apology re ricardian fiction

oops just reread my post and before anybody points out that most
ricardian fiction does not fall under the heading of "womens' novel"
I would like to apologise in advance. I think the point I was
trying to make is that my exposure to the Ricardian question is not
through fiction but through history books. I have now started to
read some of this fiction and I am enjoying it too.

Angela

--- In , amertzanis <no_reply@y...>
wrote:
>
>
> oops just reread my post and before anybody points out that most
> ricardian fiction does not fall under the heading of "womens' novel"
> I would like to apologise in advance. I think the point I was
> trying to make is that my exposure to the Ricardian question is not
> through fiction but through history books. I have now started to
> read some of this fiction and I am enjoying it too.
>
> Angela


I have just finished reading "Special Commission" by John Hall. It's set in 1450
in Norfolk and not, strictly speaking Ricardian. It's a bit light on historical detail.
However, I was amazed and appalled to read that during the Middle Ages, and
for some time afterwards, a baby (probably an orphan or perhaps bought from
its impoverished parents) was dosed with plant extracts, i.e. daisy, knotgrass,
so that it failed to grow and thus became a dwarf. These unfortunate children
were then sold on as fools, jesters etc. Shakespeare mentioned the practice in
A Midsummer Night's Dream - "Get you gone dwarf. You minimus, of hindering
knotgrass made..." According to the Notes in the book this practice has been
well documented.

I thought I had read a fair amount of mediaeval literature, but I have never
come across this practice before. Has anyone else?

Folks, you might want to check out the Yahoo group Crime Through Time. All the members seem to be published authors, though you don't have to be one to join, and I don't think you have to join in order to read the messages.

I have been lurking on that list for years, and I'm impressed by the research those writers do. I just typed Richard III into the message search box, and found several historical mystery titles involving our favorite monarch. Most seem to be centered on a character who works for him or deals with him, in the vein of Brother Cadfael or the Owen Archer series.

Katy