Constantinople/Byzantium

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Sun July 5th, 2009, 9:00 am

Knowledge of Angels was magnificent, as was A Desert in Bohemia and Serpentine Cave. Not on the same level, but an interesting read of the time period was Lapsing.

The first one was a cautionary tale of censorship and religious intolerance. The second was a look at the moral conflict among a group of strangers towards the end of WWII and continuing till the fall of Communism. Its a book that kept me rivited to see what these people finally did. The third was a woman's search for her father, with a real connection to St. Ives, I place I had visited and loved many years ago.

Here is a good website with synopses and comments about all of her books. I found the comments quite apt.
http://www.greenbay.co.uk/bib.html#novels

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Sun July 5th, 2009, 6:33 pm

I used to love Dorothy Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey detective novels, so I'm delighted to discover Jill Paton Walsh has written two more - one a continuation of a few chapters Sayers wrote and abandoned in 1936 (Thrones, Dominations) and another based on some notes Sayers wrote (A Presumption of Death). I will have to look these up. I was very frustrated when I discovered I had read all of the mysteries Dorothy Sayers ever wrote!

Eigon · Post by **Eigon** » Sun July 5th, 2009, 7:18 pm

Thrones, Dominations is very good - Jill Paton Walsh did a very good job of sounding like Dorothy Sayers.
I'm rather pleased that I found a copy of Striding Folly last week, with the short story set at Tallboys when Peter and Harriet have children, and an Aunt comes to stay. I remembered enjoying the story, but had forgotten the title of the collection.

Chatterbox · Post by **Chatterbox** » Mon July 6th, 2009, 4:43 pm

Big Jill Paton Walsh fan here...

My fave of her classic fiction is A Desert Bohemia, which blew me away completely. It was one of those books...

Her Dorothy Sayers follow-ups are remarkable.

I also enjoyed her four mysteries -- the Imogen Quy series. Made me realize why she was such a good fit for the Sayers sequels, because she combines the highly literate with the accessible so well. (Very rare; hard to do.) Series begins with A Piece of Justice, I think.

Cuchulainn · Post by **Cuchulainn** » Mon July 6th, 2009, 11:22 pm

Did anyone mention Stephen Lawhead's aptly entitled "Byzantium"?

Also - Tim Severin's Viking - King's Man (the third in the "Viking" trilogy) follows Harald Hardrada through Byzantium (or "Miklagard" as the Vikings called it).

It's funny - everytime I read about Byzantium, the author always seems to convey a corrupt, or at least hopelessly bureaucratic society. But Yeats thought Byzantium was basically the golden age of all humanity, and everything was down hill from there.

Chatterbox · Post by **Chatterbox** » Tue July 7th, 2009, 4:04 am

[quote=""Cuchulainn""]Yeats thought Byzantium was basically the golden age of all humanity, and everything was down hill from there.[/quote]

Erm, Yeats might have wanted to read John Julius Norwich's trilogy (NF) about the Byzantine Empire... Except, of course, that he died before it was published. But if you take a glance through the condensed version, you'll get a sense of why "the golden age" might not have been all it was cracked up to be. Certainly, materially things were fab, but....

Kveto from Prague · Post by **Kveto from Prague** » Mon August 10th, 2009, 8:05 pm

[quote=""Chatterbox""]Erm, Yeats might have wanted to read John Julius Norwich's trilogy (NF) about the Byzantine Empire... Except, of course, that he died before it was published. But if you take a glance through the condensed version, you'll get a sense of why "the golden age" might not have been all it was cracked up to be. Certainly, materially things were fab, but....[/quote]

I reckon byzantiums bad press can be traced back to our old buddy gibbon in his "decline and fall". he felt history peaked with Marcus arulius and eveything that came after was "decine" particularly the natural inheritor byzantium. he had nothing good to say about it.

i agree everyone should read Norwich. still one of my favourite reads

G. Alvin Simons · Post by **G. Alvin Simons** » Wed December 2nd, 2009, 1:38 am

[QUOTE=Cuchulainn;32905]Did anyone mention Stephen Lawhead's aptly entitled "Byzantium"?

I agree. I absolutely could not put this book down.

Alvin

Shield-of-Dardania · Post by **Shield-of-Dardania** » Mon November 8th, 2010, 1:43 pm

Anyone knows anything with Basileios II in it?

sweetpotatoboy · Post by **sweetpotatoboy** » Mon November 8th, 2010, 3:57 pm

[quote=""Shield-of-Dardania""]Anyone knows anything with Basileios II in it?[/quote]

If that's the same person as Basil II, then I believe The High City by Cecelia Holland features him, though it's not the first in its series. Not read it myself.