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The Chronicles of Christoval Alvarez #5
Suffer the Little Children
In Elizabethan London, no child is safe. Children are misused and exploited by parents, masters, strangers, and society at large. Even the children of the rich are in danger. When a five-year-old heiress to great estates is kidnapped, Christoval Alvarez, the players of James Burbage’s company, and a disreputable group of child beggars all become involved in the search. At Seething Lane, matters are approaching a crisis. Sir Francis Walsingham is dying and, as Thomas Phelippes struggles to hold the intelligence service together, he receives information that another attack on the Queen is planned. The identity of the assassin is unknown, but Phelippes does know the place and the date – Whitehall Palace on the day of the Twelfth Night Revels.
271 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 27, 2015
96 people are currently reading
80 people want to read
About the author
Ann Swinfen
45 books216 followersAnn Swinfen spent her childhood partly in England and partly on the east coast of America. She read Classics and Mathematics at Oxford, where she married a fellow undergraduate, the historian David Swinfen. While bringing up their five children and studying for an MSc in Mathematics and a BA and PhD in English Literature, she had a variety of jobs, including university lecturer, translator, freelance journalist and software designer.
She served for nine years on the governing council of the Open University and for five years worked as a manager and editor in the technical author division of an international computer company, but gave up her full-time job to concentrate on her writing, while continuing part-time university teaching. In 1995 she founded Dundee Book Events, a voluntary organisation promoting books and authors to the general public.
Her first three novels, The Anniversary, The Travellers, and A Running Tide, all with a contemporary setting but also an historical resonance, were published by Random House, with translations into Dutch and German. Her fourth novel, The Testament of Mariam, marked something of a departure. Set in the first century, it recounts, from an unusual perspective, one of the most famous and yet ambiguous stories in human history. At the same time it explores life under a foreign occupying force, in lands still torn by conflict to this day. Her latest novel, Flood, is set in the fenlands of East Anglia during the seventeenth century, where the local people fought desperately to save their land from greedy and unscrupulous speculators.
She now lives on the northeast coast of Scotland, with her husband (formerly vice-principal of the University of Dundee), a cocker spaniel and two Maine Coon cats.
She served for nine years on the governing council of the Open University and for five years worked as a manager and editor in the technical author division of an international computer company, but gave up her full-time job to concentrate on her writing, while continuing part-time university teaching. In 1995 she founded Dundee Book Events, a voluntary organisation promoting books and authors to the general public.
Her first three novels, The Anniversary, The Travellers, and A Running Tide, all with a contemporary setting but also an historical resonance, were published by Random House, with translations into Dutch and German. Her fourth novel, The Testament of Mariam, marked something of a departure. Set in the first century, it recounts, from an unusual perspective, one of the most famous and yet ambiguous stories in human history. At the same time it explores life under a foreign occupying force, in lands still torn by conflict to this day. Her latest novel, Flood, is set in the fenlands of East Anglia during the seventeenth century, where the local people fought desperately to save their land from greedy and unscrupulous speculators.
She now lives on the northeast coast of Scotland, with her husband (formerly vice-principal of the University of Dundee), a cocker spaniel and two Maine Coon cats.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
March 4, 2020
Back in London from the disastrous Portuguese expedition, Christopher Alvarez has time to practice the lute with James Burbage’s company of players and meet Will, their newest actor and playwright. Kit is quite busy with the mothers-to-be and newborn infants at St Thomas’s hospital. But these duties are interrupted when the spy service operated by the dying Francis Walsingham hears of a threat to Queen Elizabeth at the coming Twelfth Night Revels. The book is well-researched and the reader can step effortlessly into Elizabethan London. Children do suffer in the plot but they also show considerable resilience and, for a few of them, Kit is able to send their lives on a new trajectory.
August 26, 2024
A Glimpse into 16th Century Reality
Once again Ann Swinfen has continued to relay her ongoing saga of young Cristoval Alvarez, while turning her focus in this book, to the plight of poor and abandoned children who struggled to survive in the streets of London. I am drawn into the political upheaval of the times, yet acknowledge how badly compassion was needed when it came to attending to the needs of such a great number of underprivileged children! Once again, a great storyline, but it’s obvious that the reader will also benefit from the research that gives us the realistic background of those times.
Once again Ann Swinfen has continued to relay her ongoing saga of young Cristoval Alvarez, while turning her focus in this book, to the plight of poor and abandoned children who struggled to survive in the streets of London. I am drawn into the political upheaval of the times, yet acknowledge how badly compassion was needed when it came to attending to the needs of such a great number of underprivileged children! Once again, a great storyline, but it’s obvious that the reader will also benefit from the research that gives us the realistic background of those times.
November 27, 2021
The plight of poor children in Elizabethan England was grim indeed. I think it continued to be grim until the advent of the National Health Service. These books make a good case for all that the Catholic church did for the sick and poor in England. However you feel about the Church, when the monasteries and convents were destroyed and dismantled by Henry VIII and Cromwell, there was a huge vacuum that was never adequately filled. The author shows the suffering of the common people, and especially children, quite well in this book.
February 6, 2023
Good story with fascinating historical detail
Another good story about Kit, with a lot of really interesting detail that paints a picture of how people lived so by the end you really feel you know what it was like to live in London then and how lucky those with some wealth were. Good historical note that describes the state of poverty in London after the dissolution of the monasteries and the origins of Christs Hospital. Recommended!
Another good story about Kit, with a lot of really interesting detail that paints a picture of how people lived so by the end you really feel you know what it was like to live in London then and how lucky those with some wealth were. Good historical note that describes the state of poverty in London after the dissolution of the monasteries and the origins of Christs Hospital. Recommended!
January 16, 2018
This series just keeps getting better and better. The characters keep growing in each new book and the historical feel is almost unsurpassed. This book concentrates more on the main characters doctor profession ( although there is a bit of spymastering) and is all the better for it. An excellent read!
June 8, 2017
A must read
A descriptive picture of 16th century London's abandoned children. Hard to digest. Even harder to fathom. Highly interesting. A must read.
A descriptive picture of 16th century London's abandoned children. Hard to digest. Even harder to fathom. Highly interesting. A must read.
July 18, 2017
Outstanding
Fascinated with the book. Could hardly wait to delve into it again. wanted to get to the end. Marvellous reading
Fascinated with the book. Could hardly wait to delve into it again. wanted to get to the end. Marvellous reading
July 19, 2017
Another wonderful entry in this delightful series, this one focuses on the plight of children in
London during the Elizabethan era. Fascinating!
London during the Elizabethan era. Fascinating!
October 2, 2017
Another great book in this series.
September 24, 2018
This is one of Ms. Swinfen's best book, telling about the children of the Middle Ages and the challenges they faced, especially if they were poor and/or sick. Very satisfying read.
Read
June 15, 2019Provides great insight into the plight of children in times when parents often died or could not support them.
March 16, 2021
Very good
May 20, 2021
Excellent!
Best book in the series to-date! Read them with Google, to catch all the nuances of the "strange and funny" words. It adds so much.
Best book in the series to-date! Read them with Google, to catch all the nuances of the "strange and funny" words. It adds so much.
March 11, 2022
intelligently, compellingly written, this volume visits some of my favourite topics.
I had only met Swinfen as a Medieval Murderer, but I shall certainly look out for more of this series
I had only met Swinfen as a Medieval Murderer, but I shall certainly look out for more of this series
June 1, 2021
The 5th in the series. Well-written, engaging, historically accurate. This series would be a good introduction to the historical fiction genre for someone not acquainted with Elizabethan England. Not as heavy or complex as Sansom's "Shardlake" series which overlaps chronologically to some extent, yet the character development throughout the series was 3-dimensional and satisfying.
December 19, 2016
The Dreadful Underbelly of Elizabethan London
Four stars is high praise, five reserved for outstanding books. There are (hopefully) no spoilers in this review.
Again, Ann Swinfen has written a well-researched book, skilfully interweaving fictional characters with historical ones. There are no grammatical errors that I could see which makes reading much more pleasant.
Kit is still employed as an assistant physician at St Thomas' Hospital in Southwark, just outside the walls of London, caring mainly for children and lying-in wards. She lodges in the same building as her friend, Simon, who is one of James Burbage's players, and as often as she can, she spends time with the company who she looks upon as her good friends. In Elizabethan England, children and wives are the property of the husband and he can do what he will with them, presumably short of murder, although in the case of the very poor, who would notice one less child? Kit comes face to face with this problem when a child is left at the hospital bleeding from her mouth and with a bad cough. Does she have consumption ..... or is it something else?
Beggars are plentiful, both adult and children and it is autumn and growing colder when Kit notices a particular group of beggar children outside the playhouse. How the lives of these children and Kit intersect is very moving and shows just how truly compassionate Kit is. When it comes to the five-year old abducted heiress we see how far depravity can go. There is another plot against the Queen's life, and the Intelligence Service is running down as Sr Francis lies dying. This book ranges over several different storylines but instead of feeling fractured, the author has managed to make it a cohesive whole. I do recommend this book but advise reading the series in order.
Four stars is high praise, five reserved for outstanding books. There are (hopefully) no spoilers in this review.
Again, Ann Swinfen has written a well-researched book, skilfully interweaving fictional characters with historical ones. There are no grammatical errors that I could see which makes reading much more pleasant.
Kit is still employed as an assistant physician at St Thomas' Hospital in Southwark, just outside the walls of London, caring mainly for children and lying-in wards. She lodges in the same building as her friend, Simon, who is one of James Burbage's players, and as often as she can, she spends time with the company who she looks upon as her good friends. In Elizabethan England, children and wives are the property of the husband and he can do what he will with them, presumably short of murder, although in the case of the very poor, who would notice one less child? Kit comes face to face with this problem when a child is left at the hospital bleeding from her mouth and with a bad cough. Does she have consumption ..... or is it something else?
Beggars are plentiful, both adult and children and it is autumn and growing colder when Kit notices a particular group of beggar children outside the playhouse. How the lives of these children and Kit intersect is very moving and shows just how truly compassionate Kit is. When it comes to the five-year old abducted heiress we see how far depravity can go. There is another plot against the Queen's life, and the Intelligence Service is running down as Sr Francis lies dying. This book ranges over several different storylines but instead of feeling fractured, the author has managed to make it a cohesive whole. I do recommend this book but advise reading the series in order.
January 16, 2023
In this, the fifth of the Chronicles of Christoval Alvarez, Our heroine Kit continues her disguise as a man, her friendship with James Burbage’s group of actors, and continues her involvement with Sir Francis Walsingham’s group of spies, this time seeking to prevent an assassination of Queen Elizabeth I. Swinfen re-creates the colorfully dangerous milieu of Elizabethan England, including historical and fictional characters with equal skill and interest for the reader. We even glimpse such luminaries as Christopher Marlowe and Will Shakespeare. Kit attempts to qualify as a full-fledged, licensed physician. Interest is continued in her relationship with Simon Hetherington, the Lopez family, the Nunezes, while most of the action revolves around Kit’s efforts to redeem the lives and condition of poor children in London. In the course of this broadening in her concerns, at one point she reflects “I no longer knew what I was, Christian or Jew. Perhaps it did not matter. If one tried to live a good life, and to care for others, to try to be worthy of this precious thing, a human life, why did theology matter? Could not God see into my heart?” Swinfen continues to grow her characters!
April 28, 2016
I have enjoyed all of this series—some books more than others, but every one has its own charms. This one was a particular pleasure. Kit is installed as an assistant physician at St. Thomas's Hospital, the second great facility caring for the poor in late 16th-century England, and in charge of the maternity ward. Abandoned, abused, and unwanted children are everywhere in this novel—the most compelling a group of young urchins who beg for food outside the playhouse where Kit's friend Simon makes his living as an actor. A young playwright named Will (with an unpronounceable last name—guess who?) has just joined the theater, and there are amusing references to his plays. But the central story line involves the approaching death of Sir Francis Walsingham, the potential threats to his secret service as a result, a kidnapped child, and, of course, a plot against the throne. It's all fast-paced and riveting and sets Kit up for the next journey, to Muscovy, which I loved even more.
February 6, 2017
A strong continuation of the series
The plot felt a bit disjointed, as it dealt with several different individuals and groups of children in 1589 London. Cristoval has matured from his/her teens into adulthood with adult responsibilities. A visit with old friends. I look forward to the next volume.
The plot felt a bit disjointed, as it dealt with several different individuals and groups of children in 1589 London. Cristoval has matured from his/her teens into adulthood with adult responsibilities. A visit with old friends. I look forward to the next volume.
June 25, 2016
I have become such a fan of this excellent series which combines historical events and figures with social issues. Here the plight of poor children within London. Kit has a clear voice as narrator. Glad number 7 is out.
January 20, 2016
Very good
Once again, Ann Swinfen has written a well researched and entertaining book. I heartedly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.
Once again, Ann Swinfen has written a well researched and entertaining book. I heartedly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.
April 13, 2017
The plot was rambling. There were several stories. One which had a very unconvincing resolution.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews