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Hurdy Gurdy
It is the year of our Lord 1349 and it is the season of the Plague.
Novice friar Brother Diggory, now sixteen, has lived in the Monastery of the Order of St Odo at Whye since his eighth birthday. But his life is about to change. The sickness is creeping ever closer and the monks must attend to the victims. When Brother Diggory is nominated to tend to those afflicted, he realises he is about to meet the Plague, and that it is more powerful than him. What he doesn't realise is that encountering an illness and understanding it are two quite different things.
An uproarious and uplifting novel about sickness and health, the fashions of 14th Century medicine, and how perhaps we're never quite as cutting-edge as we might like to believe.
Novice friar Brother Diggory, now sixteen, has lived in the Monastery of the Order of St Odo at Whye since his eighth birthday. But his life is about to change. The sickness is creeping ever closer and the monks must attend to the victims. When Brother Diggory is nominated to tend to those afflicted, he realises he is about to meet the Plague, and that it is more powerful than him. What he doesn't realise is that encountering an illness and understanding it are two quite different things.
An uproarious and uplifting novel about sickness and health, the fashions of 14th Century medicine, and how perhaps we're never quite as cutting-edge as we might like to believe.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 19, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 209 reviews
January 23, 2022
9th book of 2022.
Well, I mean it's called Hurdy Gurdy, I can't really talk about literary merit. It's fun, that's it. And it's not even always fun. Looks like we are already heading into plague-literature [1], and I'm yet to decide about that. Wilson thinks he's funny and there's 'humour' throughout the book though it never really took off or tickled me. It's 1349, Black Death, monks, on page 6 there's an allusion to Donald Trump (Saint Udo has supernatural vision in which he sees, among other things, the orange-faced king, Small Hands, with straw-yellow hair wound round his head like a helmet, who said that truths were lies, and lies were truths, that the Seven Acts of Mercy were sins, so the sick should be left to cure themselves, and the homeless should house themselves, the dead should bury themselves, and that the poor should build a wall to keep themselves out). I'm trying to be extremely honest about my ratings so almost gave this 1-star but I didn't dislike it, I found it just plain OK. It doesn't take long to read, it's a silly romp through a 14th century plague-ridden world with a bumbling monk as our hero.
_________________
[1] On my MA in 2020 we had the yearly publishing panel via Zoom. All publishers present said they would, for the foreseeable future, be throwing all plague-related literature into the dreaded slush pile. I believed it, it would be a long time, but here we are in '22 and they are slowly cropping up.
Well, I mean it's called Hurdy Gurdy, I can't really talk about literary merit. It's fun, that's it. And it's not even always fun. Looks like we are already heading into plague-literature [1], and I'm yet to decide about that. Wilson thinks he's funny and there's 'humour' throughout the book though it never really took off or tickled me. It's 1349, Black Death, monks, on page 6 there's an allusion to Donald Trump (Saint Udo has supernatural vision in which he sees, among other things, the orange-faced king, Small Hands, with straw-yellow hair wound round his head like a helmet, who said that truths were lies, and lies were truths, that the Seven Acts of Mercy were sins, so the sick should be left to cure themselves, and the homeless should house themselves, the dead should bury themselves, and that the poor should build a wall to keep themselves out). I'm trying to be extremely honest about my ratings so almost gave this 1-star but I didn't dislike it, I found it just plain OK. It doesn't take long to read, it's a silly romp through a 14th century plague-ridden world with a bumbling monk as our hero.
_________________
[1] On my MA in 2020 we had the yearly publishing panel via Zoom. All publishers present said they would, for the foreseeable future, be throwing all plague-related literature into the dreaded slush pile. I believed it, it would be a long time, but here we are in '22 and they are slowly cropping up.
December 3, 2020
I adored this clever and funny novel about a novice monk making his way through plague-struck medieval England. The prose is artful and tender. It fizzes from the first page, drawing you into Brother Diggory’s tragic, yet uplifting tale.
Forced out into a broken world, our hero encounters many strange and wonderful things, including Woman, and all her rich delights; a Satanic pig detained on charges of well-poisoning; and his nemesis Simon Mostly (so-named, because despite the loss of many appendages, he remains ‘mostly’ Simon).
Luckily, Diggory has the wisdom of Saint Odo to guide him, the founder of his order, and a seer who predicts the Age of Metal Carts and the orange-faced king, Small Hands. But wherever Diggory goes, the plague follows…
Hurdy Gurdy is a touching coming-of-age tale, joyful and extremely funny. It cleverly dissects medieval beliefs, while suggesting that perhaps we aren’t as wise in the modern day as we think we are.
Philosopher, plague doctor and prodigious lover – a master of many fornications, both with and without fondling - Diggory is a true hero for our times. Just don’t let him anywhere near your skull with his saw, spoon and mallet.
Forced out into a broken world, our hero encounters many strange and wonderful things, including Woman, and all her rich delights; a Satanic pig detained on charges of well-poisoning; and his nemesis Simon Mostly (so-named, because despite the loss of many appendages, he remains ‘mostly’ Simon).
Luckily, Diggory has the wisdom of Saint Odo to guide him, the founder of his order, and a seer who predicts the Age of Metal Carts and the orange-faced king, Small Hands. But wherever Diggory goes, the plague follows…
Hurdy Gurdy is a touching coming-of-age tale, joyful and extremely funny. It cleverly dissects medieval beliefs, while suggesting that perhaps we aren’t as wise in the modern day as we think we are.
Philosopher, plague doctor and prodigious lover – a master of many fornications, both with and without fondling - Diggory is a true hero for our times. Just don’t let him anywhere near your skull with his saw, spoon and mallet.
March 21, 2021
I bought this book because it was billed in the press as being one of the funniest historical fiction books of recent times. It isn't.
It is a finely sketched story where the characters you meet are believable, but it always feels like the outline for a book, rather than anything weighty. A lot of the humour relies on paragraphs about the imagined future which are dull. Also, without spoilers, the way the author deals with building tension around a near death experience near the end of the book is clunky.
I'm left wondering why the national newspapers liked it so much. Perhaps I'm missing something.
It is a finely sketched story where the characters you meet are believable, but it always feels like the outline for a book, rather than anything weighty. A lot of the humour relies on paragraphs about the imagined future which are dull. Also, without spoilers, the way the author deals with building tension around a near death experience near the end of the book is clunky.
I'm left wondering why the national newspapers liked it so much. Perhaps I'm missing something.
November 29, 2020
Not what I expected and not a great read. Maybe it's too soon still for kidding about the pandemic and this just felt like an episode of Blackadder where all the jokes fell flat.
Tough crowd.
Tough crowd.
February 7, 2021
Disappointing
The blurb suggested an amusing story set in an interesting time. Then I started reading it ...
The times were interesting and there may be a funny story to be told about them but this is not it. There is a bit of history, a bit of a comedy of manners, a bit of the author amusing himself with futurology, and that’s about it.
The blurb suggested an amusing story set in an interesting time. Then I started reading it ...
The times were interesting and there may be a funny story to be told about them but this is not it. There is a bit of history, a bit of a comedy of manners, a bit of the author amusing himself with futurology, and that’s about it.
March 10, 2022
Our many futures mentioned in Saint Odo’s The Great Unhappened, describing the many perils and plagues that would befall the coming generations, were hilarious.
February 18, 2022
I was drawn to this book by its cover and its promise to showcase in a highly amusing manner the dealings with the black plague from the perspective of a young monk. However, after being first enamored with the tone of the writing (the introduction), I found myself trudging through actual sludge (lots of body humor that I don't find amusing at all, a lack of plot and a penchant for looong enumerations that make me wonder where the editor of this book was). Nothing happens for much of the book, and when the plague actually hits I was so exhausted that I could not give a damn. I do admit that there were some entertaining moments (when they were discussing how to fight the spread of the disease through horrendous scents for example), but finding these felt similar to trying to find gold nuggets in a muddy river using a tea strainer. So I won't be finishing this even if it is rather short.
January 17, 2022
Funny in parts but the author was clearly too into his own humour to rein it in where it dragged on. It’s clear he would rather have written a history book because the amount of medical information about dealing with the black death (in the eyes of a man living in the 1300’s) is incredible.
The story ends abruptly and doesn’t know where it wants to go, avoid like the plague 🤙
The story ends abruptly and doesn’t know where it wants to go, avoid like the plague 🤙
November 21, 2021
A rather pointless read.
Not a book I enjoyed. We all have different views but I cannot understand the favourable reviews this book has received. I finished it because I don't like dropping a book part way through and this one is mercifully short.
Not a book I enjoyed. We all have different views but I cannot understand the favourable reviews this book has received. I finished it because I don't like dropping a book part way through and this one is mercifully short.
February 8, 2021
Awesome indulgences.
December 13, 2021
Brother Diggory is one of the younger members of the monastery when the Black Death hits and everyone else dies. He sets out to seek all the sins he's missed growing up a monk so that he has something to repent when his end is near. I loved this book; it's funny and amusing and witty but also sweet and touching. An unexpected treasure with the most gorgeous cover.
January 19, 2022
This is a gently humorous, sometimes ribald, sometimes gruesome coming-of-age tale of Brother Diggory - real name, Jack Fox. (“So I rhyme, face and arse, with the Black Pox.”) Diggory/Jack is a novice friar in the Order of St Odo, whose founder, Saint Odo the Ugly, could see into the future (he even saw “the orange-faced king, Small Hands, with straw-yellow hair…”).
When bubonic plague arrives at his monastery, wiping out the inhabitants and very nearly dispatching Jack, he heads north, carrying his own little population of fleas and inadvertently killing nearly everyone he meets. The reader is put right inside his innocent medieval head as he perambulates around the chaotic countryside, encountering rogues, fools and alluring women, learning the ways of the world and trying to make sense of it all. (In that way, it reminded me of Fielding’s picaresque novels - but it’s much shorter!)
One of Jack’s aims as he leaves his cloistered life behind is to sin. Embarrassed that he’s never committed any sins worth the repenting, he’s determined to remedy this.
His monastic education has loaded his mind with a jumble of religious and “scientific” beliefs, mixed with bucketloads of superstition. (He’s really not much different to today’s horse-wormer and urine swallowers.) Confident that he’s been spared by God so that he may achieve greatness, he aims to be an apothecary and healer. But when an anchoress, walled up for years in a tiny cell, gives him a vital clue as to how the plague is spread, it flies right over his head.
I really enjoyed this short, entertaining (and occasionally nauseating) look at medieval life and the horrors of the plague, with a really likeable protagonist and several laugh-out-loud moments.
When bubonic plague arrives at his monastery, wiping out the inhabitants and very nearly dispatching Jack, he heads north, carrying his own little population of fleas and inadvertently killing nearly everyone he meets. The reader is put right inside his innocent medieval head as he perambulates around the chaotic countryside, encountering rogues, fools and alluring women, learning the ways of the world and trying to make sense of it all. (In that way, it reminded me of Fielding’s picaresque novels - but it’s much shorter!)
One of Jack’s aims as he leaves his cloistered life behind is to sin. Embarrassed that he’s never committed any sins worth the repenting, he’s determined to remedy this.
His monastic education has loaded his mind with a jumble of religious and “scientific” beliefs, mixed with bucketloads of superstition. (He’s really not much different to today’s horse-wormer and urine swallowers.) Confident that he’s been spared by God so that he may achieve greatness, he aims to be an apothecary and healer. But when an anchoress, walled up for years in a tiny cell, gives him a vital clue as to how the plague is spread, it flies right over his head.
I really enjoyed this short, entertaining (and occasionally nauseating) look at medieval life and the horrors of the plague, with a really likeable protagonist and several laugh-out-loud moments.
November 5, 2023
Unfortunately did not find the Middle Ages misogyny or Trump allusions as funny as the author seems to have intended. Haha we performed a lobotomy on my wife and she died, hilarious. Ultimately tedious to finish, although I enjoyed the short interlude with the pig.
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December 24, 2025Not going to wish a merry Christmas to the guy who works in Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street this year! Joking… but seriously… this was a terrible recommendation! Plague/pandemic + scatological humour is a genre that was new to me and a niche that I will definitely be leaving in 2025
May 31, 2021
This was only a short novel but one which made me chuckle throughout. The author is able to use comedy as a means to humanise the plague, even more pertinent during coronavirus! The use of foreshadowing of the modern world in a way which was understandably unfathomable to someone from the 14th century also added depth and humour to the story and the thoughts of the main character.
March 9, 2021
Such an engaging book, the setting is like The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey but her medieval world of priests, plagues, and pilgrimages is turned on its head. It is so funny, I could not put it down.
September 17, 2025
This was so entertaining! I felt as though I was on a fun little jaunt through someone's life and found myself so invested in the outcome. If you like this book then you need to read 'A little trickerie', and 'for Thy great pain have mercy on my little pain'! Absolutely recommend and I am in love with this book. Thanks for finding it Kuzum!
June 14, 2022
(4/5)
I am surprised by the low ratings of this book tbh as I personally haven't actually laughed at a book in a long time. The happy go-lucky feel you get whilst following young Brother Driggory throughout his goal of experiencing life and sin outside of the monastery during the Black Death made me smile throughout. Felt enjoyably silly at times, definitely a book I needed to read.
I am surprised by the low ratings of this book tbh as I personally haven't actually laughed at a book in a long time. The happy go-lucky feel you get whilst following young Brother Driggory throughout his goal of experiencing life and sin outside of the monastery during the Black Death made me smile throughout. Felt enjoyably silly at times, definitely a book I needed to read.
January 29, 2021
Brother Diggory, a young monk in the minor Order of Saint Odo of Whye, is continually visited in his dreams by some kind of succubus ‘come to steal his innocence and the seed of his generation’. But his troubles, and his sinful thoughts, are only just beginning – soon, the much-rumoured Black Death reaches the monastery, and all but wipes out the brotherhood. Diggory is forced to leave behind everything he has known and make his way in the big, bad world of 14th century England, at which point he renames himself Jack Fox, ‘so I rhyme, face and arse, with the Black Pox’. His wanderings see him duped by a Simon Mostly, a one-handed, one-legged bandit, acquainted with the fairer sex (and, predictably, bonked senseless), and accused of colluding with a Satanic pig. Amongst other adventures.
Much of the humour in Hurdy Gurdy stems from Diggory’s twisted logic, such as his reasoning that the deadly pox prefers to travel north, or the many deceptively pious excuses he comes up with for his newly rampant libido. When he’s left to fill a mass grave, he typically overthinks and arranges the bodies according to Pythagoras’ theorem, to economise on space.
Another seam of jokes is St Odo’s The Great Unhappened, an absurdly prophetic tome that foresees a future age of ‘giant metal birds that held people in their bowels’ and ‘icy cold drinks, in small squat suits of armour, bursting with bubbles that prickled your tongue’. These tangents recall Blackadder and Upstart Crow, even though the historical setting is quite different to those sitcoms.
With its slimness and episodic nature, Hurdy Gurdy is a bawdy, breezy blast to read, so it hits the spot during this grim winter we find ourselves in. Though it was written before the current pandemic, of course it can’t help but invite parallels. Most of the alleged cures for the bubonic plague that pop up – e.g. consuming crushed emeralds or ten-year-old fermented treacle, or smearing the skin with excrement – are about as ridiculous and dangerous as injecting oneself with disinfectant or blasting diseased bodies with ultraviolet light (both helpfully suggested by the leader of free world in April 2020).
Much of the humour in Hurdy Gurdy stems from Diggory’s twisted logic, such as his reasoning that the deadly pox prefers to travel north, or the many deceptively pious excuses he comes up with for his newly rampant libido. When he’s left to fill a mass grave, he typically overthinks and arranges the bodies according to Pythagoras’ theorem, to economise on space.
Another seam of jokes is St Odo’s The Great Unhappened, an absurdly prophetic tome that foresees a future age of ‘giant metal birds that held people in their bowels’ and ‘icy cold drinks, in small squat suits of armour, bursting with bubbles that prickled your tongue’. These tangents recall Blackadder and Upstart Crow, even though the historical setting is quite different to those sitcoms.
With its slimness and episodic nature, Hurdy Gurdy is a bawdy, breezy blast to read, so it hits the spot during this grim winter we find ourselves in. Though it was written before the current pandemic, of course it can’t help but invite parallels. Most of the alleged cures for the bubonic plague that pop up – e.g. consuming crushed emeralds or ten-year-old fermented treacle, or smearing the skin with excrement – are about as ridiculous and dangerous as injecting oneself with disinfectant or blasting diseased bodies with ultraviolet light (both helpfully suggested by the leader of free world in April 2020).
July 24, 2024
This book is the type of book that reminds me anyone can write a book but that’s not necessarily a good thing.
There were a few things an about this book I didn’t mind. I enjoyed the beginning, the main character seemed nice enough and seeing his naivety in the outside world was both interesting and enjoyable. I also like the simplistic writing style and the complete irony around the presents of flees and the plague.
However, other than that there’s not much else to like. The book is like a fever dream. It’s very muddled, there are times it seems to go off on tangents only to never mention any of it again. It missed out big chucks of the story and just assumes you will continue to follow it anyway. My biggest dislike of the book was the final chapters. Detailed writing of women from a medieval medical standpoint. It made me feel really uncomfortable and left me cringing the whole time. It felt completely out of place and made suggested to me the author has some strange fetish he was desperate to write down.
Now I’m fully aware that maybe I wasn’t the target audience for this book or I’m just not smart enough to understand the nuance of it. However, that might be the fault of the blurb as someone who enjoys historical fiction and comedic writing it suggests I should have enjoyed it. All I can say is thank goodness it was short and sweet.
There were a few things an about this book I didn’t mind. I enjoyed the beginning, the main character seemed nice enough and seeing his naivety in the outside world was both interesting and enjoyable. I also like the simplistic writing style and the complete irony around the presents of flees and the plague.
However, other than that there’s not much else to like. The book is like a fever dream. It’s very muddled, there are times it seems to go off on tangents only to never mention any of it again. It missed out big chucks of the story and just assumes you will continue to follow it anyway. My biggest dislike of the book was the final chapters. Detailed writing of women from a medieval medical standpoint. It made me feel really uncomfortable and left me cringing the whole time. It felt completely out of place and made suggested to me the author has some strange fetish he was desperate to write down.
Now I’m fully aware that maybe I wasn’t the target audience for this book or I’m just not smart enough to understand the nuance of it. However, that might be the fault of the blurb as someone who enjoys historical fiction and comedic writing it suggests I should have enjoyed it. All I can say is thank goodness it was short and sweet.
July 5, 2021
Really, 3.5 stars. I ordered this book because it’s got such a good review from The Times of London. It’s very clever and quite amusing and it certainly moves along but I admit to being a bit disappointed overall. I guess that’s on me, though, since I had assumed something different from the write up. Brother Diggory of the Order of St Odo of Whye is an oblate - a monk promised to God as a child - and in his years at the monastery, he has learned Latin, Greek, Rhetoric, Writing, Medicine, and many other subjects from his mentor, Brother Fulco. One day, they hear of a terrible plague advancing up England towards them, and Diggory and Fulco start to prepare, but Diggory catches the plague and is sealed into his cell to die. He doesn’t though and after some exciting near-death “walk towards the light” moments, he escapes and discovers that all his brothers are dead or run away. So Diggory - or Jack Fox, his pre-religious name - sets out on his adventures. He meets rogues, knaves, pilgrims, and that most mysterious of beings, women, and finds out what he thinks his life is for.
October 28, 2021
A blackly comic tale set following the trials and tribulations of a young monk during the spread of the Black Death. Brother Diggory, who somehow escapes the pestilence that seems to follow in his footsteps, is a rich source of earthy humour; his naively logical plan to sin as much as he can in order that he may properly repent lends his ribald encounters real charm. The book of prophecies from his monastery contains some brilliantly sly digs at the world we live in today. Plus there's a pig facing a criminal trial. Full-throated, blood and gutsy, Blackadder-ish fun.
December 18, 2021
I haven’t laughed out loud at a book in a while. Kind of cathartic to read during this time. Genuinely hoping we all get the same rebirth experience post our current plague <3
December 12, 2021
I enjoyed this very quick read. I picked it up on vacation in a incredibly old and wonderful bookstore on an employee recommendation or it would have been off my radar. It is the story of a young monk during the Black Plague(1349 ?). It is mildly humorous, easy to read, and interesting to draw parallels to our own pandemic 672 years later. Nice to see some developments have been made.
March 22, 2021
A lovely quirky book which is a dark comedy. The lead character is certainly one you route for and the pa e of the novel moves quickly. That death follows our main character means no one is safe in his company.
February 11, 2021
An entertaining book.
February 14, 2021
A good tead
A happy enquiring readers prepared to be amused and entertained and very open minfef. Read and I hope you will enjoy.
A happy enquiring readers prepared to be amused and entertained and very open minfef. Read and I hope you will enjoy.
November 8, 2021
Hilarious and interesting
November 20, 2021
Very odd.
I enjoyed it, but it was definitely not what I was expecting based on the blurb and reviews.
I read it cover to cover in one session though so make of that what you will...!
I enjoyed it, but it was definitely not what I was expecting based on the blurb and reviews.
I read it cover to cover in one session though so make of that what you will...!
November 28, 2022
3.5
It was funny, it was gory and it was adventurous.
There is animal death and abuse, and also loads of body odours, "juices" (ew) and excrements. Just so you are aware. Don't read while eating.
All in all I enjoyed this little tale about a young, naive, oblivious monk trying to live and meet the ever mysterious "woman".
Some of the funniest moments were the predictions of the future, aka today. Do you recognise this guy?
It was funny, it was gory and it was adventurous.
There is animal death and abuse, and also loads of body odours, "juices" (ew) and excrements. Just so you are aware. Don't read while eating.
All in all I enjoyed this little tale about a young, naive, oblivious monk trying to live and meet the ever mysterious "woman".
Some of the funniest moments were the predictions of the future, aka today. Do you recognise this guy?
The orange-faced king, Small Hands, with straw-yellow hair wound round his head like a helmet, who said that truths were lies, and lies were truths, that the Seven Acts of Mercy were sins, so the sick should be left to cure themselves, and the homeless should house themselves, the dead should bury themselves, and that the poor should build a wall to keep themselves out. (p.6-7)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 209 reviews