SuitabookCastle Diary
Richard Platt, Chris Riddell
- Reading
- Read a diary entry at a time, pausing to examine the full-page illustrations and unfamiliar terms. Use the glossary or endnotes to connect Tobias’s routine with the wider society around him.
- Themes
- Medieval life beyond the castle fantasy: Tobias’s diary covers cooking, sanitation, sleeping arrangements, lessons, errands, hunting, harvesting and leisure within a feudal society. The presentation is grounded in ordinary and sometimes unpleasant routines rather than presenting castle life as wholly glamorous.
- Power, privilege and obligation: The world contains kings, nobles, religious authorities, knights and peasants; the ‘boon’ system required peasants to work on the master’s harvest first. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Learning and becoming a page: Tobias leaves home to stay with his uncle and learns Latin, English, Scripture, courtesy, household service and skills associated with becoming a squire. His training is shown through practical duties as well as formal learning, giving the role a workaday rather than purely heroic character.
- Worth knowing
- Some readers may want support with the period’s unequal social arrangements and harsh treatment of poachers, as well as bodily details about toilets, blocked sewerage and the gong-farmer’s work.