Richard III – William Shakespeare, c. 1593 ★★★★½

Best of the Baddies

That Richard III is Shakespeare’s most successful history play is a view not everyone shares; I likely have more company in declaring the title character Shakespeare’s most enjoyable villain. Few in English literature are so good at being bad as Richard Crookback, the Duke of Gloucester.

Henry VI, Part III – William Shakespeare, c. 1591-92 ★★½

It's Not Easy Being King

A crown rests heavy on an unsettled mind, but no easier on one more steely of purpose. While not considered one of Shakespeare’s problem plays, Henry VI, Part III is a play with a problem: ‘Tis better to be just, or strong? It then spends five acts offering no answers.

The Daughter Of Time – Josephine Tey, 1951 ★½

Reconstructing Richard

What history got wrong Josephine Tey attempts to make right in this polemic disguised as a police procedural. Your miles may vary, but for me this was a tedious read even when I found worthwhile Tey's arguments regarding the nature of one of Great Britain's most infamous rulers.

Inspector Alan Grant, laid up with a broken leg after pursuing a criminal and stuck staring at the ceiling, kills time by investigating a double murder that occurred nearly 500 years before. Using a number of books at his bedside, as well as the research abilities of an able assistant, he probes the question of Richard III.

Was he really as bad a fellow as history said? What was the real story of his most famous crime, murdering two boys, his crown's rightful heir Prince Edward and his younger brother Duke Richard, in the Tower of London?