RHLSTP | Richard Herring

Cat Jarman

1 March 2024

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The Bone Chests

Rich talks to bio-archaeologist and broadcaster Cat Jarman about her terrific book, The Bone Chests about the remains of a surprisingly number of medieval kings (and a queen) whose remains are in Winchester Cathedral. Why aren't the people of Winchester making more of this, like the king-stealing thieves of Leicester? What happened to King Alfred and why did he choose to build a palace at Richard's school? Why were the women of the period written out of history? What happened to the bones of those killed in major battles? Why are the things we know about kings of this period nearly all made up? Why did the early kings have such complicated names and not just call themselves something like Cnut which is easy to remember and why didn't they think of historians who would be doing audio books and come up with monikers that would be easier to pronounce.

Buy Cat's book here (for example) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bone-Chests-Cat-Jarman/dp/0008447322/