Methuen first edition - 1959
Three down, two to go! November is very much Cynthia Harnett month - and I am enjoying being transported back to my Prep School Days. Every afternoon, after lunch, we had 'Quiet Time', which meant resting on our beds for an hour. Imagine asking a 10 to 13 year-old to do that these days. What it did do was to impregnate me with a love of reading; the small school library was an Aladdin's Cave of adventure. Imagination ran riot, as one lost oneself in the doings of Stanley Weyman, John Buchan or G.A. Henty heroes. Above all (which was also thanks to an inspiring History teacher), I adored roaming over the past, particularly the English past. Buchan's The Blanket of the Dark is still one of my favourite historical novels. Geoffrey Trease, Rosemary Sutcliff, Alfred Duggan, Rhoda Power all held me spellbound. Amongst them was Cynthia Harnett; only her first four historical novels were available then, but I think I lapped them all up. So now, after many many years, I am engrossed in her works again.
The Load Of Unicorn is possibly a first-time read for me. It is set mainly in London, in June 1482 and the months thereafter. Young Benedict is a schoolboy at St. Paul's Grammar School by the great cathedral. His father, John Goodrich, a scrivener, works at the west end of the nave, transcribing almost anything, usually for those unable to write. He has handed over his business to Matthew and Cornelius, Benedict's much older half-brothers, who we are told - very early on in the novel - are up to no good. The brothers run a scriveners' works at the sign of the Crowing Cock, just north of St. Paul's. The great danger to their trade is the oncoming of printing, in the person of William Caxton.
A scruffy pedlar, named Tom Twist, is clearly engaged with the brothers in hijacking paper bound for Caxton's works by Westminster Abbey (the Red Pale), and hiding it in a barn further down the Thames. This main plot is well told, involving subterfuge on the river and the eventual release of the 'Unicorn' paper to Caxton. Benedict's father has made a friend of Caxton and the boy is apprenticed to the printer, much to the anger of his half-brother Matthew. He moves from the Crowing Cock, to Caxton's home at Westminster. He takes with him a precious few 'sheets' of sheepskin, which he has won at dice. On showing it to Caxton, the latter excitedly sees it as a subject for his next book. In fact, it is part of Sir Thomas Malory's famous stories Morte d'Arthur. The reader follows Benedict when he goes north to Stratford-on-Avon, then to Newbold Revel, just south-east of Coventry, to find Malory's grandson Nicholas. The latter gives Nicholas the rolled up manuscript and, although it is stolen by thugs of Tom Twist (who has been sent by Matthew to forestall Caxton from getting his hands on it), eventually Matthew and Cornelius succumb to the pressure exerted by their father and Caxton and hand over not only the Malory manuscript but the Unicorn hoard of paper. As with her other books, the author makes sure good wins over evil.
Cynthia Harnett's detailed research shines throughout. She captures the sights and sounds of the late 15th century, particularly the areas around St Paul's and Westminster Abbey and the Thames, and she peoples the story with believable characters. The future lies with Caxton and his printing press, rather than with the scriveners. Benedict's father is perceptive enough to realise this and his son is set to be involved in a new age rather than with the past. The author's drawings are a fundamental part of the enjoyment gained from reading the novel.
This Blog is a land mark - my 400th to date! I wonder how many thousands of words have been used to reach this.
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