Suzannah > Recent Status Updates

Enjoying this book a lot, but shaking my head so my Breton friend doesn't feel betrayed

Oh no he got the knighthood ceremony wrong

is...is Mordred not Arthur's son in this one -_-

I'm sure that my longterm followers will already know this about me, but I know a lot of readers are becoming suspicious of indie books because so many of them are slop.

So I've updated my Goodreads profile with an AI policy to state that I have not in the past and will not in the future make any use of AI in researching, writing, editing, or advertising my books, and explaining why.

Okay so you all know how the Arthurian legend is, like, a synthesis of Christian and pagan myths??? So GALAHAD AND THE GRAIL was very focused on the Christian elements of the legends (which is very appropriate and faithful to the great medieval retellings) but THE COMING OF ARTHUR is very much to do with the pagan/Faerie elements and I am SO HERE FOR IT

Right away the poetry is a significant improvement on GALAHAD AND THE GRAIL, I'm delighted to say. Much smoother and more assured, with a more varied vocabulary and nice use of alliteration and assonance.

Guite has been extremely careful with the female characters in his version of the story but I really think he should have had Elaine do some repenting too.

Delighted to report that Malcolm Guite also thinks the vibe between Galahad and Dindrane could be romantic

I'm still having a hard time with the poetry but I'm loving the deft little tweaks Guite is making to the story to address some of the QUEST's weirdness about women and sex. Particularly the choice to centre female characters (from Guinevere and Elaine to Dindrane and MY GIRL Blanchefleur) does a lot to counteract all the fiendish temptresses in the original.

So far I'm having mixed feelings about this. Guite's editorialising is great (I LOVE his take on Guinevere, beautiful!) but I want to love the poetry more than I do.

Rereading this again as a refresher. It's good - readable and formidably referenced - but he uses too many ADJECTIVES

"my congratulations, you must be the only person in the relevant world who hasn't been allowed to visit Wilberforce" UNHINGED NOISES

"less a matter of accepting our hospitality and more a matter of trying to survive our chaos" is how William Wilberforce is describing his home to a house guest and now I'm vividly imagining my bestie's house

"I will always trust you" I'm going to cry myself to sleep

William Wilberforce being my book boyfriend of the year is NOT something I had on my 2026 bingo card but he's just mentioning in passing like it's not a big deal that he's refused to fight not one but two duels because it would be against his principles and I'm sorry if I was Barbara Spooner I would also have put a ring on it

If this vampire turns out to be Napoleon I will throw things

Look I don't know anything about Robespierre but HG Parry is pitching him as France's answer to Pitt and Wilberforce, a principled politician with high ideals if only he could have resisted the temptation to achieve his goals through brute force, a tragedy a hair's breadth away from greatness

CLARKSON NO

Finished my nightly Weeping Over Eighteenth Century Politicians hour, time to turn out the light

Shedding real tears over Wilberforce and Pitt

"Everyone does things that are wrong, but that wasn't really the point. It was that I wasn't doing anything *right*. ... If the religion of the Church of England was indeed true, then it was the most important thing there was, and it required all of me. I tried not to believe this, and it was impossible, and so I believed it, and that was harder still."

This is the most surreal experience I've ever had reading a book because half of it is stuff I did in OUTREMER and another half of it is stuff I did in MISS SHARP'S MONSTERS

I've had Williams Pitt and Wondered for less than 20 pages and if anything happens to them I'll kill everyone in the room and then myself

Okay this book has picked up speed now, the prose has smoothed out and the depiction of James I is fabulously chilling

I want to like this book but the prose is committing crimes

The authors define man as inherently political, but in terms that make me think the more accurate term would be "ethical". I am off course predisposed to like their argument, that the choices of primitive societies should not be seen in terms of ecological determinism, but of ethics.

This discussion of "schismogenesis", the process by which two tribes define themselves as the antithesis of the other, and therefore bind themselves into a shared system of dichotomies that can often seem peculiar and irrational to outsiders, sounds a whole lot like US politics of the past decade.

ALICE?????????

The notion of sacredness as the origin of ideas of private property is absolutely fascinating and feels legit. It's also fascinating to me as a Christian because of course, this links up with the idea that absolute ownership rights are something that only belong to God; humanity holds possession and stewardship under conditions.

stop press he WANTS her to light her candle??? and look on his face??? and she's refusing to do it because the crumby religious authorities drummed that into her? I'M CHEWING ON THE BARS OF MY ENCLOSURE???