As I work on my second book in The Storyteller series, I think back to visiting Milan three years ago, standing in the mercado – the market square – that Geoffrey Chaucer would have stood in, the hair standing up on the back of my neck as I sensed his presence still, over 650 years later.
Walking the streets of medieval Milan I knew where I was going as if I’d been there before.
Thinking back to 1368, when Chaucer stood in front of the ruthless Lord Galeazzo Visconti and three of the greatest poets of the age – Froissart, Boccaccio and Petrarch, competing in a storytelling contest. He was about to tell a story — for fame or death…
I’m heading to London, Canterbury, Paris and Florence in August to do research, and will update my blog from along the journey.