Dorothy Sayers, a.k.a. Dorothy Leigh Sayers Fleming, one of the first women to ever be granted a degree from Oxford University, created one of the leading figures in, and indeed in so doing helped to create the genre of, the British mystery novels. Lord Peter Wimsey, an elegant, refined London-based aristocrat with a taste for books and a penchant for the piano, is again here the leading figure, in Unnatural Death, also published as The Dawson Pedigree.

Wimsey is an old Etonian, Balliol Oxford (of course), served with distinction in His Majesty's forces during the War (this book having been written in 1927, I shall leave it to your good services to deduce which War), who resides both town and country somewhat fashionably, and takes great pride in the ancient family history (by the time one gets to be the fifteenth Duke of anything, the family can be easily considered ancient). Wimsey has a vocation as criminologist, not out of necessity, surely, and not by training either (for such training did not formally exist, but, as an Oxford Arts man, he was trained for most anything intellectual, or at least, that is what an Oxford Arts man would tell you). An interesting addition to the beginning of the book is a short biographical sketch of the fictional Wimsey by his equally-fictional uncle.

All of this, of course, is but preamble to the latest mystery to come calling upon Lord Wimsey. There are the requisite features: a dead woman, Agatha Dawson, wealthy and having left a will that might not be a will, but rather a sham (a delirious woman whose nurse insists that there was no possible way of having made a will during the last month, yet oddly there is a document, complete with a witness who claims that dear old Agatha Dawson wanted nothing to do with the signing -- ah, the plot thickens here).

Of course, to most of the world, Wimsey is, well, following a whimsey of his own. The woman was after all elderly and in poor health; surely his investigations are misplaced. The doctor (not the one who tended Miss Dawson's death, to be sure, but an earlier doctor, suspicious of Dawson's sole heir, her niece) was accused of having blackened the name of Miss Whittaker, the niece, unnecessarily, particularly as no evidence of mischief had been uncovered. Wimsey with the assistance of Inspector Parker are able to rectify the situation vis-a-vis the doctor, but there is still the mystery.

Then, more death. This time the maid. To lose one woman may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two women... (well, you can fill in the rest yourself).

Of course I won't spoil it for you; perhaps my tag-team reviewers will do that for you, but I sincerely hope not. Suffice it to say, Wimsey proves himself a consummate actor in which the truth comes out (in London, and in style!).

One of the glories of Sayers work is the intricacies of her plots. She tends to get a huge number of people involved (the number of people who seemed to have trouped through the ill woman's bedchamber is in itself surprising, given the era) each with subplots and agenda that nonetheless get neatly resolved in the end. Sayers' development of character (even of the already dead ones!) is done with style and subtlety; while Wimsey is developed over several novels, one doesn't feel him a stranger by reading this one alone. The other characters fit their parts admirably (had Sayers not been a writer, she may well have made a good career as a casting director in Hollywood), in physical and personality attributes.

Her descriptions of the milieu, both in town (London) and in the country (the village and surroundings, in this case, of Hampshire, are interesting reading. Sayers is very much the cosmopolitan, and somewhat condescending toward the countryfolk. However, that is not a heavy element, and perhaps can be written off to her attempt to make Wimsey even more the worldly character he turns out to be over the course of her novels.

In all, an excellent read, a great diversion, and well worth musing over while sipping tea on a Regency-style sofa in one's dressing gown.

The Dudley family was one of the most powerful families in the history of England. One step away from the crown through several generations, they also exercised enormous influence in matters of military and economic affairs. They also have a dark history about them, as author Derek Wilson acknowledges in the subtitle to this text: 'The Uncrowned Kings of England: The Black History of the Dudleys and the Tudor Throne'.

To be sure, the Dudleys were of minor prominence but respectability before the Tudors arrived on the scene. The Dudleys were involved in various ways with the Wars of the Roses, but came to achieve their greatest fame and fortune under the Tudors, serving in increasingly powerful positions through all Tudor reigns save that of Mary (by this time, the Dudleys had become too identified with the Protestant cause to be trusted by the Roman Catholic Mary, but her reign was but a half-decade interlude in the more-than-a-century reign of the Tudors).

Wilson's text is not the typical history, and he explains why in the introduction. 'The "black legend" of the Dudleys is a monstrous injustice. It is based on the testimony of preachers, pampleteers and rabble-rousers who rejected the policies Edmund and his descendants stood for but who, for the most part, did not dare to direct their criticisms at the sovereign.' The most prominent members - Edmund Dudley (under Henry VII), John Dudley (under Henry VIII and Edward VI), and Robert Dudley (under Elizabeth) - all served their monarchs well, according to Wilson, including bearing the brunt of public criticism. 'With all this mud being thrown it was inevitable that much of it would stick.'

However, Wilson hastens to add that he is not writing a piece of hagiography, nor is he trying to deny the truth where it bears witness. Wilson does highlight areas of concern when warranted - just how much money did Edmund Wilson legitimately gain through his positions? What was the influence of Robert Dudley over Elizabeth? However, popular impression in history has most likely been distorted through propaganda, and has caused this generally able and loyal family to be largely overlooked in history. This is an especially problematic oversight, given that 'on at least two occasions, the House of Tudor really did come very close to being the House of Dudley.'

Wilson arranges his text into four main sections plus an epilogue. The first concentrates on the figure of Edmund Dudley, Esquire, who served as a legal official for Henry VII. He was recognised as an able and educated man by all around him; educated at Oxford and Gray's Inn, he had connections in town and country. He served for a time as Speaker of the House of Commons (then a position appointed by the monarch). However, he never advanced to the status of being a 'favourite'; Wilson gives various evidence for this, not the least of which is that Edmund Dudley never became Sir Edmund Dudley or Lord Edmund Dudley, nor were any other honourifics bestowed upon him, unlike the many courtiers around Henry VII. That he made money and acquired estates showed his competence, but his untitled state spoke of a distance.

The second section looks largely at the figure of John Dudley during the reign of Henry VIII. The third section continues with the same figure in drastically different circumstances. During the reign of Henry VIII, John Dudley slowed moved up the ladder through both military and diplomatic work. He achieved various stations, including being Lord Admiral, and was rewarded with trust as a member of the king's inner circle much of the time. During the reign of Edward VI, he advanced in terms of titles and land, becoming both Earl of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland during his tenure as what some would term the 'uncrowned kingship' of being Lord Protector.

Wilson argues that it was Edward's devise moreso than John Dudley's to cancel out the claims of Mary and Elizabeth and settle upon the heirs of Frances Brandon, married to Henry Grey. Whether this is entirely true will likely never be known; it is possible that the overall influences of the time influenced Dudley and Edward in the same way such that their intentions and ambitions coincided. Lady Jane Grey being married to Guildford Dudley, one of the Duke's sons, would have produced a Dudley dynasty for England.

The final major figure is Lord Robert Dudley, who made a remarkable come-back from being part of the family who tried to supplant the Tudor dynasty with one of their own to being a favourite of the final Tudor monarch, Elizabeth. So much a favourite was he that, when marriage to him seemed impossible for Elizabeth, serious proposal was made for him to marry Mary, Queen of Scots, whose progeny became monarchs of whole of Great Britain. Again Britain might have had a Dudley dynasty, but it was not to be. Lord Robert remained a trusted and loyal friend for Elizabeth who was nonetheless mistrusted and resented by many others.

His son, another Robert Dudley, also became a late favourite of Elizabeth, but his legitimacy was never established, and when his son died in infancy, the Dudley line died out, not long after the Tudor line had similarly expired.

Wilson's text suffers a bit from lack of editing (lots of mis-placed commas, occasional typos in word choice and spelling), but on the whole is engaging and accessible, and certainly illuminating toward a family otherwise lesser known and little studied. There are genealogical charts showing descendants as well as alliances, photographic plates with images of the Dudleys and places of interest, a good collection of notes, bibliographic references, and a reasonable index. This book straddles the fence between being a popular history and an academic history, edging more toward the popular.

I enjoyed reading this book thoroughly, and recommend it to any interested in British history, royal history, and Tudor and Shakespearean times.

As Karen Armstrong says in her introduction, the year 1000 was a very different world, one that would never have believed that the global triumph of the West would take place in the next 1000 years. There were no cohesive nations of long standing; the Roman Empire's collapse hundreds of years prior remained the defining influence, and even consolidations under the likes of Charlemagne would not change the fact that half of Europe was still fighting the other half, usually in small, tribal cliques.

Despite the dominance of the Christian church, still at this time officially undivided, much of Europe was rife with superstition and nature religions that occasionally practiced barbaric rituals; the church unfortunately occasionally engaged in barbaric rituals of its own.

The Muslim and Chinese dynasties, on the other hand, were cultivated and developing at a rapid pace; the Greek Christian world was considered peripheral civilisation not to the West (considered barbarian territory) but to the other two dominant powers, neither of which concerned themselves much with Europe.

Robert Erdoes' book is not really a history book, but rather a narrative historical almost-fiction, a dramatised vision of what the world was like at the turn of the first millennium. he speculates that many people were thinking that this might be the millennium spoken of in some biblical interpretations -- this is generally incorrect, given that many people didn't realise what year it was, and other dominant cultures didn't use the now-standard Christian-inspired calendar.

The main figure in Erdoes' book is a man named Gerbert, an up-and-coming figure in the Western church hierarchy, who by virtue of his position is afforded opportunities to travel and experience different peoples and places. Gerbert, the teacher of the emperor Otto III, eventually becomes Sylvester II, a powerful but always embattled pope. Otto, holding on to the remnants of Charlemagne's empire and vision of a reunited vision, works with him, but in the end, both fail.

Erdoes develops the worldview in an interesting fashion. This being more a novel than a history, it does not have citations, facts and figures for the most part. Erdoes often opts for the historically-incorrect but true to the mindset rendering of history -- as in the most ancient of times, sometimes the truth of a civilisation can be told more from its mythology than from its simple history.

A fun book to read!

As Karen Armstrong says in her introduction, the year 1000 was a very different world, one that would never have believed that the global triumph of the West would take place in the next 1000 years. There were no cohesive nations of long standing; the Roman Empire's collapse hundreds of years prior remained the defining influence, and even consolidations under the likes of Charlemagne would not change the fact that half of Europe was still fighting the other half, usually in small, tribal cliques.

Despite the dominance of the Christian church, still at this time officially undivided, much of Europe was rife with superstition and nature religions that occasionally practiced barbaric rituals; the church unfortunately occasionally engaged in barbaric rituals of its own.

The Muslim and Chinese dynasties, on the other hand, were cultivated and developing at a rapid pace; the Greek Christian world was considered peripheral civilisation not to the West (considered barbarian territory) but to the other two dominant powers, neither of which concerned themselves much with Europe.

Robert Erdoes' book is not really a history book, but rather a narrative historical almost-fiction, a dramatised vision of what the world was like at the turn of the first millennium. he speculates that many people were thinking that this might be the millennium spoken of in some biblical interpretations -- this is generally incorrect, given that many people didn't realise what year it was, and other dominant cultures didn't use the now-standard Christian-inspired calendar.

The main figure in Erdoes' book is a man named Gerbert, an up-and-coming figure in the Western church hierarchy, who by virtue of his position is afforded opportunities to travel and experience different peoples and places. Gerbert, the teacher of the emperor Otto III, eventually becomes Sylvester II, a powerful but always embattled pope. Otto, holding on to the remnants of Charlemagne's empire and vision of a reunited vision, works with him, but in the end, both fail.

Erdoes develops the worldview in an interesting fashion. This being more a novel than a history, it does not have citations, facts and figures for the most part. Erdoes often opts for the historically-incorrect but true to the mindset rendering of history -- as in the most ancient of times, sometimes the truth of a civilisation can be told more from its mythology than from its simple history.

A fun book to read!

The turn of the millennium (the last millennium, that is) in England was an interesting world to behold -- the country was struggling toward unity, but still wary of invaders from across the various seas (an invasion trend that would stop less than 100 years after the turn of the millennium). The typical Englishman was well-fed, but the kinds of food might astound modern readers; when the people got indigestion back then, medical treatments were even more bizarre.

Into the world, Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger venture with humour and insight. Lacey and Danziger, established writers in related topics, have traced a journey through history by tracing the typical life during a year at the turn of the year 1000, through the Julius Work Calendar, on reserve at the British Library, lost for a time due to miscategorisation. The authors (Lacey and Danziger) makes use of this interesting framework of month-by-month chronicling to develop the details of daily life and work in England in the year 1000.

The different months take the paradigm for different topics -- February looks at geography; August looks at medicine (and the frequency of flies); November looks at the issues of gender relationships. Among the fascinating facts that come out in the analysis are the kinds of cyclical patterns that occur in history --Lacey and Danziger point out that under Canute, an unfaithful wife would meet with a horrible fate, but that legislation died with him, until the Commonwealth period several hundred years later, when it would be revived.

The authors do not stick exclusively to English shores -- they discuss the general world situation, as it would impact English development. Lacey and Danziger close the year and discussion with the figure of Gerbert, who would become pope Sylvester II, having been the scholar of note under the Ottos, successors of Charlemagne. His strange innovations, like prefering Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) to Roman numerals, introducing 'exotic' machines like an abacus to the world made him suspect -- however, Lacey and Danziger refer to him as the first millennium's Bill Gates, revolutionising computational power for good and forever.

Lacey and Danziger warn against the 'snobbery of chronology', as C.S. Lewis terms it -- we don't necessarily know better or live better than our ancestors, and sometimes our distorted views of the past much be called into check. For example, it is commonly held that people today are taller than people in the past; while this trend is true over the past several generations, prior to that, it is not true -- the average Englishman today is only slightly taller than the average Englishman of the year 1000.

From riddles and games for a dark and stormy night (playing cards would not be invented for several hundred years) to the origins of serfdom and family life, this is

The turn of the millennium (the last millennium, that is) in England was an interesting world to behold -- the country was struggling toward unity, but still wary of invaders from across the various seas (an invasion trend that would stop less than 100 years after the turn of the millennium). The typical Englishman was well-fed, but the kinds of food might astound modern readers; when the people got indigestion back then, medical treatments were even more bizarre.

Into the world, Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger venture with humour and insight. Lacey and Danziger, established writers in related topics, have traced a journey through history by tracing the typical life during a year at the turn of the year 1000, through the Julius Work Calendar, on reserve at the British Library, lost for a time due to miscategorisation. The authors (Lacey and Danziger) makes use of this interesting framework of month-by-month chronicling to develop the details of daily life and work in England in the year 1000.

The different months take the paradigm for different topics -- February looks at geography; August looks at medicine (and the frequency of flies); November looks at the issues of gender relationships. Among the fascinating facts that come out in the analysis are the kinds of cyclical patterns that occur in history --Lacey and Danziger point out that under Canute, an unfaithful wife would meet with a horrible fate, but that legislation died with him, until the Commonwealth period several hundred years later, when it would be revived.

The authors do not stick exclusively to English shores -- they discuss the general world situation, as it would impact English development. Lacey and Danziger close the year and discussion with the figure of Gerbert, who would become pope Sylvester II, having been the scholar of note under the Ottos, successors of Charlemagne. His strange innovations, like prefering Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) to Roman numerals, introducing 'exotic' machines like an abacus to the world made him suspect -- however, Lacey and Danziger refer to him as the first millennium's Bill Gates, revolutionising computational power for good and forever.

Lacey and Danziger warn against the 'snobbery of chronology', as C.S. Lewis terms it -- we don't necessarily know better or live better than our ancestors, and sometimes our distorted views of the past much be called into check. For example, it is commonly held that people today are taller than people in the past; while this trend is true over the past several generations, prior to that, it is not true -- the average Englishman today is only slightly taller than the average Englishman of the year 1000.

From riddles and games for a dark and stormy night (playing cards would not be invented for several hundred years) to the origins of serfdom and family life, this is

This production of Cleopatra, intended originally as a miniseries on television, is a reasonably good production with significant differences from the block-buster Hollywood version starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison. Cleopatra here is depicted as someone striving to maintain her own position, not necessarily someone with an eye toward world-wide conquest. Cleopatra is portrayed as an inexperienced person (both sexually and politically) until tutored by the more experienced Romans. She comes to understand her fate is inextricably intertwined with Caesar, then Antony, but her love for Antony keeps her from making the politically expedient move of giving in to Octavian. Apparently two Roman rulers are enough for one lifetime.

Like the earlier film production, this one plays fast and loose with the actual history, albeit in different ways. The figure of Octavian/Augustus is far more present earlier here than he was in history; for a production that goes on the greater part of three hours, remarkably little detail about the history is brought forward, and I found that distracting. The last hour could have easily been recut into a half-hour, and some judicious editing throughout the rest of the film could make it into a much better paced two-hour film.

The acting was tolerable but generally unconvincing. Timothy Dalton as Julius Caesar, Billy Zane (who got top billing) as Marc Antony, and Rupert Graves as Octavian were not up to their usual acting standards in this production. Dalton was not very expressive, and Zane and Graves were overly so (Graves plays an almost flippant character, not at all in keeping with the historical Augustus). Ironically, the title character Cleopatra was played by relative newcomer Leonor Varela, who was probably the best actor in the piece.

The sets are great, as are the costumes (if not always appropriate - Cleopatra rarely wore Egyptian garb, preferring her more native Greek), and the music is worthwhile. The battle scenes are pretty typical television fare (with occasional glitches that make these seem more minor skirmishes than great battles). Unfortunately, the sea-going scenes of ships looked far too obviously fake to suspend disbelief.

This is a pleasant diversion, but in the end not a truly memorable production save for bits and pieces here and there. But it is a good thing that such productions are still being undertaken.

The Dudley family was one of the most powerful families in the history of England. One step away from the crown through several generations, they also exercised enormous influence in matters of military and economic affairs. They also have a dark history about them, as author Derek Wilson acknowledges in the subtitle to this text: 'The Uncrowned Kings of England: The Black History of the Dudleys and the Tudor Throne'.

To be sure, the Dudleys were of minor prominence but respectability before the Tudors arrived on the scene. The Dudleys were involved in various ways with the Wars of the Roses, but came to achieve their greatest fame and fortune under the Tudors, serving in increasingly powerful positions through all Tudor reigns save that of Mary (by this time, the Dudleys had become too identified with the Protestant cause to be trusted by the Roman Catholic Mary, but her reign was but a half-decade interlude in the more-than-a-century reign of the Tudors).

Wilson's text is not the typical history, and he explains why in the introduction. 'The "black legend" of the Dudleys is a monstrous injustice. It is based on the testimony of preachers, pampleteers and rabble-rousers who rejected the policies Edmund and his descendants stood for but who, for the most part, did not dare to direct their criticisms at the sovereign.' The most prominent members - Edmund Dudley (under Henry VII), John Dudley (under Henry VIII and Edward VI), and Robert Dudley (under Elizabeth) - all served their monarchs well, according to Wilson, including bearing the brunt of public criticism. 'With all this mud being thrown it was inevitable that much of it would stick.'

However, Wilson hastens to add that he is not writing a piece of hagiography, nor is he trying to deny the truth where it bears witness. Wilson does highlight areas of concern when warranted - just how much money did Edmund Wilson legitimately gain through his positions? What was the influence of Robert Dudley over Elizabeth? However, popular impression in history has most likely been distorted through propaganda, and has caused this generally able and loyal family to be largely overlooked in history. This is an especially problematic oversight, given that 'on at least two occasions, the House of Tudor really did come very close to being the House of Dudley.'

Wilson arranges his text into four main sections plus an epilogue. The first concentrates on the figure of Edmund Dudley, Esquire, who served as a legal official for Henry VII. He was recognised as an able and educated man by all around him; educated at Oxford and Gray's Inn, he had connections in town and country. He served for a time as Speaker of the House of Commons (then a position appointed by the monarch). However, he never advanced to the status of being a 'favourite'; Wilson gives various evidence for this, not the least of which is that Edmund Dudley never became Sir Edmund Dudley or Lord Edmund Dudley, nor were any other honourifics bestowed upon him, unlike the many courtiers around Henry VII. That he made money and acquired estates showed his competence, but his untitled state spoke of a distance.

The second section looks largely at the figure of John Dudley during the reign of Henry VIII. The third section continues with the same figure in drastically different circumstances. During the reign of Henry VIII, John Dudley slowed moved up the ladder through both military and diplomatic work. He achieved various stations, including being Lord Admiral, and was rewarded with trust as a member of the king's inner circle much of the time. During the reign of Edward VI, he advanced in terms of titles and land, becoming both Earl of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland during his tenure as what some would term the 'uncrowned kingship' of being Lord Protector.

Wilson argues that it was Edward's devise moreso than John Dudley's to cancel out the claims of Mary and Elizabeth and settle upon the heirs of Frances Brandon, married to Henry Grey. Whether this is entirely true will likely never be known; it is possible that the overall influences of the time influenced Dudley and Edward in the same way such that their intentions and ambitions coincided. Lady Jane Grey being married to Guildford Dudley, one of the Duke's sons, would have produced a Dudley dynasty for England.

The final major figure is Lord Robert Dudley, who made a remarkable come-back from being part of the family who tried to supplant the Tudor dynasty with one of their own to being a favourite of the final Tudor monarch, Elizabeth. So much a favourite was he that, when marriage to him seemed impossible for Elizabeth, serious proposal was made for him to marry Mary, Queen of Scots, whose progeny became monarchs of whole of Great Britain. Again Britain might have had a Dudley dynasty, but it was not to be. Lord Robert remained a trusted and loyal friend for Elizabeth who was nonetheless mistrusted and resented by many others.

His son, another Robert Dudley, also became a late favourite of Elizabeth, but his legitimacy was never established, and when his son died in infancy, the Dudley line died out, not long after the Tudor line had similarly expired.

Wilson's text suffers a bit from lack of editing (lots of mis-placed commas, occasional typos in word choice and spelling), but on the whole is engaging and accessible, and certainly illuminating toward a family otherwise lesser known and little studied. There are genealogical charts showing descendants as well as alliances, photographic plates with images of the Dudleys and places of interest, a good collection of notes, bibliographic references, and a reasonable index. This book straddles the fence between being a popular history and an academic history, edging more toward the popular.

I enjoyed reading this book thoroughly, and recommend it to any interested in British history, royal history, and Tudor and Shakespearean times.

The Dudley family was one of the most powerful families in the history of England. One step away from the crown through several generations, they also exercised enormous influence in matters of military and economic affairs. They also have a dark history about them, as author Derek Wilson acknowledges in the subtitle to this text: 'The Uncrowned Kings of England: The Black History of the Dudleys and the Tudor Throne'.

To be sure, the Dudleys were of minor prominence but respectability before the Tudors arrived on the scene. The Dudleys were involved in various ways with the Wars of the Roses, but came to achieve their greatest fame and fortune under the Tudors, serving in increasingly powerful positions through all Tudor reigns save that of Mary (by this time, the Dudleys had become too identified with the Protestant cause to be trusted by the Roman Catholic Mary, but her reign was but a half-decade interlude in the more-than-a-century reign of the Tudors).

Wilson's text is not the typical history, and he explains why in the introduction. 'The "black legend" of the Dudleys is a monstrous injustice. It is based on the testimony of preachers, pampleteers and rabble-rousers who rejected the policies Edmund and his descendants stood for but who, for the most part, did not dare to direct their criticisms at the sovereign.' The most prominent members - Edmund Dudley (under Henry VII), John Dudley (under Henry VIII and Edward VI), and Robert Dudley (under Elizabeth) - all served their monarchs well, according to Wilson, including bearing the brunt of public criticism. 'With all this mud being thrown it was inevitable that much of it would stick.'

However, Wilson hastens to add that he is not writing a piece of hagiography, nor is he trying to deny the truth where it bears witness. Wilson does highlight areas of concern when warranted - just how much money did Edmund Wilson legitimately gain through his positions? What was the influence of Robert Dudley over Elizabeth? However, popular impression in history has most likely been distorted through propaganda, and has caused this generally able and loyal family to be largely overlooked in history. This is an especially problematic oversight, given that 'on at least two occasions, the House of Tudor really did come very close to being the House of Dudley.'

Wilson arranges his text into four main sections plus an epilogue. The first concentrates on the figure of Edmund Dudley, Esquire, who served as a legal official for Henry VII. He was recognised as an able and educated man by all around him; educated at Oxford and Gray's Inn, he had connections in town and country. He served for a time as Speaker of the House of Commons (then a position appointed by the monarch). However, he never advanced to the status of being a 'favourite'; Wilson gives various evidence for this, not the least of which is that Edmund Dudley never became Sir Edmund Dudley or Lord Edmund Dudley, nor were any other honourifics bestowed upon him, unlike the many courtiers around Henry VII. That he made money and acquired estates showed his competence, but his untitled state spoke of a distance.

The second section looks largely at the figure of John Dudley during the reign of Henry VIII. The third section continues with the same figure in drastically different circumstances. During the reign of Henry VIII, John Dudley slowed moved up the ladder through both military and diplomatic work. He achieved various stations, including being Lord Admiral, and was rewarded with trust as a member of the king's inner circle much of the time. During the reign of Edward VI, he advanced in terms of titles and land, becoming both Earl of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland during his tenure as what some would term the 'uncrowned kingship' of being Lord Protector.

Wilson argues that it was Edward's devise moreso than John Dudley's to cancel out the claims of Mary and Elizabeth and settle upon the heirs of Frances Brandon, married to Henry Grey. Whether this is entirely true will likely never be known; it is possible that the overall influences of the time influenced Dudley and Edward in the same way such that their intentions and ambitions coincided. Lady Jane Grey being married to Guildford Dudley, one of the Duke's sons, would have produced a Dudley dynasty for England.

The final major figure is Lord Robert Dudley, who made a remarkable come-back from being part of the family who tried to supplant the Tudor dynasty with one of their own to being a favourite of the final Tudor monarch, Elizabeth. So much a favourite was he that, when marriage to him seemed impossible for Elizabeth, serious proposal was made for him to marry Mary, Queen of Scots, whose progeny became monarchs of whole of Great Britain. Again Britain might have had a Dudley dynasty, but it was not to be. Lord Robert remained a trusted and loyal friend for Elizabeth who was nonetheless mistrusted and resented by many others.

His son, another Robert Dudley, also became a late favourite of Elizabeth, but his legitimacy was never established, and when his son died in infancy, the Dudley line died out, not long after the Tudor line had similarly expired.

Wilson's text suffers a bit from lack of editing (lots of mis-placed commas, occasional typos in word choice and spelling), but on the whole is engaging and accessible, and certainly illuminating toward a family otherwise lesser known and little studied. There are genealogical charts showing descendants as well as alliances, photographic plates with images of the Dudleys and places of interest, a good collection of notes, bibliographic references, and a reasonable index. This book straddles the fence between being a popular history and an academic history, edging more toward the popular.

I enjoyed reading this book thoroughly, and recommend it to any interested in British history, royal history, and Tudor and Shakespearean times.

Recorded in the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral (the largest Lady Chapel in England), the Cambridge Singers under the direction of John Rutter produced a great work in this album. Originally produced as a vinyl album in 1982, it was remastered as a CD in 1988. The title derives from a hymn lyric, and the music consists of a sampling of the greatest English church music from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. The music is meditative, uplifting, and elegant in simplicity and stunning vocal quality.

--Music--
This is all vocal music, unaccompanied by instruments. The disc has four primary sections: Music of the Latin Rite; Music of the Reformation; Music of the Restoration; and Anglican Revival and the twentieth century. The most famous composers in English music history -- Tallis, Byrd, Gibbons -- combine with later masters such as Purcell, Stanford, Howells, Walton, Britten and Vaughan Williams to form a truly masterful collection. These are anthems, hymns and other liturgical pieces that have remained important in Anglican worship, and can be often heard in situ on Sundays around the world. However, the Cambridge Singers bring their special music talent to the task, producing a good standard bearer for music of the English Church.

--Liner Notes--
The notes for this recording include the titles and words, in both Latin and English, for each of the pieces recorded here. It has a brief paragraph of introduction to each piece of music, relating it to its historic and musical contexts. One thing conspicuously missing is any significant biographical information about John Rutter, or any descriptive information about the Cambridge Singers apart from the basic, one-sentence description.

--John Rutter--
Rutter was born in London and educated at Clare College, Cambridge. This was where his career as a composer, arranger and conductor began. His early work was with groups at King's College Chapel at Cambridge as well as the Bath Choir and Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked for the BBC providing music for educational series such as 'The Archaeology of the Bible Lands', until in 1979 he began forming the Cambridge Singers, and has continued a remarkable career of performance and recording as their director ever since.

--The Cambridge Singers--
The Cambridge Singers are a mixed choir of voices (about 28 voices for this recording), many of whom were members of choir of Rutter's college, Clare College, Cambridge. While they specialise in English and Latin liturgical pieces, they have a wide range of recordings that span from modern compositions (including a remarkable requiem by Rutter) to English folk songs of the Middle Ages.