Tuesday 9 July 2013

Daughter of Time: A Great King Wronged

I didn't know that it would be like this. When I picked the title for one of this year's challenge, I didn't think of history. When I later learned that it's about Richard, I was thinking about time travel, not bedtime analysis. Anyway, I gave 5 stars for it in Goodreads.

To make long story short, the book is about Richard III. The one with the withered arm and hunchback, the one who killed his two nephews in the tower then usurped their throne, the one who was killed in Bosworth by Henry Tudor? Exactly, except that most of the well-known story isn't true.

In the Daughter of Time, a Scotland Yard investigator and an amateur researcher looked up history to find whether Richard was truly the one to be accused for it. Their 'academic investigation' brought them back to the War of the Roses through pages and pages of contemporary sources. It was not in vain. They found out, not only that the king was 'more sinn'd against than sinning', but who the true culprit probably was.

I like the way this book narrates its story. Instead of making a serious essay with pages of references, Josephine Tey made it a novel, a digestible story, and at the same time carefully put sources and actual facts inside. It must have taken a lot of research to do so, and I appreciate such effort from an author.

Talking about accuracy, I sent an email to a member of Richard III Society and asked her how much of it to be trusted. Although she said that someone thought that it flawed, overall the novel is more accurate than not. Thus I recommend it to all who love history, and who want to know more about Richard III.


Oh, and for your information, I heard that people are proposing a petition to properly bury the remains of Richard III.  

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