God's Own County

Do you want a good autumn read of over 650 pages? If so then look no further than C N Sansom’s ‘Sovereign’.

The Setting

King Henry VIII has set out on his ‘Progress to the North’ to seek a submission by the rebellious subjects in York. Plotting from Papists, Reformers and avaricious court followers is pulled into some form of shape by Sansom’s regular character Matthew Shardlake.
The streets of 16th Century York provide richly descriptive and evocative language in a fast flowing narrative of intrigue and malice.
On top of all this there is Henry’s fifth Queen, Catherine Howard and her sexual antics with courtiers Dereham and Thomas Culpepper.
The Progress moves on and the cast travel through East Riding villages to Hull for a dangerous boat ride back to London.

Matthew Shardlake

Matthew Shardlake is a hunchbacked City lawyer who features in all C N Sansom’s 16th Century novels.
With his assistant Jack Barak he uses brain power and occasional brawn to defeat or draw level with those in society that seek to further there own ends.
With feelings for the hard done by parts of society Matthew Shardlake is a character well established in a historically accurate and well researched plot.
In addition to legal work processing petitions to the King, Shardlake has reluctantly undertaken a special mission for Archbishop Cranmer that takes him to York Castle.

Ian David Curry’s review includes the comment ‘…. I am not usually a big fan of historical fiction. It is often used as a vehicle by poor writers to give their bland prose a splash of factual colour, a “bodice ripping thriller”, as Blackadder might say. But C J Sansom is very different. A historian by nature, he feels and knows the period well….’ That sums up how Gods Own County feels about Sovereign and other books in the series.
As we said at the outset a good read with a historic and Yorkshire background.

A sad indictment of some family folk and the inappropriate care system in West Yorkshire. Yet an uplifting story of a hard life that seems to be turning out OK.

I Think I’m OK by Christopher Kenny

In Christopher Kenny’s own introduction you get a sense of what to expect:
‘In 1970 I volunteered to leave my family home and enter William Henry Smith School, an institution for maladjusted children near Brighouse in West Yorkshire, I was 11 years old.

After almost two years it became apparent that I had exasperated all efforts to control my behaviour and was no longer welcome at the school. This was a pattern which continued for the next few years of my life.

I was moved from a children’s home in Bradford to a secure unit in York from which I managed to escape on two occasions. I was then sent to an Approved School in County Durham.

As incredulous as it may seem, at the age of 14 I was expelled from the Approved School and returned to another children’s home back in my home town of Bradford. True to form I was kicked out of this home too.

The above is pretty much the sum of my family and friends knowledge of my childhood, and to be fair, it’s hardly surprising that I was judged, frowned upon and quite often avoided like a crusty pair of Y fronts.

I am now 53 years old and have managed, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, to obtain official records held about me from those early days. I have also managed to acquire the cojones to let all and sundry know the truth.

As I have used my real name, I felt it was only right that I use the real names of other guilty parties, the ones who should have known better.

If you are interested in reading a true, openly honest, occasionally sad yet often humorous memoir, please do buy my book, “I Think I’m OK.” I assure you it’s far from a ‘misery memoir.’

Oh, I guess I should point out that there are a few of them there naughty sweary words included . . . sorry about that.’

God’s Own County Book Club Comment

What you don’t get is a sense of the humour and pathos generated in this amazingly blunt biography.

The writing style is receiving many plaudits and you wont find it ‘hard reading’ despite the subject matter and problems the author encountered during his early life.

Some tight folk downloaded the Kindle version when it was free. What good value they got but the price of a book or download is a small price to pay to learn about the price Christopher has already paid.

A worthy contribution to our Yorkshire book of the month series.