13 Comments
Feb 18, 2022Liked by Dan Jones

Well done, Dan! I hope you’re enjoying a bit of rest after an eventful year (and more).

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Thanks Dan. Love hearing the beach and occasional cooing of ur baby in the background. That was a fantastic thread. I’m always looking for a good historical fiction read. I still have to put a plug in for “The Lost Queen” by Signee Pike. It’s a great Arthurian Tale that starts out w/ the childhood of Lailoken (Merlin) and his twin sister Languoreth who becomes Queen of Alt Clut and there battle w/ The scourge of Rome and Saint Mungo *sneer*

It’s in the same line of Mists of Avalon. But more rooted in historical kings that where around during the time of the Battle of Arderydd

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Totally agree about historical fiction being an inspiration for digging into real history. In a similar vein, we were shown Gallipoli (the movie, with the young Mel Gibson) at school and it affected me so much, it led me to my history degree. I remember being devastated that humans would do that to each other and wanted to understand why...

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Totally agree about historical fiction being an inspiration for digging into real history. In a similar vein, we were shown Gallipoli (the movie, with the young Mel Gibson) at school and it affected me so much, it led me to my history degree. I remember being devastated that humans would do that to each other and wanted to understand why...

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I suppose to be strictly accurate Mark Rylance made me have a crush on Thomas Cromwell but HM definitely made him a likable character- still 😡 though

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It was a thread about fiction after all! You’re allowed to have crushes on fictional characters. Would we have read all three of those books if she hadn’t made him likeable?

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It sounds as you're smallest agrees with your musings with the appropriate cooing... You're teaching early eh?

Your next book needs a smoked trout sky in there somewhere as you evoke a mood/place very well

I do think Roger Mortimer wrote 'A desperate remedy' under a pen name as fiction. Very good!

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Whoever said Marion Zimmer Bradley is spot on. The women in Arthurian myths are so often portrayed as evil or weak. Mists of Avalon was an important way to connect to that mythology and that time period without feeling annoyed at all the men writing who assume that women have zero internal life or thought or feelings (other than being hysterical or greedy, of course...they give us those). It has become easier now to find novels where women are fully fleshed out, but when I was a teenager, there were so few options. No wonder so many of us have horrible internalized misogyny.

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Ordering the book now..

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Thanks for the podcast. I hope you got to have your coffee and you have a lovely time away, despite the weather.

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Love the photo of the beach! Enjoy the rest of your time away and don’t work too hard.

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Happy and safe travels

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Thanks, Dan for your latest podcast; very enjoyable! It's the first time I have felt really involved in your history podcasts by enthusing on my favourite historical authors and seeing all your other contributors enthusing as well and now have a list of authors I can try as well.

By the way I hope you weren't in Britain by the sea, you'd have been swept away in the gales by now!

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