totally jubilated

after four days of jubilee   totally royalist
 spend time watching the TV coverage   but soon learn to avoid the  trite low level personality driven bbc coverage of events
spent rest of time reading books and working out the line of relationship between henry VII and Richard III  and their descent from  Edward III( great great grandson RIII, great great great great grandson HVII   best to  use pen and paper for this  but used to be able to do it from memory

read last white rose the secret war of the tudors  by desmond seward  having won the battle of bosworth when most of richard the third army changed sides the tudors faced  rebellions and loads of relatives with better claims to the throne  for the next forty years   hence henry VIII's search for a male heir  and  executions of relatives and  great lords good sections on the pretend pretenders lamber simnel  and perkin warbeck and how henry VII was as eager to execute his nobles as  his son   who having been the  middle son of three  grew up aware of himself as sole tudor heir  of a  distant  descendent of the past dynasty  that claimed the crown  on the battlefield   typical english history book for those who like tudor politics at is best

read the last lingua franca  the rise and fall of world languages by nicolas ostler
fundamentally the triumph of world english  but long and interesting chapters on  the medieval languages   of turkic and pali  and the rise  dominance and decline of Persian from the ancient world to   nineteenth  century  indian ocean trade

the masque of africa  glimmers of african belief  by VS naipaul   rather random in content   never really achieving the object little  new on african belief but the old idea  that it is traditional  and  half way to witchcraft   and not really a  travel book mainly conducted in english and  colonial in scope

 lore of the land by westwood  and spencer excellent and  concise  countywide  A to Z guide to englands legends and myths  ideal for anyone  with interest in boggarts, shucks and hobs  read this for fifth  time
its familiarity   meant that i was not really inspired  to write any new poetry