I finished Hurdy Gurdy by Christopher Wilson last week! This has been on my radar for a bit ever since I saw it in Hay on Wye last year. I as intrigued by the cover of a Medieval marginalia person throwing up so I looked at the blurb and knew I’d want to check it out. The story is of a young monk, Brother Diggory, in the year 1349 who’s life changes dramatically as a result of the ever encroaching plague! This picaresque adventure takes you through a disease infected land as Diggory encounters the people outside the closed world of the monastery. The timing of publication and the subject matter can’t be a pure coincidence, so the parallels to the Covid-19 pandemic are amusing to read. Throughout the story Diggory encounters quack doctors peddling “guaranteed cures” for the plague and religious zealots offering salvation. The one thing that ties everyone together in this story is that everybody Diggory encounters is just trying to get by as best they can. Whether that be by robbing people, gathering wanderers to form groups to shelter each other, or just doing their normal routine and turning up for work. The humanity of people is what really makes this story shine and shows that, throughout history, despite technology or years of experience or even different ways of interacting, people remain, more or less the same. This book isn’t as funny as I’d have wanted it to be. But anything that tries to derive humour from real world events that you’ve lived through can always hit a bit close to home. The good thing about this book is that’s it’s long enough to tell the story it wants to without overstaying it’s welcome. If you want a quick history based read, this is a good one! #bookstagram #books #hurdygurdy #christopherwilson #faberandfaber @faberbooks https://www.instagram.com/p/Caj_DUeogWR/?utm_medium=tumblr
