"Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority."
from Life of Galileo by Berthold Brecht
Described as insightful, a 'must-read', and 'the detective novel that convinced a generation that Richard III wasn't evil', I had great expectations for Josephine Tey's slim mystery, The Daughter of Time, a selection for the Cook Memorial Public Library's Classics Book Group to discuss in September of 2015.
The book was written in 1951 and remains in print to this day. And if we agree with Italo Calvino who said in his essay "Why Read the Classics?" that "a classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say," then The Daughter of Time certainly fits.
The Daughter of Time features an inspector from Scotland Yard, Alan Grant, who is confined to a hospital bed because of a leg injury and is bored to tears. Friends bring him a wide variety of things to distract him, and one picture especially captivates his interest----a painting of Richard III, a king of England most notably known as the king who killed his nephews, the young princes he held in the Tower of London back in the late 15th century. The book takes place entirely in his hospital room and features Grant sending various people out to do research on Richard III to see if he is truly guilty of that heinous crime.
I have heard from several members of my group, that this books has challenged them on many levels. First of all, many of us aren't as familiar with the intricacies of British history nor its chroniclers. A couple of them questioned the rave reviews I've read about this book, suggesting that the writing is flat and the characters uninteresting. Basically, a long slow slog of a book. I must say I agree with their assessment of the book as literature.
However, as an historical piece of writing, I find this book, its influence and the actual story of Richard III to be fascinating. As I prepared for this evening's discussion, I read and watched widely to get up to speed with this part of British history. Here are the resources I found most helpful.
The author's website was incredibly helpful and I truly enjoyed watching this 1984 trial of Richard III which I found on her site: http://www.josephinetey.net/Trial-of-King-Richard-III.html
A documentary was made called The Princes in the Tower 1483 which suggests another fascinating theory about what may have happened to the two boys.
This BBC site features the announcement of the confirmation that the bones found in the Leister parking lot are those of Richard III and shows some video of the excavation.
Dominic Smee was born with exactly the same degree of scoliosis as Richard III and he volunteered to be tested by scientists to find out if Richard III would have been physically able to fight while riding a horse. Resurrecting Richard III.
An interview with Philippa Langley, the woman who insisted that she 'felt' that Richard III was buried in the parking lot at the re-burial of the king in Leister. What's next for her, she's asked. More research to find documentary proof that Richard III didn't kill those two princes!
