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A Little Trickerie
by Rosanna Pike
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THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Striking, darkly funny and heartfelt ... Grabs you from the first page and doesn't let go' Ferdia Lennon, author of Glorious Exploits 'Crisp, transportive, uplifting ... I loved it!' Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry 'A bold, funny and imaginative journey through Tudor England ... A real treat' Joanna Quinn, author of The Whalebone Theatre Born a vagabond, Tibb Ingleby has never had a roof of her own. Her mother has taught her that if you're not too bound by the Big Man's rules, there are many ways a woman can find shelter in this world. But now her ma is gone. As she journeys through the fields and forests of medieval England, Tibb discovers that there are people who will care for her, as well as those who mean her harm.…
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"It’s a fantastic book. We’ve got two historical novels on the shortlist this year, and they are quite different in approach. This one I love: it’s a debut novel set in the Middle Ages in England. It’s narrated by a young girl, Tibb, who is very put-upon—a vagrant who is looking after her mother. Vagrancy is a capital offense, so she has to stay on the run. It’s written in this extraordinary register. The sensibility is very Chaucerian. There’s low humour, bawdiness, slapstick, and it is all set within this world where people want to believe in miracles. Tibb falls in with a group of travelling players, who come up with a way to confect a miracle. She is such a winning character. Also, the language is so clever—it’s not exactly Middle English, certainly not contemporary, but a mixture of both. That’s a real gift that the author has. There are lots of lovely little comic incidents and vignettes all the way through the book, and it has real heart. This is a character who wants to find a place to belong, that’s a big part of it. Pike tackles aspects of homophobia and prejudice—things that were taken for granted at the time—and she has a really good handle on that period of history without making it too heavy-handed. I think it’s beautifully done."