John S Alty

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

And the armour would have gone rusty.

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 believe I once read that Henry VIII, in his youth, could reputedly vault into the saddle over the horse’s hindquarters while wearing full armour…

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]

Well done, Jules and thanks for the horse breed check list, correcting my belief that a destrier was a sort of fast carthorse. I’m a big fan of Dorothy Dunnett so this will be added to my list.

Horses becoming fully fledged (ha) characters is only right and proper. They make more interesting friends/sidekicks/warriors/vindictive bastards than most actual people. 🙂

Wonderful news, Jules!! Congratulations. The book sounds fab!

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]

WOnderful, JB! THis sounds fab and you’ve been dead sneaky with the deals etc! Well done there, lovely. I do now think every book needs a What Horse list.

Congratulations, Jules! sounds like a brilliant read. 3-book contract that slipped your mind, eh? 🙂 congratulations for that, too.

Out of interest, who was that with and did you negotiate it yourself?

x

Excellent.

I do wonder how anyone can marry their mother-in-law accidentally or otherwise – rather puts the lie to all those joke, though.

Congratulations, Jules. Sounds like a brilliant book – I’m off to buy it now. And thanks for all the tongue in cheek info. Made me laugh as well as being interesting.

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

That’s fantastic news, congratulations!

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

Interzone magazine for SF and fantasy, open for submissions of up to 10,000 words. The publisher, TTA Press also do Black Static magazine (horror) and Crimewave magazine, your guess is as good as mine on subject matter :).

ttapress.com

Thanks for putting up the list Daeds. I’ve a hankering for doing some short work again, as I’ve done nowt…[Read more]