I agree with the previous reviewer that comments such as "a mediaeval peasant's leisure activities were not surfing or DIY" were irritating at times. There were also a number of times when Terry Jones or one of the co-authors would make an assertion then later contradict it. For example, that Chaucer's "Retractions" at the end of The Tales were not retractions in the modern sense of the word but in St Augustine's sense which was actually the opposite of the modern sense. A few pages on, the author talks of Chaucer writing the Retractions assuming the modern sense.

Potential readers should know that it is a difficult read in places, not a simple book.


disappointing   March 15, 2004
 24 out of 29 found this review helpful

Terry Jones' 'Chaucer's Knight' was groundbreaking. His latest, 'Who Murdered Chaucer?' is deeply disappointing. He picks a very interesting subject about which we know relatively little. His evidence is well chosen (if repetitive) and his argument well made, though of course utterly speculative.

However, this book is stylistically appalling. In his desire to make everything 'accessible', Jones takes every opportunity possible to supplement his otherwise fair-to-good argument with patronising and very irritating asides. Take this for instance:

'The taverns and corner shops of old England must have been buzzing - not with the lates news of how England was doing in the World Cup or of celebrity divorces - but with the latest sermon preached in the town or the latest religious scandal. / These were extraordinary times to be living in. And in 1381 it was all to boil over. The times were to get even more exciting and extraordinary... perhaps too exciting and too extraordinary.'

This is not an isolated example. The book is littered with them. A real turn-off. And a real pity, as this is a book which should be written. If only his editor had had the courage to scrap all the gibberish.