Ruff and tumble
Anne Somerset
UNICORN'S BLOOD by Patricia Finney Orion, £16.99, pp. 454 Historical novels make me uneasy. All too often the juxtaposition of established fact with invention, and the way in which real people jostle alongside imaginary cre- ations, appear either wildly incongruous or awkward and contrived. When I am famil- iar with the period the book is set in — in this case the latter half of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I — I am apt to be partic- ularly suspicious, feeling positively affront- ed when a writer twists the truth in the name of entertainment. In far too many cases the novelist who seeks to improve upon history merely succeeds in rendering it absurd.
Dialogue, too, is notoriously problemat- ic, as the author has somehow to strike a balance between archaism and anachro- nism to produce exchanges which sound authentic and yet are acceptable to the modern ear. A glossary is helpfully appended to this book to enable the reader to decipher the more impenetrable Eliza- bethan slang. Even so, a work which abounds with phrases such as 'boozing ken', 'coney-catcher' and 'half-witted ninnyhammers', and where `sweeting' is the most commonly used term of endearment, could be excruciatingly embarrassing if it came from a writer less gifted than Patricia Finney.
Not content with confronting such chal- lenges, Finney almost recklessly heightens the risks inherent in the genre. Rightly confident in her own abilities, at times she seemingly exults in straining our credulity. One of her principal protagonists is the Queen's midget female fool, Thomasina, whose diminutive size enables her to pass herself off as a child, and whose resource- fulness extends to despatching opponents with her dagger.
The plot, too, if described baldly, sounds utterly fantastic. Whereas Finney's last book, Firedrake's Eve, dealt with an attempt on the Queen's life, this time the danger to Elizabeth arises from a conspira- cy to destroy her reputation by uncovering incontrovertible proof that she is not a vir- gin, Aware of the implications of having her much-vaunted chastity exposed as a myth, the Queen pits her agent Thomasina against an assortment of Catholic and Protestant extremists. All are set on gain- ing access to the compromising details, with motives that range from undermining the Queen's standing with her subjects to blackmailing her into proceeding with Mary Stuart's execution.
However implausible in outline, the complex and engrossing narrative is but- tressed by an array of historical details that add verisimilitude and compel the reader's attention. Finney's impressive grasp of the topography of 16th-century London is dis- played to good effect, and she is equally authoritative when describing the interior of Whitehall Palace, or the horrors endured by prisoners in the Tower. There are brief but absorbing digressions on sub- jects as diverse as the manufacture of ruffs, or the methods of disposing of the tons of human excrement that accumulated when the court was in residence at Whitehall.
All historical fiction is escapist, but Finney's treatment of her subject is far from romanticised. Characters are overrun with lice, disease-ridden prostitutes have scabs on their faces, and long journeys on horseback bring on attacks of the piles. As for Queen Elizabeth, Finney's portrayal is the reverse of idealised, though the Queen's dedication to her country and acute political instincts are acknowledged. Tormented by a recurrent nightmare of being gored by a unicorn, an animal reputed not to harm true virgins, her guilty conscience exacerbates the Queen's habitu- al ill temper. Irascible and foul-mouthed, she alternates between hurling missiles at her courtiers and sexually abusing her ladies-in-waiting. In the book, it is the dying Sir Philip Sidney who first discovers that Elizabeth's reputation is under threat. He is appalled to learn that a mysterious Book of the Unicorn contains evidence that the Queen's purity is a sham, but he would undoubtedly be a great deal more startled if he could read Finney's account of Eliza- beth's nocturnal antics with her favourite maid of honour.
In the past Finney has been compared to John le Carre, and certainly the world of Elizabethan intelligence, which she con- jures up so convincingly, invites parallels with Cold War espionage. This is historical fiction of a very superior sort and Patricia Finney has produced an enjoyable book which is ambitious, daring and accom- plished.
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