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Mar 15, 2019: Rebecca Hill | NetGalley The Afterlife of King James IV is one of the best books this spring! Chock-full of information, and amazing detail. I initially thought I was going to be reading more of a ghost story, but the history in this book had me captured by page two. From Flodden Field to England, France and beyond - the legacy of King James was a hard one to live down. The idea that he lived beyond Flodden was something that was passed around and whispered. If this was true, then why would he have not returned home? There were so many questions surrounding this, but the author delved into each one with confidence and was able to satisfactorily lay the "ghost" of James IV to rest.
Mar 25, 2019: Jennifer Young | NetGalley I have to say at the outset that this was a fascinating book. You don’t have to know a lot about Scottish history to know that the handsome, accomplished and heroic King James IV was killed at the battle of Flodden Field. The absence of a clearly-identifiable body led to the growth of a plethora of stories about what had become of the king…and this book looks in detail at some of them. James was much-loved and so his subjects were perhaps reluctant to see him go which, along with the widespread beliefs of the time in the supernatural, goes some way to explaining the growth of these tales. I enjoyed it, although I found that it lost a little focus towards the end, wandering off into the highways and byways of Scottish (and other) folklore in its attempt to explain exactly how and why the stories took root when, it appears, there’s a perfectly reasonable case for the body having been taken to London. Nevertheless this is an engaging and impressively-researched book, as the vast quantities of reference indicate.
Mar 26, 2019: Jennifer Young | NetGalley I have to say at the outset that this was a fascinating book. You don’t have to know a lot about Scottish history to know that the handsome, accomplished and heroic King James IV was killed at the battle of Flodden Field. The absence of a clearly-identifiable body led to the growth of a plethora of stories about what had become of the king…and this book looks in detail at some of them. James was much-loved and so his subjects were perhaps reluctant to see him go which, along with the widespread beliefs of the time in the supernatural, goes some way to explaining the growth of these tales. I enjoyed it, although I found that it lost a little focus towards the end, wandering off into the highways and byways of Scottish (and other) folklore in its attempt to explain exactly how and why the stories took root when, it appears, there’s a perfectly reasonable case for the body having been taken to London. Nevertheless this is an engaging and impressively-researched book, as the vast quantities of reference indicate.
Mar 26, 2019: Amy Campbell | NetGalley edit | delete The Afterlife of King James IV: Otherworld Legends of the Scottish King was a fascinating read for me. I give it five stars. Loved it!
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