h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm a very serious medieval historian, haviung studied the subject for many years, and made my living frittering at the edge of it for almost as long...

Loved this!

Wish more people had a sense of humour about such things!

Thanks very much, Cloviscat!

Which areas of medieval history in particular are you interested in?

My heart belongs to the twelfth century, and to the Church in particular. Professionally, I've had to develop a good knowledge of Scottish medieval history, again mostly the church, but more 15 century.

Favourite architecture: Romanesque
Favourite English King: John (good chancellor, bad king...)
Favourite Holy Roman Emperor: Frederick Barbarossa
Favourite Pope: Innocent III

How sad is that?

What about yourself?

Ah, you've had to develop a knowledge in Scottish fifteenth century history - are you writing a book or something?

I studied history and then history of philosophy (of the dullest kind - Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore) but really I'm not a very good historian and always opt for the more 'showbiz' stuff - i.e. I prefer the Tudors to social stuff!

Favourite architecture: Edwardian
Favourite HRE: Otto I
Favourite pope: Joan
Favourite queen: Elizabeth II (come on, it's Jubilee week!)

I hope Cloviskitten is doing well!

That's a nice broad range of favourites!

With regards to the history: picture the scene: You're an English girl, and you've bluffed your way into a job managing a major Scottish fifteenth century building, which played a reasonably crucial role in history. You can hope that you can continue the bluff, or you can climb a steep learning curve! I always did find the b*llsh*t handy though...

I don't blame you for going for the big bang bits of hisotry - sex and violence will always have the pulling power - who wants to b an economic historian for goodness sake?

So: why the weird Stephen fixation?

What a great job! Which building is it? Is it rewarding?

I don't really have a Stephen fixation - it was my 'specialist subject' at university (theme: 'he wasn't that bad really') and I was challenged to write an entry on a monarch (a surprising amount of them have gone already!)

My mom owns a historical fiction about Pope Joan called, well, Pope Joan. (grin) Maybe I'll read it. A really good h.f. is Queens Own Fool, it's written from the point of view of Nichole, Mary Queen of Scots personal jester.

Sounds interesting, I definitely think you should read it! Do you have a favourite Pope by the way? (!) My favourite bit of historical fiction (though it doesn't really fall under that category of course) is '1066 And All That.' I can't believe it was written so long ago.

Hi HuhWhy!

Queen's Own Fool - Written by two jolly good people. A little bird tells me that there's going to be a whole new section on QOF on Robert J Harris website in the near future: you might want to keep an eye on it: www.harris-authors.com

Does anyone know of a good hf on Stephen? please don't suggest Cadfael!

I just finished Pope Joan yesterday, it was good! I would highly suggest it to anyone. What was really cool was how at the end the author had this section showing the facts, the arguments for and against the existentce (I think I misspelled that) of Pope Joan. Does anyone know any other good historical fictions?

A good hf for Stephen is "When Christ and his Saints Slept" by Sharon Penman. She's also written good hf about the last days of independent Wales and Richard the 3rd

Hi Researcher 203900, and welcome to H2G2!

If you go to your own page: U203900 and click on the 'Edit Page' button and write something - anything - then your page will show this and any other conversations, and allow other people to come an say hi to you!

I've found Sharon penman good, but perhaps a little dull in places - perhaps because she is so true to facts. Still, better that than te alternative. Of course the other author most assciated with Stephen and Mathilda is Ellis Peters, and that really does make you go pretty quickly!

I'd be interested to hear what else you like - let us know!