Tower and Town, September 2023 (view the full edition)Christina Hardyment - The Serpent of DivisionChristina Hardyment was known to many of us as Tina Griffiths when she lived in Marlborough with her husband Tom and their four daughters from 1973 to 1983. She has written more than a dozen books - a cornucopia of histories, 'literary geographies' and biographies - but never a novel. Until now. The Serpent of Division is the first of a trilogy set in the village of Ewelme, near Oxford, once the home of Alyce Chaucer, the granddaughter of Geoffrey Chaucer. She married William de la Pole, who became the Duke of Suffolk and together they built a palace (now disappeared), rebuilt the church and added a courtyard of almshouses and a school. Christina says most startling of all is Alyce's elaborate tomb and the macabre alabaster cadaver underneath it, which in all likelihood she commissioned. Alyce Chaucer lived from 1404 to 1475, married profitably three times but lost each of her noble husbands to a violent death. Christina's desire to imagine possible adventures whilst basing her writing on the little that is known of Alyce's life has given us a story featuring murder, mystery, royals, peasants, heroes and villains, a charming pirate, a bumptious bookseller and a Persian physician. All have a part to play as Alyce fights for survival against a ruthless neighbour, Sir Robert Harcourt, and the wily Elizabeth Wydeville, descendant of the serpent fairy Melusine and Edward IV's Queen. It is set in the politically rocky years of the War of the Roses. See Christina Hardyment in the Town Hall at 4pm on Saturday 30 September.  Virginia Reekie |