To win one of five copies of Louisa Young's new novel, Devotion, please answer in the Comments section below.
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Closing date 7th June
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Give an example of a little known fact you have come across in your reading about a well documented period or event or person. (Through history books or historical fiction)
2 comments:
I studied Richard III for my o'levels and was given by another teacher after the Josephine Tay book daughter of time, which I took to be truth, was a few years before I became more critical of all this information and doing my own research to back most of it. The background and the general setting of the wars of the roses and the subsequent Tudor world became more real to me then most of my a'levels. One thing that I discovered was the Princes in the tower was not to lock them up but to keep them safe, the tower was a home, a place to safety with out the same meanings we apply now and with a much broader use. The very landscape of London was different and the routes and travel also very changed.
I was surprised how the world was different, with different expectations and different uses, despite the walls and roof being the same.
I realise that this isn't a little known fact to any one who has a historical mind but in my teens this mind blowing, I work in high school and despair of my pupils ever understanding that the world isn't the same now as its always been!
I love finding out the tiny telling details that bring characters to life. Along with others on this blog I am a huge fan of Amelia Peabody, and reading the novels about her adventures makes me feel I really understand much better what life was like for a feisty, intelligent woman at the time. An example? The first one that comes to mind is the fuss people made over her wearing culottes - so much more practical for scrambling around dig sites, but still shocking for many of her contemporaries.
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