Fake History Hunter

When I was a little girl someone got me this book and it made a huge impression on me. It showed daily life in a little village based on one of the loveliest Medieval manuscripts ever; the Luttrell Psalter, known for its descriptions of daily life in 14th century England.

It was wonderfully illustrated & written by Sheila Sancha and it was one of the first times I was confronted with a view of the middle ages that wasn’t negative, dark, filthy and very remote from my own life.
It showed people that seemed not that different from the people I knew, going about their life, having fun, working, living.
They were happy, played games, they were just, well, normal.
Not the strange exotic weirdos I had seen in films and on TV, who were mostly just depressed, poor and begging for alms when they weren’t too busy dying of the plague or getting their head chopped off.

I used to stare at the illustrations and dream about them, trying to imagine what my life would have been like had I lived then.
Of course her book wasn’t the only reason I became obsessed with the era, but i sure did play a big part in it (hello Thea Beckman!)

If you want kids to be interested in something you find important, find them a good book with awesome illustrations. If you’re a author who makes books for kids about history; keep it up, the impact your book may one day have can be immeasurable. Sheila Sancha, thank you.

Look! A child learning to walk, mum carrying vegetables from the garden, chickens, a cat.

Look at this, medieval people having fun!
Did you know they had fun back then?
Well to some people this is still shocking news… yes I’m looking at you producers of historical dram for film & TV…
I wish this book was in colour, I bet Sheila would have made sure there were lots of colours.

THIS was my favourite illustration, I swear I stared at it for hours, totally getting lost in my imagination, as a little girl I could almost see myself living in this house.
No where near as dirty, dark and horrid as I had been told medieval houses were like.

But to be fair, Sheila also put this cottage in it, which is a lot more modest and less comfortable.
Still not as bad as I saw on ‘Ivanhoe’ 😉

And even though I’ve always been much more interested in the lives of the common people, the illustration of the large hall also kept me distracted for ages.
In my imagination I’d be walking through the building, was that odd or were you also a weird kid like me?

Even winter, a difficult time of the year for many, is shown to have been more than just people being cold and the days being short and dark.
Look at that, music, drinking, dancing, games!
And this is not romanticising the past, it may seem like that but that’s because the era is so often, still, portrayed so negatively, anything that doesn’t fit that image seems like it must be wrong.
Sancha’s art shows a very good knowledge of what humans are like, that they want to be comfortable, happy and forget about their woes now and then.
Medieval people were not that different from us.
Besides, if you look closely, you’ll see the darker side of the era in her art as well, can you see it in this one of the Christmas celebrations?

But as important as great illustrations are, of course the story is at least just as important, and the author has clearly done a lot of research.
Even though the book is over 40 years old, I couldn’t find much that would now be considered outdated, in some ways by the way she depicted the middle ages, Sancha was ahead of her time.

The book can be read online on the internet archive!
Although you should also get a physical copy because it’s just so nice to own and read together with your kids or grandkids or just on your own in front or a roaring fire.
Either way, you can find it online here:
https://archive.org/details/luttrellvillagec00sanc/

Here’s a little bonus, a wonderful film made about the Lutrell Psalter, such a nice video I’ll review it some day as well:

Oh by the way, Sancha also wrote and illustrated other books, ‘Walter Dragun’s town : crafts and trade in the Middle Ages’, ‘The Castle story’, ‘Knight After Knight’ and ‘Lincoln Castle: The Medieval Story’.
I didn’t read any of these as a child but I’ll try and get my hands on them, they all look very interesting.

To my surprise it was not easy to find a photo of Ms Sancha, the only one I found was the one that came with her obituary.
It’s of course sad to read but also nice because it honours her greatly.
I think she and I would have gotten along and I wish I had written her a letter to tell her how much of an impression her book had made on me.
I hope her children know how much she meant to many kids and history nerds like me.