This book looks to be targeted at me ..............

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/184529873X/ref=pe_5301_20853201_pe_ar_v2

....... except that the author is a noted Tudorite. Furthermore, I understood him to have died a few years ago but is publishing a brand new book.

The reports of his death may be greatly exaggerated, Stephen. He seems
to be very much alive. I'm not sure that he's a Tudorite so much as
viciously anti-Richard III.

Joan
---
author of This Time, a novel about Richard III in the 21st-century
website: http://www.joanszechtman.com/
blog: http://rtoaaa.blogspot.com/
ebook: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/3935
2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards General Fiction Finalist

--- In , "stephenmlark"
<stephenmlark@...> wrote:
>
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/184529873X/ref=pe_5301_20853201_pe_ar_v2
>
> ....... except that the author is a noted Tudorite. Furthermore, I
understood him to have died a few years ago but is publishing a brand
new book.
>

Reports of his death seem to be .............. wishful thinking.

----- Original Message -----
From: Joan
To:
Sent: Monday, July 05, 2010 4:17 PM
Subject: Re: This book looks to be targeted at me ..............



The reports of his death may be greatly exaggerated, Stephen. He seems
to be very much alive. I'm not sure that he's a Tudorite so much as
viciously anti-Richard III.

Joan
---
author of This Time, a novel about Richard III in the 21st-century
website: http://www.joanszechtman.com/
blog: http://rtoaaa.blogspot.com/
ebook: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/3935
2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards General Fiction Finalist

--- In , "stephenmlark"
<stephenmlark@...> wrote:
>
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/184529873X/ref=pe_5301_20853201_pe_ar_v2
>
> ....... except that the author is a noted Tudorite. Furthermore, I
understood him to have died a few years ago but is publishing a brand
new book.
>

Oh, not Desmond Seward. IMO, he's a complete fruitcake.

Didn't he write a book called 'England's Black Legend' about Richard, a
piece of intemperate nonsense basically saying that every word of
Shakespeare's play was based on historical fact?

A view originally promulgated by the late A L Rowse (and he is
deceased).

I don't think any serious historians sustain that view, however cool
they are towards Richard in general.

Jessica


--- In , "stephenmlark"
<stephenmlark@...> wrote:
>
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/184529873X/ref=pe_5301_20853201_pe_ar_v2
>
> ....... except that the author is a noted Tudorite. Furthermore, I
understood him to have died a few years ago but is publishing a brand
new book.
>

Oh yes.

I was confused because he contributed to "Kings and Queens of England Great Britain" by Eric Delderfield. Delderfield (brother of R.F., 1912-72) died in 1996. My edition dates from later and includes a short posthumous chapter on the Princess of Wales.
I recall suggesting on here that Delderfield could have interviewed her and e-mailed the chapter from the afterworld.

----- Original Message -----
From: Jessica
To:
Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2010 9:10 PM
Subject: Re: This book looks to be targeted at me ..............



Oh, not Desmond Seward. IMO, he's a complete fruitcake.

Didn't he write a book called 'England's Black Legend' about Richard, a
piece of intemperate nonsense basically saying that every word of
Shakespeare's play was based on historical fact?

A view originally promulgated by the late A L Rowse (and he is
deceased).

I don't think any serious historians sustain that view, however cool
they are towards Richard in general.

Jessica

--- In , "stephenmlark"
<stephenmlark@...> wrote:
>
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/184529873X/ref=pe_5301_20853201_pe_ar_v2
>
> ....... except that the author is a noted Tudorite. Furthermore, I
understood him to have died a few years ago but is publishing a brand
new book.
>

Hm...updates from beyond the grave!

I've never been able to bring myself to read 'England's Black Legend', apart from skimming through it in a book shop. Has anyone else managed to read it?

Jessica

--- In , "Stephen Lark" <stephenmlark@...> wrote:
>
> Oh yes.
>
> I was confused because he contributed to "Kings and Queens of England Great Britain" by Eric Delderfield. Delderfield (brother of R.F., 1912-72) died in 1996. My edition dates from later and includes a short posthumous chapter on the Princess of Wales.
> I recall suggesting on here that Delderfield could have interviewed her and e-mailed the chapter from the afterworld.

Jessica wrote:
> I've never been able to bring myself to read 'England's Black Legend', apart from skimming through it in a book shop. Has anyone else managed to read it?

Carol responds:

I started to read it once but got as far as "The Difficult Birth" (unjustified assumptions about Richard's birth based on Rous's depiction of the monstrous infant) and gave up. I tried again this morning. I got through the genealogical charts (which state without question that Edward V and his brother were killed in 1483), the photographic plates (which refer to Margaret of York's "sharp features" (actually, she looks quite pretty but the painter has given her an over-large head) and states that she may have resembled Richard, and Richard's Great Seal on the back of the dust jacket (which I'd like to know more about), but then I started reading that More's depiction was essentially accurate, that Mancini and Commynes, as foreigners, had no reason to depict Richard in a bad light, and that Richard was "a peculiarly grim young English precursor of Machiavelli's Prince." That was enough for me. (Well, okay, Richard was young and English, so Seward wasn't *entirely* off base!)

It appears to be a book full of unsupported assertions all of which support his preconceptions about Richard's cruelty and the accuracy of the "black legend." Oh, I forgot to mention Edward IV's *imprisoning* the twelve-year-old Richard for wanting to marry Anne Neville.

I don't burn books, but I'm tempted to throw this one in the recycle bin, but what if someone retrieves it, reads it, and believes those lies? So I still have it with me in hopes that it contains *something* of value. Imagine, a writer who thinks that Charles Ross isn't sufficiently anti-Richard!

Carol, whose nickname for this book is "Seward's Folly"