Writers' Exciting Lives - Plots, Causes, Romance and Real Life Deaths

Who said you learn more by listening than by talking? Was it Einstein?

At Writer's Holiday in Wales every writer had a story to tell, about the delights - and horrors - of their own life.

I don't have permission to tell their stories, so I shall give them made up names.

One author, who I have known many years, 'Penny', told me about her success with a book. Before I had time to continue, congratulating her, feeling envious, or getting useful tips on marketing, at a later meal she told me she had not written much recently because her son had died. He was born diabetic and 'didn't look after himself'. He died after he had both legs amputated.

She heard that he had died from another member of the family. He had not been speaking to her (his mother) nor most members of the family.

She only found out after he died the cause of his grievance against her. He was angry that a grandchild was not named after him with a family name as a first name. Like the royal family's Charles, (King Charles 1, and his successor Charles II, not to mention Henry VIII, and seven other kings confusingly called Henry).

The son who died had also fallen out with several former friends. I wondered whether the illness had made him morose and angry.

Although they were not on speaking terms, it was a shock. 'Penny' said, "I was upset for several months. I've still not recovered. That's why I haven't been writing. But I come to Writers' Holiday to see all my friends."

As a writer, and as a human being, I am always looking for causes and prevention of deaths and mishaps. The classic definition of a plot is that one event causes another.

You can write your life story as a series of events. I tried this. My story did not hang together. My late father said, "It's not a novel or a story. The incidents don't hang together."

To keep the reader interested, they want to know how the hero or heroine raches their goal. A single, over-riding goal. The goal could be a single person seeking a happy marriage. (As for romance, the classics are usually about poverty-stricken and abused singles, such as Cinder-ella finding their rich and loving Prince Charming.)

Dealing With Drama

Jane Austen used humour. 

Charlotte Bronte used Drama.

Both Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte pioneered the feisty heroine who won't settle for second best, in a first marriage. Even if she is the second girlfriend. In Daphne Du Maurier's novel, Rebecca, the heroine is a shy second wife, leaving the reader wondering if the husband has killed wife number one.

The modern fairy tale is about the abused, divorced wife. To make a readable book, you need a hero or a heroine with an aim, setbacks, enemies, self-sabotage, thwarting people or events, redoubled efforts, determination to succeed, possibly a mentor or faithful friend and supporter, final triumph.

With authors this pattern is often evident in their writing career, which has its ups and downs. Some authors, would be novelists, start with poetry, because you can focus on one incident, present a completed work to proclaim or have an audience or a critique. They say they are trying to sort out their life into a readable book. Too many incidents. Too many other things to do, looking after children, sick children, grandchildren, sick grandchildren.  Their own health problems and setbacks.

I have met authors who asked me to refrain from telling their stories because they wanted to write their own book and if I wrote the story, even briefly, it would be a spoiler for their incidents and their surprise ending or endings.

Ghost Writer Or Editor
Another lady asked me, "Do you edit?" She meant, would I edit her book, maybe not completely ghost-write from a recording, or series of recordings.

Editing is extremely time consuming. As a teacher, a home tutor, I would spend at least half an hour, even up to an hour with an O level or A level pupil on one A4 page of writing.

Every sentence can be full of ambiguities. Is 'it' referring to the subject of the sentence or the object? Or a floating it or there.  For example, 'It was lucky he had a gun.' it does not refer to the gun in the previous sentence. Is 'he' referring to the dead victim or the policeman?

For a happy end story, see my previous post.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Author of Quick Quotations.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Names You Might Meet When Travelling

UK flag

English Surnames
It has long been known that John and Mary are two of the commonest names in Christian England. The most popular surname or family name is Smith, comes from the work of the person, or rather their ancestor.

Smith is also the commonest surname in the USA, Canada and Australia and New Zealand.

As for first names, eventually you work out that Muslims are named Mohammed.

Catholics in France are called Marie, often hyphenated. Catholics in Italy are called Maria.

Irish Names
In Ireland Catholic girls are called Mary.

But Protestant girls are called Elizabeth, after Queen Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII. He broke away from the Pope and founded the Church of England in order to get divorced from his wife who had reached menopause and could no longer give him a male heir.

The most common surname in Ireland is Murphy.

Indian Surnames
I knew that Indians were often called Patel. But these were just observations and random facts. Now you can see maps of each content showing you the commonest names in different areas of the world.

Asia
In China the commonest surname is Wang meaning king.
Another popular name is Li, meaning plum or plum tree in some dialects. A different spelling, Lee, is more likely in Korea, according to the list below.

USA


Useful Websites
https://www.traveller24.com/MyTravels/mapped-most-common-last-names-for-each-country-sas-inclusion-may-not-surprise-you-20191206-2
Most common surnames and England and Ireland
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-38003201#
Popular First Names in the USA
https://nameberry.com/popular_names/US
https://forebears.io/

About The Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

See Richard III's Grave in Leicester Where Richard's Reputation Is Restored - Not a hunchbacked murderer! Was Shakespeare wrong?

Richard III's new burial place in Leicester Cathedral.

Flag of the United Kingdom. 

Richard - who? where?

Richard's remains were found in a car park in Leicester, England. Who was the skeleton? Richard, they speculated. They hoped.

Nah, said the nay-sayers. Wishful thinking.

However, DNA from his relative's descendants proved it was really Richard III! Amazing. So somebody today can say, Richard III was a member of my family - and my DNA proved it.


Picture shared in Wikipedia.

You can drive to Leicester or take the train, then drive a tank at the tank museum in summer. Next the tourist can move to car parks and see Richard III's grave in Leicester Cathedral - all year. Leicester is a lovely, lively area, if you like action and modern or ancient history.

Richard III's Effect On Our World
If your history is hazy, it's a quick way to catch up. To sum it up, Richard was the last of the Plantaganets, who ended the Wars of the Roses, when he lost the Battle of Bosworth to Henry VII.

Why did Richard lose the battle? Some say it was because soldiers under Stanley, supposedly supporting Richard who had more men, were held back until it was clear which side was winning. Seeing Richard run towards Henry in the hope of killing him, being surrounded, Stanleys men quickly joined what loooked like the winning side.

Another theory is that the absence of the Princes in the Tower, and rumours that Richard had killed them, meant that outraged leaders of the nobility withheld their support.

But where were the bodies? Who knew?

The Princes in the Tower. Portraits depicted by Millais, much later.

This pivotal event led to the Tudor takeover. The Tudor takeover led to Henry VIII's important reign which affects people worldwide today. Who is affected? The Church of England, Protestants, Anglicans, students of Shakespeare for A level or simply schoolchildren, and actors of Shakespeare's plays, and lovers of quotations, and even pub goers answering quizzes.

Henry VIII had to divorce his wife to try to get a son and heir, but the Pope did not give permission, so Henry VIII made himself head of the Church of England, which is in England. Other churches worldwide following the British Protestant system, without the pope, not Roman Catholics, are called Anglican. If Richard had won that battle, who knows how different the kings and queens and churches would have been.

William Shakespeare.

In the play by William Shakespeare, Richard III, losing his horse and the battle (for the throne), desperate to escape, shouts, "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!"

How did Shakespeare manage to so successfully encapsulate the desperation of the man about to die and lose the battle, in less than ten memorable words? Why is that sentence so memorable? The start is a repetition: a horse, a horse. For a moment, it seems an exaggeration, absurd, to give your entire kingdom for just a horse. On second thoughts, after some investigation and enlightenment, you realise that without the horse, he had lost the battle, his kingdom, his life.

The night before my drive home from my holiday in the Midlands to London, a lady from Leicester kept me and a group of others entranced until midnight on the last night of Writer's Summer School at the Hayes Conference Centre near Derby, with her story of how William Shakespeare had unfairly blackened the character of Richard III. "Richard," she insisted, "was not the baddie, which William Shakespeare portrayed."

Why did Shakespeare tell such lies? At very least, half truths. Our hero, Shakespeare! Shakespeare was a diplomat. Shakespeare had no choice. He was writing for his patrons, the Tudor royalty, and the audience who had to be persuaded, or convinced, that Richard, who the Tudors killed in battle, had deserved to die.

Richard III! That man who had killed the two little boys in the Tower of London. His imprisoned nephews, heirs to the throne. Tut, tut. Dreadful man, Richard III.

She assured us, "There was no evidence that Richard killed his nephews, the princes in the tower." ("Yes," we assured our Canadian visitor, "the famous Tower of London, which everybody knows.")

The Tower of London has many towers. The tower where the boys were imprisoned was actually the regular place for a prince to reside prior to his coronation. But, of course, the coronation never took place. After that, the tower was known as the Bloody Tower.

If you go to London, you can visit the Tower of London, which competes with Madame Tussaud's as London's most visited attraction.

A portrait of Henry VII is in the National Portrait Gallery on London's Trafalgar Square.

Portrait of Henry VII in the National Portrait Gallery, London.


We listened politely, to the animated lady who was acting as unpaid PR for local hero, Richard III of Leicester, but we speculated sceptically.
"So what killed the boys?"
"Maybe the boys killed themselves."
"Or each other?"
"Or were killed by Aliens?"


The Princes in the Tower of London.

Richard III
"Furthermore," she insisted, "Richard III did not have a hunchback. He had a curved spine."

Conspiracy theorists have all sorts of ideas about what never happened. People have claimed Richard could not have ridden into battle with a curved spine. However, a modern man with the same condition was persuaded to don a suit of armour, which he apparently gladly did for his moment of fame and climbed onto a horse. Far from impeding and hurting him, the armour acted like a giant corset. It helped to support the spine.

If he had lived in modern times, perhaps dear Richard would have said, "A tank, a tank, my kingdom for a tank." But he didn't.

Richard, with or without his horse, was killed at the battle of Bosworth. The throne was taken by Henry VII, leading to Henry VIII, who is regarded with much more enthusiasm, although there is no doubt that Henry VIII married six times, and executed two wives.

Compare Henry VII and Richard. Richard, we suspect, killed his two nephews. They were heirs to the throne.

Henry VII, lifelike bust made copying Henry VII's death mask. See the bust in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, England.


Henry VII killed Richard on the battlefield. A fair fight. (Not exactly. Richard was not taken prisoner. He did not surrender nor live to tell the tale. But he fought to the death. According to one historian, Richard said that he wished to live and die as a king.)

Copare villain Henry with hero Henry VIII. We could also find fault with Henry. Killed his next of kin. Henry was also overweight, extremely so, even for his era. An old man with two wives who were much younger. in his own era, Henry divorcing his longstanding, middle-aged, menopausal wife who could no longer bear children, in favour of her lady in waiting, young, sexy, flirtatious, Anne Boleyn, did not appeal.

Divorced, not a popular move in his era. And had VD (venereal disease) which probably infected his wives and killed his children by damaging their health and resilience in an unsanitary age. But Shakespeare and portrait painters made Henry the hero and the popular villain, whilst Richard III was depicted as horrid, deformed, outside and inside. Richard a man who was handicapped in life, resentful, and killed children.

Richard III is now due for a makeover. But the more mystery and controversy the better.

When I visited Leicester to stay with a friend our main activity was visiting the local branch of Dunelm Mill, one of my favourite stores for affordable but smart furnishings. Dunelm was founded in Leicester.


Duneldm in Bradford.


Richard III is now re-buried in Leicester Cathedral under a solid white slab. His character is now whitewashed.

Disappointingly, the Wikipedia article on the play reveals that Richard was offered a horse and turned it down, preferring to continue on foot. In that case, all the more credit to Shakespeare for improving on the story and creating a memorable line to fit the new, invented scenario.

Go and find out for yourself. If you read Richard III at school, what a spine-tingling moment to see Richard III's grave. If you never read Richard III, a chance to learn visually a bit of history, literature, controversy. A great subject for debate, perhaps in a Tudor style historic pub.

If you are too far away to visit now, and live in the USA, you might be interested in the Wiki article on the play Richard III which gives accounts of the performances of the play in the USA, with photos of playbills of dramatic performances.



To sum up:
TRAVEL TRAIL & TRIP TIPS
1 Richard III grave in cathedral
2 Richard III centre.
3 Bosworth Field centre (shop and more).

Optional extras:
Bosworth medieval Festival:
Bosworth Medieval Festival: 2019

Saturday 17th August - Sunday 18th August, 10:00 am - 5:30 pm.

Tank Museum.
Pub lunch - at pub where you can buy furniture.
Stay in cheap affordable Ibis, cheap hotel at motorway service station, or smarter historical and/or modern hotel.

Practical Information For Travellers

Richard III Museum
Southfields Farm
Husbands Bosworth,
Lutterworth,
Leicestershire LE17 6NW
Tel: 01858 880239.

Useful Websites
www.armourgeddon.co.uk.
www.militarymuseum.uk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloster_E.28/39
Richard III Visitor Centre (the mysterious letters in the web address are abbreviations for king richard iii all lower case)
https://kriii.com Richard III Visitor Centre
Leicester Tourism
https://www.visitleicester.info/good-to-know/visit-leicester-information-centre
Leicester Cathedral
https://leicestercathedral.org/visiting-king-richards-tomb/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III_(play)#cite_note-jones-53
https://www.dunelm.com/stores

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
text and pictures in progress

Saving Statues, Stories of Civil War, Diamonds, Canceled Christmas: See Statues While You Can

Problem
Somebody wants to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes in Cambridge, England. Even a student who is a Rhodes scholar wants the state removed.

Over in the USA somebody wants - several somebodies want - to remove the statue of General Robert E Lee who led the South in the Civil War.

I was surprised to hear that. I lived in America. I was led to believe that General Lee said that he supported the views of the north but he would not allow them to invade the south.

During his lifetime he was highly respected. However, some of the actions taken my himself and his army do not harmonies with the lot things he said.

Napoleon
All our museums are full of paintings and statues of kings and emperors and generals who were not liked by the other side. Take Napoleon. We have a statue of him in London, in the home of Wellington. The story goes that Wellington had the statue of Napoleon made larger than life so that when he met Napoleon, a man of short stature, he would be emboldened by seeing that the real life Napoleon was so much smaller than the Napoleon everybody feared.

Cromwell
Feelings about people blow one way then the other. Cromwell, for example, known as the man who killed the king, and the man who cancelled Christmas. On the other hand, you could argue that he signed the death warrant reluctantly, after much attempted delay, only one of many signers, was sensible, refused to be a king, and was tolerant and improved trade in the national of shopkeepers by letting the Jews back into England.

It seems to me that a satisfactory compromise would be to move any controversial statue from a prominent outdoor positions and put it inside gated compounds or better still indoors inside museums.

What about all the Greeks and Romans and pagans? We would lose so many statues and busts, so many tourist sites, if we allowed ourselves to remove statues on moral ground.

Yes, a statue which is unpopular today should be taken into police protection, to protect it, for its own safety.

Henry VIII
What about Henry VIII and the monasteries? What would Amnesty International say about the way Henry treated his wives?

What happened to early statues of Jesus and saints and the bones and bodies of saints? Whenever you see a potential attack, destruction, or theft, if anybody wants to hide a book or statue or painting, they whisk it away. It goes into a church for safekeeping, hidden in a back room, in a basement or underground. Alternatively, if there's no church, you build a church around it.

What about Hitler? I would not want a statue of Hitler in a main square, suggesting that he was venerated. But a museum about a city's history, or the war and the Nazi era, could well have a statue or portrait, showing how Hitler and others looked at the time.

Let us go back to our banned or at risk statues. Why should you care? I want to see what Alexander the Great looked like. And Robert E Lee. And Cecil Rhodes.

Cecil Rhodes Statue, Cape Town, South Africa. Photo from Wikipedia, author KNewman1.

Why should you go and see these at risk statues now? Because you might not get another chance.

Rhodes
1 See the equestrian statue of Cecil Rhodes in Cape Town, South Africa. The nearby bust in the wall  was vandalised, with the nose damaged.
2 Statue above, of Rhodes standing.

Lee
1 The statue of Robert E Lee, in Lee Park, like the one of Stonewall Jackson in Jackson Parks was covered in tarpaulin, October 11th, 2017, according to reports not the Save Robert E Lee page in Facebook.
2 Statue of Robert E Lee, equestrian, Charlottesville, Virginia.
3 Statue of Lee in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. (Scene of the battle, and where President Lincoln gave his address or speech.)
4 Statue of Lee in Texas Austin (standing).
5 Statue of Lee in Dallas, Texas.
6 Statue of Lee in chapel on the campus of Washington and Lee University.
When we toured around Virginia and visit Gettysburg I saw the statue of Lee in the chapel. I don't think it dawned on me at the time what a VIP he had been as head of the university. The Wikipedia article shows all the statues and gives a very readable account of Lee's life. An even clearer and more succinct story is told about Lee and his life in Find a Grave

The bust of Robert E Lee was removed from the Hall of Fame in New York by a mayor.

Lee's famous horse was called Traveller. If these statues vanish, you can still enjoy reading about Civil War times on the internet.

Glossary (fancy word for dictionary)
equestrian - on horseback

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please save links to your favourite posts.

Harrow-on-the-Hill's Incanto Restaurant - and A Romanian With Insights Into P r o e s t i

Problem
Where to eat with fussy friends?

Answer
Incanto Restaurant at Harrow-on-the-Hill.

Harrow-On-The-Hill
The drive up the steep hill takes you from modern Harrow through narrowing streets to ancient Harrow. At the summit is the school.

The statue of Elizabeth I looks down from high on the wall. Henry VIII's portrait dominates the green.

Buildings display various style of architecture. As you drive up your eyes are elsewhere. Parking is at a premium.

Once out of the car, you can enjoy the scenery. On the other side of the green from Incanto is an old red telephone box. It's the only thing which nobody has bothered to paint. But still red, evoking the good old days.

So British. A shop window show the boys' school uniforms and straw boaters. Who's for cricket?

Incanto Restaurant
The deli at the front seems to have expanded. It probably hasn't. I love the amusing signs. In the deli section you can see the food being cooked.

Beyond the beams and glass is the restaurant at the back. Incanto restaurant has changed hands but the standards is still  just as high.

Menu Choice
The choice is not large. However, everything is cooked fresh.

Midweek they have a busy lady's lunch. Pizza.

Children also have their own menu. It's suitable for children aged seven and under in both style and, I presume, portion sizes.

Tables and Seating
It was a hot day and we moved away from the sun streaming though an overhead window to the back. Usually I like to sit against the wall. Back to the wall gives me a feeling of security. I can watch who is arriving - nobody creeping up. A chance to wave down a waiter. A  chance to put down my bag without tripping up the waiters and passers-by. An opportunity to admire the decor, as well as the other diners.

But that's the problem. Other diners can be a distraction. This time I sat facing the wall. I found this new for me position had the advantage of encouraging me to give my dear friends my undivided attention.

Our server was from Romania, P r o e s t i. We had driven through it on the way back to Bucharest. Its the last place you drive through before the airport. We had speculated as to what would make somebody leave P r o e s t i for London.

The girl from Romania was as delighted to meet tourists who had passed through her town as we were to meet her.  (More about her city in the next post.)

We were all trying to lose weight and keep fit, and had our eyes on the dessert menu, so we went without starters. I recalled that the dried parsnip on the soup had been wonderful on my last visit.

Complimentary amuse bouche. Photo by Angela Lansbury. 

Just as well we went without the starter. Up comes another course - the complimentary amuse bouche. (French for amuse mouth - an on the house taste.) What was it? Mushroom canapé. Just the right thing to keep the customers amused while the chef cooked up the main course.

Two of us had deliberately chosen different dishes for our main course so we could share out the vegetables and get more variety.

The dishes were a delight to look at. All four dishes looked good.

Meat dish.

Fish dish.

Delightful Desserts
At first we were not happy with the lack of fruit in the desserts. All sugar, pastry, little fruit. However, my chocolate dessert came with a choice of ice cream or sorbets. I find vanilla is boring, are rarely tastes of vanilla. I asked for an alternative. The child's menu had more flavours and the server recited them.

One person chose tiramisu. My friend chose melon, with blueberry sorbet. She said the melon had not much flavour but the blueberry sorbet was the best she had ever tasted.

Chocolate dessert with fruit sorbet. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

I was equally excited by my dessert.

The coffee came with neatly presented cubes of contrasting brown and white sugar. One row of three white cubes, one row of three brown. I was tempted to rearrange them into alternating lines, checker board style. But I did not want to handle sugar others might be eating.

All in all, a very satisfactory meal.

Descend the wide spiral stairs to the toilets. An amusing picture of two squirrels is at the bottom of the stairs. Inside the ladies is what I missed even in the five star hotel in Brasov, Roumania. Incanto had what all grand hotels and restaurants in London and around England provide. Gourmet hand gel and matching moisturiser.

Perfection.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. All photos by Angela Lansbury, copyright. More articles on London, England, Roumania, other tourist trips and tips on learning languages. Please share links to your favourite articles.

Dracula and a Trip To Romania - a quiz

A surprise appearance by 'Dracula'. (A member of our group with white face paint, false teeth with large canine teeth and a black cloak.) Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Problem
Everybody knows of Dracula but how well do you know the story? We discovered during the last night quiz on a Dracular holiday in Romania that everybody thought they knew but some people had muddled up the story with that of Frankenstein. (DraculaR? - that was a typo but I am leaving it and turning Dracula into an adjective adding the r.)

Answers
A few facts about Dracula.

The Dracula story was written by Brad Stoker. (Not Mary Shelley - she wrote Frankenstein.) Several films have been made. One of the films was directed by Roman Polanski. One of the films starred Christopher Lee.

Dracula was based on the story of Vlad the Impaler. He was the third Vlad. (A bit like the Henry kings in England, who got as far as Henry VIII.)

Story
I went to Transylvania in Romania with a group of nearly 30 hikers and visited Bran Castle, one of three castles associated with Vlad the Impaler, Vlad III, who inspired the story of Dracula. On the last night of our trip we had a quiz on Dracula and a surprise appearance of a member of the group dressed as Dracula.

Phil won the cloak. He was best at the quiz. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Tips
If you are going to Romania, or not doing a Dracula tour, you might like to read the Bram Stoker Dracula story or watch a film at home in advance or at the hotel after you arrive.

If you get a recording to play in the car that will amuse you on a car journey or in the hotel at night.

If you are organising a group, you might like to hold a fancy dress party on the theme of Dracula. If carrying costumes is too much, have just one person dressed as Dracula, either greeting guests, or as a surprise entrant.

Author

Here I am in the Dracula cloak. Lovely hood. 

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several more posts on Romania, music, hotels, castles and sights, before and to come. Please share links to my posts.

Richard III to be buried in Leicester Cathedral - ending "the winter of our discontent"

Next week (March 2015) Richard III will be buried in Leicester Cathedral. The lead-lined coffin has been carved by one of his descendants, named not Richard but Michael. It was Richard's closest descendant's DNA which enabled Richard III to be identified when his skeleton was dug up from a Leicester car park.

   Richard III should be buried in York, many people protest, because he is from the House of York. (He lost to the Lancastrians, from Lancaster, Tudor dynasty, a line of kings all confusingly named Henry who led to Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.)

   However, York already has many attractions and does not need another. Also visitors to York might find so many other things to do that they neglect Richard III.

   Leicester, however, has almost no major attractions. I recall the highlight of my stay with my good friend Lynda was a trip to the Dunelm Mill store. Leicester is also nearer if you are going north from London, where large numbers of tourists arrive.

   Yes, Leicester, specifically Leicester Cathedral, is a great place for Richard III to be buried, near where he died in the battle of Bosworth Field, ending The Wars of The Roses ((White rose of York versus Red Rose symbol of Lancaster on their heraldic badges). He lived from 2 October 1452 to 22 August 1485, dying in his early thirties.

   How do you get to Leicester? Drive up the motorway from London. As Richard III said, according to William Shakespeare, at the end of the play, Richard III, written about 1592, more than a century later, "A horse! A horse - my kingdom for a horse!"

   Did Richard kill, or order to be killed, his nephews, the two princes in the tower (of London). He had just cancelled the coronation of the eldest brother, declaring them both to be illegitimate, so that he could be crowned.

   You may recall the opening line of the Shakespeare's play, given to Richard III, "Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York."
   If you want to know more about Richard III, you can read three books about him. Two of the biographies were reviewed in a recent edition of the Sunday Times, by the author of the third book.

Photo of Richard III of England from Wikipedia in public domain

Pub names - what do they mean?

I ordered The Dictionary of Pub Names. I like dictionary format. You can find what you want quickly. The book is not only a handy explanation of pub names, it gives you amusing myths and local history and national and international history. I just got distracted by reading about Ypres and how the French and British pronounce it.


I also bought:
The Old Dog and Duck The secret meanings of Pub Names by Albert Jack (best selling author of Pop Goes The Weasel).

Interesting to read about Captain Kidd who according to this account was not really a pirate but preying on ships from enemy states in wartime. It's more complicated than that.

I also enjoyed reading about Henry VIII and his first wife Anne - whose divorce led to the founding of the Church of England. Next I read about Nelson who suffered from seasickness.

Then on to The Royal Oak, where Charles II hid from Cromwell's men, as Charles later told diarist Samuel Pepys.

The book about pub names also deals with Molly Malone of the Irish song. I was impressed with the song's connection to Dublin (mentioned in the song). She died of a fever - what kind? I have always been too naive to suspect.

If you go to Dublin you can see the statue to Molly Malone, whose day is June 13, commemorating a girl of that name (one of many) who died on June 13.

See pictures in Wikipedia.

Both books are an entertaining read.