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The Pretender by Jo Harkin review – a bold and brilliant comedy of royal intrigue

This fantasia on the life of Lambert Simnel, who finds himself a claimant to the English throne, is a romp through late-medieval identity and historical uncertainty

The Guardian - UK · May 1, 2025

St Valentine has nothing to do with love or romance and the day was just made up

Poets have created the story that inspired Valentine's Day

Wales Online · Feb 14, 2023

Valentine’s Day’s connection with love was probably invented by Chaucer and other 14th-century poets

As an undergraduate, on a tour of Europe, I happened to step into the church where Saint Valentine’s head was kept. The tour guide told us a (likely fictitious) story about Saint Valentine performing forbidden marriages for persecuted Christians under the Roman emperor Claudius Gothicus (possibly 269-270 AD). Valentine was…

The Conversation · Feb 13, 2023