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The Time of Singing by Elilzabeth Chadwick

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Misfit
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The Time of Singing by Elilzabeth Chadwick

Post by Misfit » Sat October 4th, 2008, 11:05 pm

The Time of Singing retells the story of Roger Bigod, son of Hugh Bigod Earl of Norfolk, who joined the younger Henry in his revolt against his father Henry II. When the revolt fails Hugh loses the Earldom and lands and when he dies there is a bitter dispute over the right to inherit the Earldom between Roger and his step-mother and her two sons. While Roger serves Henry and bides his time to claim his Earldom young Ida de Tosney arrives in court as the King's ward. Henry is smitten and has other plans for Ida and he makes her his mistress and she eventually bears him a son, William. Unhappy with her position as mistress to the king, Ida casts her hopes on Roger and Henry allows them to marry -- although she must leave her son behind.

Henry still withholds the Earldom, but he does restore some of their lands and Ida and Roger build a life and family together and begin rebuild Framlingham Castle to greater heights than it was before. Once Richard I takes the crown at the death of Henry the Earldom is restored to Roger, and the rest of the book recounts their lives as they struggle to keep everything they hold dear as the battle lines are drawn during Richard's absence on crusade and subsequent kidnapping threatens to bankrupt England.

A very enjoyable surprise for me was the appearance of my personal favorite hero, William Marshal – I did not expect him at all, or to feature so prominently – but it appears Bigod and Marshal were contemporaries and friends. Another big surprise was Ida’s son William – who readers of fiction set during the reigns of John and Henry III will recognize as William Longespée, and I have to admit many of my favorite moments in the book were of William and his attempts at a relationship with his mother, Roger and their children.

While I enjoyed this book very much, this is not an action packed, page turning, sit on the edge of your seat type of book, but one to sit back and savor like a fine red wine or a box of chocolates (or both!!). As always with Chadwick's books, the way she brings the medieval period to life in such a graceful and effortless way, be it the sights, sounds, smells, food, clothes and battles is just awesome. As quoted on some of her book jackets, the next best thing to time travel. 4.5/5 stars.
Last edited by Misfit on Sun October 5th, 2008, 5:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by EC2 » Sat October 4th, 2008, 11:31 pm

Thanks Misfit - glad you enjoyed The Time of Singing. :)
William Marshal and Roger Bigod were definitely friends and allies, so William does get his role. :) I think an entire novel about William Longespee would be interesting - not that I'm going to write one on him as I'm covering him as a strong secondary character in both TTOS and the one I'm working on at the moment, but I think he'd well be able to carry a novel on his own. I recently visited his tomb in Salisbury Cathedral - he was the first person to be buried there after its consecration. It's a very beautiful effigy and suggests a stylish and dapper adult man.
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

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Post by Misfit » Sun October 5th, 2008, 12:16 am

I think an entire novel about William Longespee would be interesting
I agree, he's always such a secondary character in Penman's and Gellis' books. BTW, don't know why but my review hasn't shown up yet on .uk, but they've been having review delays recently. I'll but them if it doesn't show up soon.

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Post by michellemoran » Sun October 5th, 2008, 5:07 pm

Misfit: This is
one to sit back and savor like a fine red wine or a box of chocolates (or both!!). As always with Chadwick's books, the way she brings the medieval period to life in such a graceful and effortless way, be it the sights, sounds, smells, food, clothes and battles is just awesome.
I couldn't agree more. I will read absolutely any nonfiction book set in the Middle Ages, but I'm very, very picky about fiction set in this time period. I find many books set in the medieval period to be too heavy with period details and too light on characterization (which is what I read a novel for, otherwise, I can pick up something that's nonfiction). But what Elizabeth manages to do in The Time of Singing (and all of her books) is balance research with a compelling story. She makes her characters come alive in a way that feels realistic, as if William, Roger, Ida and Henry really could have (and maybe did) speak, move, and feel exactly the way she portrayed them.

I have to say, I was delighted by the reappearance of William Marshal, as Misfit was, and I was completely swept up in the story of Roger and Ida. Congratulations Elizabeth, on an incredibly fine book! This is one of those novels you don't want to end, and when it does, you want to rush to the computer to find as much as you can about the actual characters.
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Post by EC2 » Sun October 5th, 2008, 6:52 pm

Thanks Michelle, glad you enjoyed TTOS.
There's not a great deal out there on Roger and Ida. I had to obtain a lot of my information by bitting and bobbing here and there. I did find a university thesis from the British Library very useful for filling in the blanks, although it was written in the 1970's before anyone knew that Ida de Tosney was Roger's wife. It contains fairly detailed information in there about the land dispute though. While trying to find out about Longespee I came across all sorts of slanging matches on genealogy groups with reference to his date of birth - yikes to some of the vitreol! That's where being a novelist comes in. There's a bit of leeway for going with your own thoughts on the matter. I came across one argument (didn't join in) that said he had been born circa 1166. But in that case his mother would have been 11 years old at the oldest, so I dismissed that one...
Anyway, thanks again and glad you like it :)
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

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Post by lindymc » Thu October 9th, 2008, 8:25 pm

I just finished The Time of Singing, and just as I expected, it was wonderful, another favorite novel. Like Misfit, it was fun to find old friends and heroes from earlier novels, namely William Marshall and Isabelle, and William Longespee and Ela (as a young child). Another wonderful moment was when Ida mentioned that her great great grandsire had owned a white bear cloak. Wow, I tho't to myself, that's Waltheof of The Winter Mantle.

Thank you Elizabeth Chadwick, for reasearching and writing such great stories. I'm already anxiously awaiting Mahelt and Hugh's story.

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Post by Misfit » Thu October 9th, 2008, 8:29 pm

Another wonderful moment was when Ida mentioned that her great great grandsire had owned a white bear cloak. Wow, I tho't to myself, that's Waltheof of The Winter Mantle.
That was pretty cool, wasn't it?

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Post by EC2 » Thu October 9th, 2008, 10:30 pm

[quote=""lindymc""]I just finished The Time of Singing, and just as I expected, it was wonderful, another favorite novel. Like Misfit, it was fun to find old friends and heroes from earlier novels, namely William Marshall and Isabelle, and William Longespee and Ela (as a young child). Another wonderful moment was when Ida mentioned that her great great grandsire had owned a white bear cloak. Wow, I tho't to myself, that's Waltheof of The Winter Mantle.

Thank you Elizabeth Chadwick, for reasearching and writing such great stories. I'm already anxiously awaiting Mahelt and Hugh's story.[/quote]

Thanks Lindymc :) Yup, I was quite excited myself to find out that Ida was related to Waltheof. I had to count back the generations on my fingers and work it out at the time!
I'm working away on Mahelt and Hugh's story. 200 pages of rough draft written so far. She's proving to be quite the girl and something of a handful!

I've been watching the Hornblower films over the last couple of weeks and suddenly had an 'aha!' moment as to who I'd like to play Roger Bigod in a film. Jamie Bamber, the actor who plays Archie Kennedy would really fit the bill well. Not so much in his Battle Star Galactica looks, but definitely the way he looks as Archie. http://www.geocities.com/picklehead82/i ... erboys.jpg
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

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Post by annis » Sun October 12th, 2008, 3:49 am

Thanks for another wonderful read, EC. Like others here when I finished "Time of Singing" I went cybersearching for more information on the main characters. I was amused by by your comments about the vitriolic exchanges on genealogy forums- i came across some very acrimonous exchanges about ida's possible parentage on one such forum -enough to make your hair curl!

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Post by EC2 » Sun October 12th, 2008, 8:05 am

[quote=""annis""]Thanks for another wonderful read, EC. Like others here when I finished "Time of Singing" I went cybersearching for more information on the main characters. I was amused by by your comments about the vitriolic exchanges on genealogy forums- i came across some very acrimonous exchanges about ida's possible parentage on one such forum -enough to make your hair curl![/quote]

Thanks Annis :)
It was indeed interesting conducting the research on this one - although I wasn't entirely surprised at the acrimony I came across when hunting down Ida's parentage and Longespee's birth date. In the past I have sporadically lurked on soc-gen-medieval and there were tantrums between the members on just about a weekly basis. It was never politely 'Dear X, I think you may be wrong because so and so...' but 'Hey, you're a complete idiot from idiot stock, and I'm right so there - nya!'
Other genealogy sites had Longespee's mother down as Rosamund Clifford or what looked suspiciously like Henry's own niece. And since I leave the incest aspect to other authors, I decided I didn't want to go there (and it wasn't true anyway). The internet can be brilliant for research but it's also a minefield!
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

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