13 April: The Canterbury Tales

On this date in 1387 a party of 29 pilgrims assembled at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, preparing to travel to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury. 10 things you might not know about Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

1. There are 24 stories, although Chaucer originally planned to write 120.
2. The premise is that a group of pilgrims travelling to the shrine of Thomas Becket decide to hold a storytelling contest, with the winner getting a free meal in the Tabard in when they return from the pilgrimage.
3. The tales are written in Middle English, which was the language spoken in England between the Norman conquest in 1066 until the late 15^th century. Most people lucky enough to learn to read and write in those days learned Latin and French, the languages spoken at Court and in the Church, so writing in English was a departure from the usual practice of the time.
4. Most of the tales are written in verse but two are written in prose.
5. They were written in the late 14^th century (about 1386-1395) and published in few years later in the early 15^th century.
6. The narrator is an anonymous pilgrim who is one of the party. This person is not described.
7. Chaucer did not intend to make any of the storytellers superior to the others. Whichever walk of life they came from, they were on an equal footing during the pilgrimage.
8. Chaucer had a day job while he was writing The Canterbury Tales. He was Controller of Customs and Justice of Peace. He wrote for pleasure rather than as a profession.
9. In 1998 an original printing of The Canterbury Tales was sold at auction for $7.5 million to London book dealer Magg's Bros. It wasn't the first time this particular book had been sold at auction although it didn't fetch such a handsome sum in 1776 when William, 4^th Earl Fitzwilliam, bought it for £6.
10. The Canterbury Tales has inspired other writers. Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, used a similar structure only his tale tellers were on a pilgrimage in space. Richard Dawkins used a similar idea in his book The Ancestor's Tale, in which he tells the story of the ancestor's of the human race in their evolutionary journey. Musicians have been inspired by the tales, too – Sting's album Ten Summoner's Tales was inspired by them.

My Books 

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The Ultraheroes series

Several new groups of superheroes, mostly British, living and working (mostly) in British cities like London and Birmingham. People discovering they have, and learning to live with, superpowers. Each book is complete in itself although there is some overlap of characters.

The Raiders series

A tale of two dimensions, and worm hole travel between the two. People displaced in both time and space, learning to get along and work together to find a way home while getting used to the superpowers wormhole travel gave them. A trilogy.

Golden Thread

A superhero tale with a difference. Five heroes from another dimension keep returning - whenever they return, they have a job to do and are a well-meshed team in order to do it. Until one time, something goes wrong...

Tabitha Drake series

A different kind of power - the ability to talk to dead people. Tabitha has it, and murder victims seek her out to make sure justice is done. Tabitha has this and a disastrous love life to cope with.

Short story collections

Some feature characters from the above novels, others don't. They're not all about superheroes. Some are creepy, romantic, funny.