Talking The Talk

Nowadays it is a given that Publishers expect every writer to  actively promote their own novels. Once the book is finally published the next duty that falls to the writer is to bring it to the attention of the great book-buying public in whatever creative or underhand way that they can. What would be the point of all the effort, years of it in some cases, unless the book reaches its intended audience?

One such promotional opportunity unexpectedly presented itself to me yesterday afternoon. I was at London's National Theatre and had just come out of seeing Maxim Gorky's Children of the Sun in The Lyttleton. I was slightly dazed because I had just experienced what must have been the most explosive conclusion to any theatrical production I have ever seen. Here, I shall say no more. You need to see it for yourself.

http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/children-of-the-sun

Buskers outside The National's Shed





The National Theatre has recently created additional public and performance spaces by extending outwards under the eaves of the existing building. The new performance space is a huge red wooden shed which they have imaginatively called 'The Shed'. It was in this space that I took part in what could only be described as the bastard child of Karaoke, a Talkshow for the masses, Talkaoke!  Yes, Talkaoke.

Talkaoke



Instead of singing, participants are expected to talk. There is a custom built circular table with integrated speakers and lighting and in the centre on a swivel chair sits the miked-up master of ceremonies. He looks a bit like one of those high-tech anti-aircraft gunners but instead of swivelling around behind a Bofors Gun, ack! ack! ack!, he tracks round with his red sleeved gun mike.

The idea is that topics of discussion are audience-led. The host facilitates this conversation and encourages  any and all passers-by  over to his table. It is like a radio talk show except that it is not broadcast live. It is also democratic. The only qualification for participation is the ability to engage in intelligent conversation.I was beckoned forward and I took my place at the round table. 'What would you like to talk about?' he asked innocently. Well, what do you think I wanted to talk about?

I grasped this opportunity to start promoting (to the obviously literate crowd in the National's café, just my "demographic") The Handfasted Wife, my new historical novel published by Accent Press. This then led into a discussion about how women in history have been marginalised in primary sources such as The Chronicles and how important and fascinating it can be to unearth their stories.

I did it my way......



The point here is that in such a crowded book market getting your book noticed by the public is not easy. All writers have to promote their novels even such well-established writers as Kate Mosse and Bernard Cornwall who have the privilege of sharing their thoughts with Libby Purvis on Radio 4's Midweek or with Tom Sutcliffe on Front Row.

Yesterday, in my own small way, I emulated them, bringing my message to a wider audience, well  there were at least thirty of them within earshot. But, every little helps! As I write this my good friend and fellow writer Liz Harris, author of The Road Back published by Choc-Lit is even now in Kansas City promoting her work. How's that for dedication and going the extra thousand miles?



Talkaoke in action - Live and Dangerous!



 

Competition time! Can you suggest any original or novel ideas for promoting a new book? The most original here will receive a free iTunes down-load of The Handfasted Wife. But don't forget to leave a contact detail. This amazingly generous prize is open for entry until midnight of 13th May, so hurry. (Terms and conditions apply - you may be required to appear at the 2015 Oscars ceremony in Hollywood!!)

The Handfasted Wife by Carol McGrath can be found on Amazon and other e-readers, and is available for pre-order as a paperback from Accent  Press: http://www.accentpress.co.uk/new-titles.html
click on the book cover.



 Learn more about Talkaoke here, it's coming to a place near you very soon...
http://www.talkaoke.com/
 

Sakura Fever

Sakura, the Japanese word for cherry blossom, is very short lived. It occurs in the spring, usually late March. This period marks a Japanese holiday period after which the new school year begins in April. The Japanese celebrate it with Hanami, cherry blossom viewing parties consisting of picnics, walks through parks and along streets lined with Sakura trees.  The Japanese worship, celebrate, and incessantly photograph the fragile blossom.

Sakura Fever in a Tokyo Park where every precious rectangular space under the trees is already marked out

This year we were fortunate enough to experience the phenomenon in Tokyo, in the Japanese Alps, Hiroshima, Miyajima Island, Kyoto and Hakone. As we criss-crossed Japan moving through it on the railway system  so did the Hanami.

Fabulous Tokyo at night

The festivities bring out the fascinating and the quirky side of Japan as well as being very social and beautiful. The Japanese are a lovely people. They are polite , respectful of each other, perfectionists, caring and fun and their children are allowed to be children. In cities space is precious. Yet the Japanese often have pets. We often saw tiny dogs dressed up as elegantly as cat walk models.

Traditional face and hair corner in the park during Sakura Fever

The Japanese enjoy photographing themselves. They arrange and pose, and smile.

Japan has interesting Buddhist and Shinto shrines. During the cherry blossom time they are particularly beautiful. Running water and the perfectly exquisitely cared for gardens make them a delight to walk around.

Shrine in a Tokyo Park

A very peaceful spot on a busy Saturday in a Tokyo Park

In the Japanese Alps where we walked through ancient hill villages the Sakura trees were just beginning to flower.

A mountain village

And at night under a full moon in Tsumago

On Miyajima Island near Hiroshima, known as Shrine Island and a UNESCO world heritage site, the cherry blossom did not fail to delight both tourists and Japanese citizens.

Along a street on Miyajima Island 

However, best of all was Kyoto. Kyoto is the old capital of Japan, the city of geisha, temples, beautiful streets along the river and canals, much less chaotic than Tokyo, less stately than Hiroshima and not so sad either.

Beautiful talented ladies who act, entertain, sing and dance until they are around forty years old

 

In the Geisha quarter in Kyoto at dusk

 

After a short time Geisha photographing as dusk descended, we participated in a spot of irresistible night-time Sakura fever.

 

 Kyoto at night

 

By day an enjoyable place to go in Kyoto is the Philosopher's Walk near the hillside that edges the city where there are craft shops, clothing stores inexpensively selling old kimonos, cafes, a plethora of ancient Buddhist and Shinto Temples and of course Sakura trees lining the canals.

The Philosopher's Walk , Kyoto

 

The rabbit is fleet of foot and she moves forward but the fox is the guardian of the rice fields.

 

A little Shinto Shrine off the Philosopher's Walk in Kyoto

 

Finally, we travelled on to Hakone using the old mountain railway for the final stage of our journey. We glided into a mountain spa town and found ourselves still shadowing cherry blossom. However, here it rained so hard for several days that the Sakura blossom's survival hung as delicately as a single Japanese silken thread.

Hakone Railway

Our balcony in Hakone

As the Lonely Planet guide says and our guide from Audley Travel confirmed to us as we began our trip,
'If you think of the Japanese as sober, staid, serious people, you owe it to yourself to join them under a cherry tree laden with blossoms in the springtime.'
The Japanese party, drench themselves in sake, wine and beer, picnic, and sing or dance to portable karaoke systems under the blossom-fat trees.

 I, too, partied during Sakura Fever

The Sakura blossom is ephemeral. It lasts only five to seven days, representing perhaps the fleeting nature of our existence. Yet, it also brings with it hope and renewal.



 

Dining out in Ancient Rome

I have long had a love affair with Italy and enjoy reading novels set in either Ancient Rome or Renaissance Italy.

I was in Rome for a wedding last summer

And I have often wondered as I twiddle my spaghetti around a fork or order up my favourite Milanese chicken dish what it would really be like to dine out in Ancient Rome.

Sad to see it all fall apart

First I would wear an unstiffened kind of bust-bodice known as the stophium and a long tunic reaching to my feet probably made of linen or cotton but preferably of silk. I might choose blue as that is a favourite colour and it would be ornamented with a gold fringe and lavishly embroidered. Over this I throw my stola which is similar but it would have sleeves. Then, before setting out to visit friends for a long, long dinner in a fabulous new villa not far from the forum I call for my pella, a rectangular shaped voluminous cloak. It will cover my elegant coiffure.

My new hairstyle

My second best frock

Ah my hair! I sigh. I am not quite ready. I have forgotten my tiara. The ornatrix has already spent at least an hour arranging my locks into a cone. I admit it. My hair is bleached because, after all, to be a blond is  fashionable these days. I am proud that my hair is abundant and I have not had to resort to using false hair pieces. What you see is what you will get tonight.

My ornatrix rushes to my call and adds a gold tiara encrusted with sapphires saying it will match my gold rings, my anklet and my necklace and I say snappily, 'Don't forget my favourite earrings.'

They are made of three rows of pearls and were a gift from my late husband.



My feet are encased in slippers that are studded with jewels and which are dyed blue to match my tunic. I am now ready to climb into my litter and be carried to the new villa.

At the villa

I wonder will the more greedy guests spoil our evening tonight by overeating and dashing to the vomitorium with irritating regularity. I heard my slaves whispering amongst themselves that the cooks at the new villa have promised a great fat stuffed sucking pig, kidneys, stuffed dormice, snails fed on milk and fried in oil served with wine, rabbits cut from the womb, a special sauce of pepper, loveage, caraway, celery seed, rue, wine-must and oil. There will be my personal favourite dish too, fried veal in a sauce of raisins, honey,vinegar, pepper, onions and whatever aromatic herb the cooks have to hand.

Perhaps, I think, as I arrive at the villa which is lit up like starlight with a mass of tiny oil lamps, perhaps I shall eat just the tiniest morsel of everything tonight.  And perhaps, too, I shall find myself a new lover.

This piece is written to celebrate the publication of   Inceptio  by Alison Morton published by Silverwood Press and which can be purchased at your bookshop, Waterstones or online from Amazon. Inceptio is a speculative historical novel, a 'what if' the Roman world survived after AD 395.

The Forum in Rome

  

The Trotula, Medieval Women's Medicine

The Trotula is one of the best sources of information about 'conditions' for women in the middle ages. It is thought by historians that The Trotula originated during the eleventh and twelfth centuries in Salerno, Italy. Salerno was the leading centre for medical learning in medieval Europe.







Its opening lines give us a flavour of the thought processes that permeated the medieval mind

When God the creator of the universe in the first establishment of the world differentiated the individual natures of things each according to its land, he endowed human nature above all things in a singular dignity, giving to it above the condition of animals freedom of reason and intellect.



A view of the medieval world





The writer points out that the sexes owned the following qualities- males were hot and dry and women were cold and humid. Women were weaker. The hot and dry male was stronger and thus could pour his 'duty' into a woman via his seed. The moist and wet and weaker woman was a conduit placed to receive his seed and thus was subject to the man.

Pregnancy and childbirth were dangerous conditions and on both The Tortula has much advice. Using references to Hippocrates and Galen its writer sets out and explains the causes , symptoms and perceived treatments for women's diseases. I thought I would share this example of advice for the regime of pregnant women.

• Nothing should be named in front of her which she is not able to have, because if she sets her mind on it and it is not given to her, this occasions miscarriage.
• If she desires clay or chalk, let beans be cooked in sugar and given to her.
• Bathe her often at the time of birth.
• Anoint her belly with olive oil or oil of violets.
• Let her eat light and readily digestible foods.
• If her feet swell up, let them be rubbed with rose oil and vinegar
• Windiness and danger of miscarriage- give her three drams of wild celery, mint, cowbane, cloves,watercress, madder root, two drams of sugar, of castoreum, zedoary and Florentine iris. Let them make her a fine powder and let it be prepared with honey and give her three scruples of it with wine.

Herbs and measures, the medieval woman's survival kit

Measures such as scruples are beyond my knowledge so if anyone can enlighten me about the scruples and the drams I should be very interested. Both my medieval novels, The Handfasted Wife to be published in May 2013 by Accent Press and The Countess of the North , a work in progress, include eleventh century pregnancies.

The Trotula also contains advice and information on women's cosmetics, hair treatments, and a range of treatments for women's complaints. It is fascinating and a real source of information for anyone writing stories concerning women during the Middle Ages.

'For Veins which appear in the nose or on the face, we apply to the place three parts soap and a fourth part pepper, all powdered, and we cure it in the above mentioned manner.' Is anyone willing to try it?

So when she leaves her castle to visit another she will have paid attention to her appearance

The Trotula, an English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Women's Medicine edited and translated by Monica H. Green, published by University of Pennsylvania Press.


   

The Next Big Thing

For weeks I have resisted The Next Big Thing because my publisher did not want me to talk about my book in too far in advance of publication. However, 'the next big thing' posts I have read are fascinating and I am thrilled to be nominated to carry the torch forward by two fabulous writers whom I wish to mention before discussing my work.

Gail Aldwin is the author of Paula's Secret, her work in progress. I am honoured to have had a preview of of some chapters. Gail is a prize winning writer of flash fiction and has a collection published titled Four Buses. I know her writing to be exceptional. Paula's Secret is an intelligent romantic comedy with a dark edge reminiscent of Mavis Cheek's novels. I met Gail at a writing retreat in a mutual friend's summer house in Cornwall and again at the Winchester Festival where she entered and was placed in several short story competitions. I think Paula's Secret will be a winner.

Liesel Schwarz is another fabulous writer. Liesel studied creative writing at Brunel University under Celia Brayfield and Fay Weldon. She is currently working on a Phd in English/Creative Writing. She writes Steam Punk and her first novel Conspiracy of Alchemists will be published by Ebury Press in February 2013. Her book is currently being made into a BBC audio book. This novel is the first of an exciting series combining romance and adventure with the Victorian age of steam. I think of the atmosphere engendered by Philip Pullman in His Dark Materials but like Pullman's work it contains an unique imagination.

Now to answer a few questions about my own work The Handfasted Wife.

What is the working title of your current novel?

It is The Handfasted Wife and will be published under this title and with my own name as author of the work.  Its adventurous narrative concerns what could have happened to Edith Swanneck, Harold II's common-law wife after the Battle of Hastings.

Where did the idea come from for your book?

I began work on the manuscript in 2007/8 but I was slowed down because I began this book as a PhD Creative Writing project. I have written an academic thesis to support it. This is about how romance tempers realism in historical fiction. The idea for The Handfasted Wife came when I was looking for a radio play to write after I visited Bayeux in Normandy. At the time I was working on a Diploma in Creative Writing at Oxford. This play was my big submission.  Whilst at Bayeux, I was inspired by the vignette on the Tapestry depicting a woman and child fleeing from a burning house before the battle. It was a haunting scene. Interestingly, some historians have suggested that the woman could be Edith Swanneck. There are three women depicted on the tapestry and all are thought to be noble-women. I researched the period thoroughly in the Bodliean Library, reading what chroniclers thought happened and then I read everything I could to help me recreate a faithful historical atmosphere. I even attended classes on Anglo-Saxon in Oxford and read Anglo-Saxon poetry and prose in the original. I decided that for this novel my main thrust was to be Hastings and its aftermath from Edith Swanneck's viewpoint. The work is a romantic historical adventure and its theme is a woman's quest to come to terms with the sorrow of war and regime change. Her personal quest to avoid re-marriage to a foreign knight and recover, Ulf, her hostage child from captivity.

A Short Short Synopsis

Set aside for a political marriage when her husband becomes king, Edith Swanneck (Elditha) loses her estate after the Battle of Hastings and sets out on a perilious quest to escape the plots of the pragmatic Edith Godwin, Edward the Confessor's widow, to reunite with her sons and to plan rebellion.

Which actors would you choose to play the part of your heroines?

Cate Blanchette would, of course, be a superb Edith Swanneck. However, Kate Winslett would be a very interesting Queen Edith. I think Judi Dench could be cast as the tough Countess Gytha, King Harold's mother.

Will your book be self published?

No, it is to be published by Accent Press in the late spring 2013. I am currently working on copy edits provided by my publishing editor.

Anything else of interest for a reader in your book?

A very difficult question as taste is subjective and not all readers love historical fiction. Hopefully, the characters are engaging enough to speak for themselves. It is a fast paced story of pursuit and escape involving a winter siege which actually happened at Exeter in 1068, where noble women really did resist the Conquest and left England with a large treasure. Ulf the youngest son of Edith and Harold was taken hostage into Normandy as a child and his story is resolved as history would have it. My favourite character after Elditha is Countess Gytha, Harold's indomnitable mother. I also thoroughly enjoyed writing Edith Godwin who is the dark queen of the piece, utterly determined to recover Elditha when she goes on the run. The novel is first in a Trilogy. The other two are the stories of King Harold's daughters. One eloped from Wilton with a Breton knight and the first section of this book is set in Brittany. The other married a prince of Russia and it is set in Denmark and in Kiev.

The Next Big Thing is Moses in Chains by Nikki Fine

Now I would like to nominate the clever Nikki Fine to carry the torch forward. She can be found on Twitter and on her blog News from a Small Village. Nikki is a polished writer and poet who lives in Oxfordshire. She reads at poetry events and has had several poems published in journals. She won a P&O short story competition. Nikki is a fabulous listener, editor and she really was a brilliant participant when I dramatised scenes from The Handfasted Wife to catch hold of characters reactions to eachother. Her novel Moses in Chains is a superb story about Michelangelo. His servant comes apon his diaries and reveals all. Moses in Chains is published by Amazon. So Nikki, now over to you!

Books for Four Seasons 2012

As Christmas approaches it is time to review four of my favourite historical novels of this year. I have chosen four that are set in the seventeenth century and each of these absorbed me during 2012.  Again, I have selected one for each season.

Winter

The Bleeding Land by Giles Kristian

 

 



I have just finished reading The Bleeding Land by Giles Kristian. This fabulous un-put-downable historical fiction tells the story of three siblings from the Lancashire gentry and their fate during the first years of the English Civil War. Giles Kristian is writing a trilogy so the Bleeding Land ends shortly after the battle of Edge hill in 1642, instilling in a reader a longing for the next book.

When civil war breaks out between the king and his angry Parliament two brothers from a royalist family fight on opposing sides. Mun, his royalist father and their friend Emmanuel fight for King Charles whilst Tom, though not exactly Parliamentarian and a religious cynic, fights for the rebels.

A horrific event in the opening chapters of the novel sets Tom's personal motivation in progress. On an historical level the actual incident illustrates  mob mentality and how this was, and still is, manipulated by those with power. A key personal factor driving Tom's story is revenge. The characters in the book are superbly realised and we see political and domestic events through each of their experiences. Whilst Mun and Tom are fighting Bess, their pregnant sister and their mother defend their estate as it is besieged by Parliamentary troops who aim to requisition it.

The Bleeding Land is a superb action story told through beautiful and clear writing. It is a thrilling narrative with excellent plotting and, importantly, the characterisation cannot be bettered. The interaction between the characters and how their actions impact on each other and the story is what makes this book stand out. It is impossible not to feel engaged with each of the protagonists. Accurately researched history is embedded in the story's narrative and revealed through their narratives and through scene setting which is extraordinarily atmospheric. Every location from London with its busy and gruesome head studded London Bridge, the claustrophobic nastiness of the lanes around Southwark, the countryside with its threatened villages, the frozen wintry woods and the hills of Lanchasire and Warickshire are all settings that reflect the sorrow of this war. Like the people who inhabit this story they are troubled places. The English Civil War is not much written about, at least, not well. This novel is without doubt one of the best I have ever read set in the period. And it has integrity. So, move over, Bernard Cornwall. Giles Kristian is more than your match as a writer of brilliant adventure historical fiction.

Spring

The Rider of the White Horse by Rosemary Sutcliff



The Rider of the White Horse is an old classic which I first read as a teenager. Because I thought I might write about the period, after writing Hastings from a woman's viewpoint, I picked it up from Amazon marketplace in the spring. This novel, written in 1959, is the story of Sir Thomas Fairfax's marriage and the narrative of the English Civil War told from his point of view and also that of his courageous wife Anne. Anne followed her husband's army for three years just so that she could be there for him. Again the landscape is beautifully depicted and the torn threatened villages are places that once tranquil become part of the war's theatre. Again, I was drawn to the characters and into an alien world where I could still recognise human emotions of love, anger, revenge and loyalty to mention but a few that permeate fabulous historical fiction. Again, I felt immersed in the little details of that foreign era.

Summer

The Apothecary's Daughter by Charlotte Betts

 

During the summer I had to revisit The Apothecary's Daughter by Charlotte Betts as I was submitting my MPhil thesis in the Autumn. I had chosen this novel as an example (in one of my chapters) concerning how romance tempers realism in historical fiction. The Apothecary's Daughter is set in the 1660s during the plague of 1665 and the fire of 1666. Susannah, an apothecary's daughter, has unusually for the times, the freedom to pursue her talents as her father's apprentice. But, she cannot establish herself as an independent apothecary. After her father remarries she accepts a proposal of marriage from a handsome scoundrel interested in her dowry. And so a story is set in motion with a Cinderella type heroine who after thrilling events does find love and independence.  Bett's detailed depiction of the period and her psychologically developed characters allow her to write about seventeenth century London with realism. She thus recreates the illusion of an alien historical world along realist principles and successfully locates our interest in Susannah's fate within this world. Betts filters the shocking abnormality of the effects of the plague on the inhabitants of the city through a selection of interesting, very human and engaging characters.   She uses authentic detail to draw us into her historical world. The novel has a strong emotional pulse and I found it a page turner.

Autumn

John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolk

The story of John Saturnall, opens in 1625 with echoes of witchcraft and mob violence. As John and his mother flee their village to live hidden in ancient woods in a remote corner of England John Saturnall learns the recipes of a secret timeless feast. After his mother dies John, now an orphan, is taken to Buckland Manor, the ancestral seat of Sir William Fremantle. There, he is put to work in its subterranean kitchens. There, life is ruled by a fierce master cook who is impressed by John's gift of smell, his mysterious heritage and his talent for cooking. So, of course, John moves from the lowliest job scrubbing dishes to cooking fabulous menus for the great house.  He soon meets Sir William's daughter,Lucretia, a girl who is imaginative and headstrong. She insists on fasting. John's personal destiny is set in motion as it becomes entangled with persuading Lucy to eat, falling in love and the looming English Civil War. On the eve of the war, a marriage is made for Lucretia and the story takes further twists and turns. Then, as the dark winters of the war grip hold and the mansion is threatened by puritan militia, the story teases the reader into wondering where, when and how this skating rink of a narrative will come to rest.

The characters who inhabit Norfolk's story are absolutely engaging, original, quirky as people can be, multilayered, and who always possess, to lesser or greater degrees, universal human traits of ambition, jealousy, a sense of duty, honour and the need to love and be loved. At times I felt I had entered a new Gormenghast. Yet, this novel is no fantasy. Rather, it is rooted in folk traditions that penetrated the seventeenth century consciousness. Importantly, too, for the lover of the historical novel, it is firmly set, with realism, against a fascinating history, the course of the English Civil War, its aftermath and how it impacted on the lives of a small gallery of real and imagined characters. Norfolk's characterisation is totally faithful to history and the story itself is written with fabulous imagination, a perfect combination. I found the point of view of a chef a brilliant perspective on these great events and at all times felt myself present at the Battle of Naseby or in the woods or at the manor as Saturnall cooked up rabbits and woodland foraging for the vanquished cavalier leaders. The civil war was notable for inhabitants of a manor or village following the local magnate's sympathies without question. That was where their loyalty lay. But this novel is also a love story and an extremely unpredictable one too and it concludes long after the civil war is ended.

So what historical novels are you reading? I would love to know so that I can read them too?

The Handfasted Wife by Carol McGrath (a novel about Edith Swanneck, Harold's handfasted or common-law wife) will be published by Accent Press in 2013.

Midwinter in the Eleventh Century

In the December drawing of the Julian Work Calendar the nimble little figures that labour month by month are flailing, winnowing and taking away the produce of their harvest in baskets of fine woven wattle. The medieval Calendar is dedicated to work and prayer and its message is that you must labour as unquestioningly as you worship God. November was the time to cull animals that could not be fed during the winter, to preserve meat by salting it and the time to stack firewood. December was the time for threshing. And, of course, a time for celebration as it was, for all, the mid-winter Feast.

The Julian Work Calendar





Midwinter ( pic. accredited to the BL)



January shows pictures of the ploughman handling massive oxen just as if they were enormous machines. This energy helped produce the food that fed the medieval English man throughout the year. Their often hard life is depicted in an old Anglo-Saxon poem entitled The Fortunes of Man. The poem is a meditation on fate in which the author examined the different destinies that a child of this period might encounter as he grows into an adult. Although life was filled with hazards it could offer joy as well. In the poem, there is a wish list of sport, easy money and feasting and drinking. Just as the year turns the question hangs in the air, which way will an individuals life turn. Will it be to tragedy or to happiness. Wyrd or fate was a significant concept for the eleventh century Englishman or woman.

Chartres Cathedral window showing Winter



 



The Anglo-Saxon year was punctuated with feast days attributed to Saints. The most significant of these was the Christmas Feast. This feast was also an important communal act which reinforced social bonds and provided the occasion for the discussion of and dissemination of important information. Moreover in addition to a wide range of home-produced foods and drinks at the mid-winter feast, a noble family might have access to spices, herbs, wine, oils, fruits and nuts from abroad. Trade routes stretched from the Baltic to the Indian Ocean. Imports included coriander seeds, pepper and oil. Bede is recorded as having bequeathed lavender, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, coriander, cardamon, galingale, ginger, liquorice, sugar and pepper to his fellow monks on his death. So a Christmas or New Year's gift may have included exotic spices and Christmas fare may have contained surprising exotic flavours. By the end of the period, the court, and other large households, appear to have secured suppliers of pepper. 10 lbs of pepper was paid at Christmas by subjects of the early medieval King Ethelred as part of a toll. By the eleventh century, pepperers were organised and established. Pepper was widely used to season omelets, in wort drinks, in honeyed apple dishes whereas we might use cloves.

Medieval Saints' Days illustration



Winter clothing is described in an old English poem called The Seafarer. The seafarer's feet were so pinched by cold that he felt shackled by chains of ice. In Aelfric's Colloquay the ploughman is very aware of the difference between his outdoor life and the comfort experienced by his lord. His boy's voice was hoarse from the cold and shouting as he urged on the plough oxen.  They needed clothing to keep out the rain and the snow and so the main material for wet-weather wear was leather. These garments included boots, ankle leathers, shoes and leather trousers. The leather maker in the Colloquy proclaims that 'no-one is willing to go through winter without my craft.'  However the majority of Anglo-Saxon garments were made of wool, black, brown and white wool, spun, woven and dyed.

Nativity



The King travelled around his estates with great worldly displays of daily rejoicing and feasting. Several hundred people would travel long distances to the king's winter feast. And closer to the estates that spread throughout the countryside, workers entitlements varied, but a perquisite might be feasts such as Christmas, Easter as well as harvest, ploughing and haymaking feasts. The mid-winter Christmas feast was a special occasion enjoyed by all, labourers and nobles alike and it is recorded that the major festivals of the church were to be celebrated on the pain of excommunication. The Rule of Chrodegang stated that two or three drinks could be taken in the room with the fire but this rule also cautioned: 'however great the gladness, see that drunkenness does not prevail.' Yet, Christmas then as now was a special celebration. The Penitential of Theodore excused penance for the priest who drank too much on a saint's celebration feast, or at Christmas! And after all there is Lent to come before winter is out and a long cold lean season ahead. I have written about The King's Christmas Feast of 1065 here http://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/christmas-1065.html#comment-form

St Nicholas



St Nicholas came later but he is always associated throughout Europe with Christmas. I love the richness of the stained-glass window painting above and could not resist including it here.

In the Liverpool museum there is a walrus tusk from the eleventh century that has been carved with two cheeky sheep peering out from below the manger of the Christ child. There were English early medieval superstitions attached to the twelve days of Christmas. For example wind on the eleventh of the twelve days meant that all cattle will perish. If the mass-day of mid-winter fell on a Sunday 'sheep shall thrive'; if on a Tuesday , they were imperilled, but if the mass-day of mid-winter fell on a Saturday 'sheep will perish.'

A December picture from a calendar in A Book of Hours



 

I write about the dramatic events of King Edward's mid-winter feast at Westminster in 1065 in my novel The Handfasted Wife, the story of Edith Swanneck, to be published by Accent Press in 2013.