9th December: John Milton

On this date in 1608, John Milton was born. He is famous for the poems Paradise Lost and Paradise regained.

1. Milton's father, also called John, was disinherited by his father after becoming a protestant. John Sr. moved to London where he met and married Sarah Jeffrey. He worked as a scrivener from his house in Bread Street, where John Milton Jr. was born.
2. Milton's first known writings were two psalms which he wrote at the age of 15.
3. Milton attended St Paul's School in London and then Christ's College, Cambridge. Although he graduated fourth in his year and went on to get a Masters degree, his time at Cambridge didn't always go smoothly. In his first year, he didn't get on with his tutor and was sent home for a term. This may have been due to a row with his tutor or possibly to get away from the plague in Cambridge. When he returned he had a different tutor. He didn't get on too well with his fellow students, either, and said of them, 'they thought themselves gallant men, and I thought them fools'.
4. He went on a grand tour of France and Italy which lasted nearly a year. During the tour he rode from Calais to Paris to deliver a letter from diplomat Henry Wotton to ambassador John Scudamore. In Italy, he met the astronomer Galileo who was under house arrest at Arcetri at the time. Milton had intended to travel on to Greece, but returned home due to "sad tidings of civil war in England."
5. As a young man, he kept a kind of scrapbook called his commonplace book. It is in the British Library and shows his intellectual development.
6. Milton was a pamphleteer for the parliamentary cause during the English Civil War and later became a civil servant under Oliver Cromwell. This meant that upon the restoration, there was a price on his head and he had to go into hiding. He was pardoned eventually, but not before he'd spent some time in prison.
7. Milton married three times. His first wife, Mary Powell, was 16 and he was 35. Mary found it a strain at first, being married to a much older and very serious man, and went home to her family for almost three years, although her long stay away might have been because she was staying away from London and the plague. She escaped the plague but died in childbirth. Milton's second wife, Katherine Woodcock, also died in childbirth. The third, Elizabeth Mynshull, was also much younger than him. My sources didn't mention any offspring, so it looks as if she avoided the danger of death in childbirth by not having any kids. There is speculation that Elizabeth was more of a housekeeper and carer than a wife, but the marriage was apparently happy and lasted until Milton died.
8. When he wrote his most famous poems, Milton was totally blind. The cause is now thought to have been bilateral retinal detachment or glaucoma. He dictated his poems to various helpers.
9. In 1667, Milton sold the publication rights for Paradise Lost to publisher Samuel Simmons for £5, which would be over £7,400 in today's money. He got another £5 every time a print run sold out.
10. A modern day fan of Milton's work is Philip Pullman. The title of Pullman's most famous trilogy comes from a line in Paradise Lost, "His dark materials to create more worlds".

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A Very Variant Christmas

Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.

The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?

Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.

Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.

Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.

Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.

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