The Daughter of Time - by Josephine Tey

"Truth is the daughter of time" - Old Proverb

"History is more or less bunk" - Henry Ford

"History will be very kind to me, for I intend to write it" - Winston Churchill

This is a "mystery" written by Josephine Tey, one of the luminaries of the Golden Age of Mystery. As a History major and a mystery fan, this book is far above all the others in my estimation. It is widely acknowledged as the definitive exoneration of Richard III in the murder of his two young nephews.

I recall very vividly reading all about this in my high school history textbook. I was quite outraged at this brazen infanticide and considered Richard's death at Bosworth to be divine intervention.

It was quite a stunning eye-opener for me to read the full story as put forth by Tey in this book. Although it is a fictional mystery novel, she uses the device of having her bed-ridden, hospital-bound detective, Alan Grant, become immersed in and solve one of the most notorious of all historical crimes: If Richard III did not kill his nephews, who did?

I challenge anyone to read this book and still be certain that Richard was guilty.

Tey indicts all sorts of complicit slanderers including William Shakespeare, of all people. Shakespeare's play Richard III portrays Richard in the popular guise of that time, Richard Crookback. It ought to make every student of history interested to know that Richard did not have a hunchback at all. There is some evidence, however, that he may have suffered a mild attack of polio as a child. Hardly the sneering, lusting monster of the play. But then, you have to remember that Shakespeare received royal patronage from the very family of the man who killed Richard (and Henry Tudor was a man who had a very compelling motive to kill the two young princes).

At any rate, there is so much in this book that leaves absolutely no reasonable doubt that I will leave it to Readers everywhere to enlighten themselves.

NOTE: here in Texas, about fifteen years ago, an average, ordinary Dad got hold of a high school History book being considered by TEA. Using only an encyclopedia, this man found more than 3,000 FACTUAL errors - names, dates, places etc that were flat-out wrong. When he brought this to the attention of the committee that approves textbooks, he was informed that the book had already been approved by their panel of "experts".

Be very afraid.