The Swan Diptych

I have read and enjoyed a number of Thomson’s books , each varying in style and character such that it is not possible to pigeonhole his output. As Fleming wrote the James Bond stories and rather incongruously Chitty Chitty Bang Bang , so Thomson gives us to ‘The Swan Diptych ‘ which is probably my favourite of his books. The two stories comprising the diptych are totally engaging and highly imaginative being set in the 14th and 16th centuries respectively . The language is rich and redolent of the period totally immersing the reader back in those times. Thomson entreats us into these worlds creating atmosphere and drama. Clearly an intellectual heavyweight, the second story allows Thomson to demonstrate his abilities without ever being pompous or obscure. A total triumph.

The essential difficulty with writing historical fiction is to get all the elements right – the dialogue, the vocabulary, the characterisation, the atmosphere, the historical context and the detail – and Ian Thompson’s Swan Diptych succeeds on all counts. His research seems impeccable to me but as in all the best historical writing is worn lightly. The two stories in this diptych, linked by the central motif of swans, work on many levels. For a start, and perhaps most importantly, they work as a really good read. Historical detective fiction, crime fiction, murder mystery, a little fantasy thrown in for good measure, all these combine to create a really compelling and entertaining tale. There’s wit, black humour and erudition aplenty here. The first short story is set in medieval Lincoln, the second, longer novella in Tudor Cambridge. I believed in both these places. I believed that what happens could indeed have happened. I was kept guessing right to the end and the conclusion in both stories is deeply satisfying. Highly recommended.

Superb. Both stories are excellent and compelling, so much so that I had to read the final couple of chapters at my desk as I couldn’t leave it unfinished on arrival at the office! They are as well researched and written as the historic fiction of well-known authors like Sansom and Scarrow.

I expected this publication to be a pair of novellas of similar length. In fact, we are presented with a literary entrée, followed by the chef’s signature dish. How the Dean Angered the Swans is an historical fantasy, set in Richard II’s Lincoln. We discover how the Cathedral clergy’s conceit leads to the city’s ruin. It is both scholarly and slapstick. I laughed out loud at how the swans effect the Dean’s demise.

The Patronal Feast takes us across the Fens to Cambridge, and through time to the reign of Elizabeth I. It is an altogether richer dish, and whilst there is still a deal of comedy to be found, the mood is much darker. Again, we have a story in which there are few likeable characters, again the author’s scholarship is in evidence, but it is never superfluous. The details about conditions in a C16th Cambridge college kitchen are essential to the unravelling of the mystery. The plot is well-constructed, and the mixture of characters’ letters and an omniscient narrator make for a page-turner of a story.

The two stories of Ian Thomson’s Swan Diptych, one set in Lincoln at the time of Richard II, the other in Cambridge in Tudor times, are, as the title suggests, hinged together in the manner of the two panels of an altarpiece and the links are intriguing.

How the Dean angered the Swans is a wonderful story; brilliantly constructed, beautifully written and entertaining throughout. The magnificent pomposity of the Dean’s sermon to the swans is a joy to read.

Nonetheless this first tale is something of a curtain-raiser to a much more substantial second story, The Patronal Feast. This is a complex murder mystery, the fiction deftly woven into three decades of Tudor history. It’s a rumbustious tale told with enormous relish and there are some quite thrilling twists and turns.

Not many of the characters in these stories are lovable, but they are all immediately recognisable and at the same time larger than life. Throughout both stories power and the vanity which can so easily go with it are relentlessly pilloried.

This is a fascinating and joyous work and thoroughly recommended.