Category archives: Medieval

The Gongfermor – Dealing with Medieval Sh*t! (Trying a medieval “garderobe” for size at Lamphey Bishop’s Palace, purely for purposes of research you understand!) Towards the end of the 14th Century, London with a population of around 30,000 defecating souls, had only 16 public latrines, known as “houses of easement”. However, many private latrines (privies) […]

Pick up some free reads… I often link up with other authors to cross promote our books to a wider list of readers. We currently have a promotion underway for the next month or so where you can pick up a ton of free reads from new and established authors. If you’d like to explore whats on […]

Death Of The Official – The Paperback Cover… The last couple of weeks I have been preparing the formatted files and graphics of the latest book release for upload to the Amazon kindle store. This time I’ve decided to do a simultaneous paperback release as well. As an independent author I pretty much do everything […]

A mortal blow to the back – a medieval skeleton Watching TV the other day, I came across the “Bone Detectives”.  It’s a program on Channel 4 here in the UK. The premise is “a team of scientists piece together the lives behind unearthed bones to find out their stories. Once a skeleton has been […]

Medieval Alehouses, Taverns, and Inns In the late 14th century, when my books are set, alehouses and taverns would provide food and drink and inns would also provide accommodation for travellers. They make an excellent setting for the plot of a medieval novel. These were places where people met to socialise and talk. Particularly in […]

My favourite writers of medieval fiction – No2 – Paul Doherty – the Hugh Corbett Series I first came across Paul Doherty’s books via his Hugh Corbett series, set during the 13th-century reign of Edward I of England. There are now twenty-one books in the series as of 2020’s “Hymn to Murder”. I have loved […]

Medieval Swearing, “God’s Bones!” There are trends and fashions in swearing. Things that were outrageous and blasphemous in one age might raise nothing but a curious stare in the 21st century. It’s difficult today to understand why swearing by parts of God’s body would be offensive, but it was a popular way of swearing up […]

My favourite writers of medieval fiction – No1 – Ellis Peters – The Cadfael Chronicles I’ve always been a fan of historical fiction, although over the years I’ve also read a lot of science fiction. Still, I always seem to return to books set in the past, particularly the medieval period. It seems a lifetime […]

The English Medieval Penny The most widespread coin in use in medieval England was the penny. Twelve silver pennies made a shilling and there were twenty shillings to the pound. For transactions worth less than a penny it could be divided by physically clipping the coin into halves and quarters. Hence, half pennies and quarter […]

Medieval English Ale In medieval England virtually everyone would have drunk ale on a daily basis. That’s not to imply that the whole population was constantly inebriated. The fact is medieval ale was a very different drink to any modern-day beer or ale. The basic ingredients were water and malted grain fermented with yeast (beer […]