude and cleverness on the one side of her life, and the heartfelt ambivalence in her illicit relationship comprising another side of her life.

Jane and Isabel are quite different, in appearance, attitude and modes of survival. However, they near each other by story's end. This is a good story although some of the character depictions may be a little of a stretch. It is a fine look at the merchant class in 15th century England, however, and worth reading for that reason included.

The Stolen Crown

I always like meeting new people, especially new English dead people. Susan Higginbotham's latest work delves into the emotions, thoughts, and precarious lives of Katherine Woodville and Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. My knowledge of the period (Wars of the Roses) is incomplete, though I am trying to ingest all of the facts, feelings and fictions of the era for a good feel of what I will be looking for in England in the near future.

Edward IV wedded Elizabeth Woodville in secret and tried to keep it so as long as possible. After the union was discovered/proclaimed, a passel of Woodvilles made advantageous marriage alliances with nobles and/or their heirs, including our headlining pair. Katherine (Kate), the youngest of the tribe links up with Henry (Harry) and the rest of their lives are spent in the furious uncertainty of the time of the Wars. Especially interesting is Higginbotham's portrayal of Richard of Gloucester, who, in the early days, was best friend to Harry - some time before he took the crown and assumed the name of Richard III. I found it to be the most plausible of the solutions to the Princes in the Tower mystery, totally fitting in with the character of those involved.

As far as the title of the book is concerned, the crown was stolen more than once - these thefts could embody the dynamic shifts in power between the red and the white and are their core. I'd say - read this book for a number of reasons, all good.

Academic Would I Be

I am pushing through the last twenty pages of an insightful book - "The Hollow Crown" by Miri Rubin - that is, despite the author's position stated in the introduction to the contrary, an "academic" work. It reminds me of a book I slogged through in college - "A History of Greece" by A. R. Bury (or maybe it is Burns? - anyway a dense work that left me uninspired). This present book is an ambitious review of the Late Middle Ages in Britain that assumes a good amount of prior knowledge of the history of said time period.

The book is full of insights and interesting facts. I noted that the words "buoyancy" and "buoyant" occur at several junctures, usually applied to trade. The style is such that concerted concentration is needed, and at times I have driven through pages without remembering what I read (a defect in me, not the book) and having to backtrack.

This is not a traditional history - the kings are covered but the wool trade has just as much attention. I was fortunate to know the bones of the period (1307 - 1485), and this work was a deep enhancement of said knowledge. I learned that I have not the tenacity of an academic - perhaps my job takes that aspect out of me - but wish I could retain the information imparted by a work such as "The Hollow Crown" is.

Illuminated

Should one write about a book that made one cry right away? Or should one wait a bit. I am going to try for right away....

"The Illuminator" by Brenda Rickman Vantrease is, I gather, a first novel - which surprises me. The plotting is so perfect with rarely a wasted scene that one would suspect it to be the work of a seasoned author. Many figures of late 14th century England are either participants or in the shadows. John of Gaunt's palace sacked, Boy King Richard meeting with the rebels - these events are background colors in this intricate painting of a book that has at its core a painted altarpiece done by an artist in captivity.

The anchoress Julian of Norwich is a prominent person, with her vision of the Mother Love of Christ shining through the events of the story. This permeation makes me want to explore the stories of female mystics of the time. And Wycliffe's influence is shot through the text both in the efforts at the translation of the Bible into English and a result of mob rule without respect for the established Church. It is altogether a rippling time of convulsive change, a fine era to explore by reading an architecturally fine novel.

Stoke Field

Soon I will be traveling to England for a stay of two weeks, basing in York. At this point my main concern will be in the visiting of battlefields at least relatively close to York. With this in mind, I am turning to accounts of pertinent battles and have just finished "Stoke Field - the Last Battle of the Wars of the Roses" by David Baldwin. Particularly enjoyable is his device of using quotes from early sources in the original diction and spelling.

Stoke is a fine "what-if" battle, between the newly conquering Henry VII who is fighting an uprising led by the Earl of Lincoln, a Plantagenet heir in support of the pretender Lambert Simnel. Lincoln's army is a compound of Swiss/German mercenaries, Irish recruits, English lords who had much to gain from overthrowing the current ruler, and professional archers and other soldiers. Henry's Royal Army appears to have been more homogeneous. The Earl of Oxford was his principal leader, and Henry's wing of the army was in support of the main forces led by him. Apparently the battle surged for three hours or more, with the rebel lines finally breaking down and its soldiers put to flight and in the main, death.

What if the Pretender had won, and the Earl of Lincoln had become king? The Tudor dynasty never to have happened, and Henry Tudor relegated to a blip in the Wars of the Roses, which probably would have continued? Of course what-ifs of history are as useful as they are in one's personal life - that is to say a mere exercise with little real import - but fun to run through.

I would like to see this battlefield, but we will not have access to a car - perhaps we can hire someone to take us there.