A Book a Day: London in Chains

[caitri]

Every day I'm posting an image of a book I like. This is a fun novel about a seventeenth century English woman printer who gets caught up in the English Civil War and radical politics! The story's a bit thin, but I'm willing to forgive a lot when the heroine grumps about a clunky press and problems inky. There's a sequel called A Corruptible Crown, where the author had basically just read Christopher Hill and it showed, and the characters were constantly talking about the Levelers--which the author had not introduced in the first book and forgot to explain in the second. But Bradshaw is always a good time for a historical novel, and this duology is a nice blip away from her usual ancient history stuff.

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[minoanmiss]

Then I went and looked up her ancient history books. Nubia! Greece! Rome! I think I need to read some of them!

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[caitri]

OMG you would adore her. My particular favorites are Beacon at Alexandria (girl pretends to be a eunuch to study medicine in the latter days of the Roman Empire) and Island of Ghosts (brilliant culture-clash/assimilation story of the three legions of Sarmatian cavalry that were transported to Hadrian's Wall and what happened to them). I think you would also like The Sand-Reckoner which is about Archimedes and The Bearkeeper's Daughter, which is about the Empress Theodora.