Jim Bish

Great idea for the competition Raine, and a lovely selection of entries. Well done Sandra – worthy winner.

I apologise for not joining in btw. I fully intended to, but as I’m between WIPs I was going to have to start something new. I had some ideas but every little spare moment was taken up with other things and at twenty to midnight when I was…[Read more]

Tony – sorry, but Unrelenting Limelight doesn’t work for me either. Sounds like a tragedy set on a stage, and it sounds like your relative’s life was far from a tragedy.

You said that if you’re not familiar with the name, why buy the book?

Book buyers are a strange crowd, drawn in by all sorts of things. Surely it’s that ‘drawing in’ of…[Read more]

First off, I prefer your original working title – Limelight doesn’t say much to me, but the play on words makes me wonder who Lyttle was, and what sort of ‘long way’ was it? Journey? Promotion? Makes it sound quite comedic, too. It would certainly attract interest, regardless of whether anyone knows of your ancestor or not.

With your subtitle,…[Read more]

Wow! Saw John’s news but didn’t realise Mad was in the longlist too! Flippin’ well done to both of you xx

Many thanks Jane and Thea! If anyone who has read it could consider leaving a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads, that would be wonderful. Thanks for your review Squidge, delighted you liked it

Thanks, Jim. And I’m so glad you enjoyed the Oath and Crown duology 😊

Most probably true, Richard. There’s a great youtube video showing people wearing full plate armour doing somersaults. Squires were required to master all the courtly and manly arts – combat, riding, tumbling, swimming, dancing etc – and often practised all of them in full armour. (Well probably not swimming because then there would have been far…[Read more]

I think you’re probably right there, Daed. I doubted my own findings so I consulted a few horsey people (breeders, riders etc) A horse can comfortably carry a third of it’s own weight. You’re average destrier of 15 hands weighed 1200 lbs. So they could comfortably carry 360lbs.
Assuming the average height and weight of a knight was 5’7″ and 150lbs…[Read more]

I wonder if there was a bit of modern extrapolation going on with the notion of destriers being really huge, based on the misconception of the weight of armour? I admit I thought they were vast until I looked into it. If it was thought that armoured knights needed to be winched onto their horses, it would need to be a seriously hefty horse

Thanks, Sandra 🙂 re destriers – apparently the modern shire/ cart/ draught horses are descended from them. Basically they bred some warhorses too big to have enough speed for battle and that’s where the latter great horses come from. I too was surprised to learn that a Medieval warhorse was usually only 15 – 16 hands high. (Apparently I also…[Read more]

Thanks, everyone 🙂

I am just about halfway through writing the second book now so the encouragement is much appreciated.

@JaneShuff – that has to be one of the best TBRs 😀

@Bella – I thought I was being flippant when I spoke about lads marrying their mother-in-laws, but having checked, there were cases where families got split up and the…[Read more]

Brilliant! Loved the idea of ‘what horse’…and the 14th C sex manual. 😉

Looking forward to reading. Well done, Jules x

Congratulations! My to be read list is dominated bu books from Denizens this month!

This is a fantastic book. A perfect weekend read. You’ll learn a heck of a lot about the Peasant’s Revolt but won’t realise until the end because you’ll have been so absorbed in the story

Thanks Stevie, looks great

Thanks Raine, will take a look and add details to the list