Booklog 64/2022: Elizabeth Chadwick: The Conquest

I like Elizabeth Chadwick's writing. She makes history come alive through personal stories. Sometimes her characters are real, and other times invented, but withing a strictly historical time frame. These characters are invented though set in the (very real) time of the Norman Conquest. This is a book of two parts, the first is about Ailith, a Saxon, happily married to Goldwin, a talented blacksmith, and living in London. Pre Hastings, a Norman wine merchant takes the house next to Ailith and Golwin and thus the scene is set for Ailith to be drawn into the Norman world after Hastings and to meet Rolf de  Brize, Norman horse breeder who ends up with English lands after Hastings. The second part concerns Rolf and Ailith's daughter, Julitta, and Benedict who allows himself to be married to Rolf's other daughter, which is unfortunate as it turns out. During the twenty year span of the story the Normans are established in England and throughout this time Rolf is supplying war-horses to the king and his knights. There's some good detail in here and the story is an interesting read, though not my absolute favourite of Ms Chadwick's books (which would be the sequence about William Marshall). Well worth a look if you like your history romantic or your romance historical.

Booklog 65/2022: Juliet E McKenna: The Green Man's Gift – The Green Man #5

I was delighted to receive an advance copy of this book for review. I've loved all the previous Green Man books featuring Daniel Macmain, the son of a normal human man and a dryad mother. Dan, as befits his heritage, is a big, strong bloke who works sympathetically with wood, and who can see supernatural entities invisible to normal human eyes. His girlfriend, Fin, is a swan maiden and he regularly interacts with a couple of dryads who inhabit the Blithehurst estate where he works. In the first book in this series, Dan is a loner, working on building sites and moving on regularly so no one ever notices he's different, but now he's got a permanent home, and a network of friends which includes his boss at Blithehurst, the aforementioned Swan Maidens, and some wise women. The Green Man pops up from time to time to point Dan to a supernatural problem that needs fixing. This time young men are going missing in North Wales. One has turned up traumatised, after weeks, when he thinks he's only been gone for days. A beautiful young folk singer seems to be involved and Dan goes to Snowdonia to investigate. This leads him into the realm of the scary fairy and some shapechanging creatures of Welsh legend. Juliet McKenna knows her folklore and knows her characters. Dan may look like a thug (which he uses to his advantage on occasions), but he's thoughtful and resourceful. Highly recommended. You could start here, but I recommend you do yourself a favour and read the whole lot in order.