I decided instead to buy Redcoats and Rebels by Christopher Hibbert as I thought it might be an interesting read and it was rather a lovely book for £6. I was tempted by Huck Finn (I think it was about £3-4) but I have a paperback bought last year I've yet to read (I think I read the book when I was young, but my memory is very patchy on my childhood reading). I did a lot of head scratching over the ones in Helena Hospice and I did consider buying A Thousand and one Nights but leafing through it I was not sure I'd read it and it would take up quite a bit of precious shelf space. The Oxfam shop a few doors down had a copy of Medieval Civilisation, but it was lacking a slipcase and they wanted £35 for it! :-O They have a few other folios, some for just £2-4, though a couple were lacking slipcases.ġ Centurion House, St Johns Street, Colchester, CO2 7AA (01206 563245) ***I can never decide if I like this story more than that of the Cadaver Synod ( Synodus Horrenda) or not.ĭoing my good deed thing again: if anyone local to Essex is looking for a copy of the four volume 'The book of the thousand nights and one night', as I think it's called (a set with white spines), then check out the helena hospice book and coffee shop in Colchester as they have a copy for £12, which seems quite cheap to me. Needless to say, the funeral was suspended briefly, and then concluded most expeditiously!*** According to a bunch of chroniclers, his corpse got stuffed into a too-small casket for the funeral, and Bill decided to go out in style by literally exploding and adding some odoriferous decorations to the ecclesiastical garments of the bishops seated around his casket. When William the Bastard (Conqueror in polite company) died, it was in the height of summer. I suspect he just found discussing stuff like "Did Harold really die from an arrow in the eye?" and "Exploding Bill"** more interesting. *I blame my prof, who spent an inordinate amount of time dissecting the "current events" of the day - apparently discussing the fact that a bunch of Vikings and Normans decided to pay a visit to jolly old "England" near-simultaneously and the like was "pretty damn boring" compared to discussing the type of stories that would have made it into the gossip pages today. I fully plan on doing that perhaps this weekend or next, schedule permitting. Would one of the images be the one of the (alleged?) rape that may or may not have been a cause celebre in its day? That and the comet are the two images that I associate most strongly with the tapestry.* Not sure what the other naughty picture was, but admittedly it's been a while since I last laid eyes upon the tapestry. :P The colour plates are an amazing bonus, though! (I jest: it's really the other way around! The essays should also be a great read, particularly in terms of their historiographical value as this is an older work.) I admit I got the book mostly for the cover.
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