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Philippa Langley

Författare till The King's Grave: The Search for Richard III

4 verk 373 medlemmar 23 recensioner 1 favoritmärkta

Verk av Philippa Langley

Taggad

Allmänna fakta

Födelsedag
1962-06-29
Kön
female
Nationalitet
UK
Yrken
screenwriter
historian
Organisationer
Richard III Society
Priser och utmärkelser
MBE (2015)
Kort biografi
Philippa Langley is a Scottish-born screenwriter and historian best known for her contributions to the discovery and exhumation of the lost grave of King Richard III in 2012. She is the secretary of the Scottish branch of the Richard III Society. She raised money for and organized the Looking for Richard project and the excavation of the site of the former Greyfriars monastery in Leicester at which the king was found nearly 530 years after his death. She contributed to a documentary about the project, The King in the Car Park, and is the co-author, with Michael K. Jones, of The King's Grave: The Discovery of Richard III’s Lost Burial Place and the Clues It Holds. In 2015, she was made a member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

Medlemmar

Recensioner

Excellent

Told in alternate chapters by the two writers, Philippa Langley tells of her search and the legal hoops she had the jump through, before and after the excavation of a Leicester car park results in the finding of the remains of Richard III.
Michael Jones deals with the Historical events leading up to the death of a king, and how the remains came to be where they were eventually and somewhat miraculously found. Always engaging and interesting and at times this reads like fiction.
Rights a number of wrongs of this long misunderstood character but still leaves some unanswered questions which may never be answered.
Completely and utterly recommended.
… (mer)
 
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Gudasnu | 20 andra recensioner | Feb 15, 2024 |
For over 500 years the accepted narrative has been that the two sons of Edward IV were murdered on the orders of their evil usurping uncle Richard III. However is this really the true story. In this book Philippa Langley assembles a team to investigate using the forensic techniques used in cold cases but applying them to historical sources. There is no real proof either way but this book goes some way towards redressing the balance. New source material is examined and the old tales taken apart to give an alternative narrative which will go part way to placating the Riccardian faction. At times the writing style is very formal and academic but the whole story is just great.… (mer)
 
Flaggad
pluckedhighbrow | 1 annan recension | Jan 3, 2024 |
In my opinion, this book does not achieve the goals that its author set. Philippa Langley clearly announces her intent to perform a forensic investigation of the fate of the sons of Edward IV, adhering to the principles of a police investigation. As she puts it, ABC: "Accept nothing - Believe nobody - Challenge everything."

The good news is that her effort to recruit researchers to explore the continental archives of the period did retrieve two documents that are really interesting. The four-page document in which the man who called himself Richard, Duke of York, describes his escape from the Tower and life thereafter, is not the strong evidence that Langley claims it is. Even if he was an imposter, he had the need and the opportunity to assemble a story, or others could have done it for him. Still, it is evidence and there are no glaring errors in it, which certainly adds to its credibility.

The bad news is that Langley is eager to apply her ABC principles to the traditional version of the story, which indeed she should feel free to challenge in every rational way, but doesn't apply the same standards of evidence to the material she brings in support of her own version. That she is rather too eager to accept and believe. There is a lot of speculation in this book, and the construction of links based on tenuous conjectures. In places Langley resorts to enumerating several the things that could have happened. To be fair, she will use wording such as "this strongly suggests" or use rhetorical questions as a means to indicate to the reader that she is speculating. This can make for awkward reading. For example:

"Was Howard relied upon to carry the younger boy to safety on one of his vessels, and Brampton, the elder boy on one of his? Current evidence suggests this may have been the case."

To me, this combination of a question mark, "suggests", and "may have been" just doesn't belong in the same sentence as the word "evidence". Not even if you would make it "circumstantial evidence" because the only argument in favour of it seems to be that these gentlemen both owned ships.

My personal thought on the fate of the princes in the tower is that it is quite remarkable that they disappeared. That is, if their uncle Richard III wanted them to die, which is not inconceivable, then it was also plainly in his interest to ensure that they were seen to be dead. A lot of children died young in the 15th century (including Richard III's own son) and it would have been convenient to announce a brief illness, followed by a tragic death and a very public funeral. This would have avoided the problems that Henry VII had with the two young men that claimed to be Edward V and Richard IV, if they were imposters (and obviously even more if they were the real deal). That the boys vanished did not make any political sense.

Thus there is room for the hypothesis which Philippa Langley puts forward, that the two boys somehow escaped, survived and later tried to reclaim the throne. It is noteworthy that Ann Wroe after she published "Perkin, a Story of Deception" also privately came to the conclusion that the young man was probably the real Richard, Duke of York, even though she refrained from writing as much in her book.

But the case remains unproven. Absent DNA testing, there is in fact no way for us to distinguish a really successful imposter from the real person. That's what being a successful imposter means...
… (mer)
 
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EmmanuelGustin | 1 annan recension | Jan 2, 2024 |
In September 2012 I heard that the burial ground of King Richard III had finally been located and unearthed in Grey Friar's Priory, Leicester, England. This Spring I heard the movie about it was being released. I wanted to know more, so I listened to the audio version of The King's Grave by Philippa Langley and Michael Jones.

For being rather documentary in its purpose, the flow carries forward pretty well with interspersing of historical background amongst the description of the way the remains were found. I liked that the story moved back and forth in time.

The author also goes pretty far to convince the reader/listener that that image of King Richard III as a tyrant is completely false. I have an open mind about that, but I am not convinced that he did not kill his nephews whom he placed in the Tower of London for their protection, as their disappearance has never been fully solved.
… (mer)
 
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BoundTogetherForGood | 20 andra recensioner | Apr 26, 2023 |

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Statistik

Verk
4
Medlemmar
373
Popularitet
#64,664
Betyg
3.9
Recensioner
23
ISBN
17
Favoritmärkt
1

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