Hi!

Well, it seems people like the new Fiore facsimile and translation. Thanks to everyone who bought it, and everyone who took advantage of the birthday sale. People like you buying my books and courses literally feeds my children, so I do appreciate it.

Unfortunately we have encountered a problem with the print files; some copies may have lines missing in the translated portion (it’s as if the printers cut off the last line of each text block. Weird!). We are working with the printers to pause orders in the system while we fix the problem, and of course if you receive a copy with the error, we will be sending you a new one. We don't yet know if the US printers are also affected.

This means that all orders that haven’t shipped yet will be delayed, and I’ve paused sales in the shop until the problem is solved. I’ll let you know as soon as it’s back up! But you will get your book, with ALL the words, as soon as we can make it happen.

It occurred to me that I should format an ebook version of the text of the translation, and throw in the transcription too, and send that out to everyone who’s bought the facsimile. So that’s jumped to the top of my todo list (as if it wasn’t long enough!). Of course one great advantage of the ebook will be searchability. Want to know exactly where Fiore uses the term “volta”? Just type it into the search bar. And another is no shipping or printing delays: delivery should be practically instantaneous.

It’ll definitely be free to everyone who gets the facsimile; I’m pondering making it free on all platforms too, just because.

As Taylor’s dad says (in the extended version of “All Too Well”): “It’s supposed to be fun, turning 21”. Well it was a lot of fun turning 51.

In January 2023 I decided to get back to being able to pump out 50 push-ups, in time for my 50th birthday. I managed to tear a muscle in my upper arm in February, and it took me over a year to fully recover from it. But I thought it would be a good idea to churn out 51 before I actually turn 51. I've been training up for this, not terribly systematically, but careful not to aggravate the old injury. I did all my regular physio stuff first, of course. The day before my birthday I did it! And it’s on video (you can find it in Sword People, in the Training and Conditioning space). 51 of not the absolute best push-ups ever, but good enough. And no injury. Hurrah!

Then on Saturday my wife and I went up to London and went to the stage show of Moulin Rouge. It was absolutely fabulous, darling!

I loved the film when it came out, and have watched it many times since. The stage show has the same skeleton, but a lot of the flesh has changed. Many of the songs they’ve incorporated into the medley numbers came out after the movie. The best use of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” ever? check. Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”? check. The big numbers from the movie are all still there, except for “The Show Must Go On” (which is the one change I regretted) and “Like a Virgin” (which I could live without). It’s always a risk going to see a new version of something you love, but I’d say they’ve nailed it.
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This week on the podcast: Sharing Hidden Treasures, with Michael Chidester

For our two hundredth episode it’s the welcome return of Michael Chidester. Michael is the architect of Wiktenauer, the online archive of historical martial arts sources. He's also the founder of HEMA Bookshelf, which produces stunningly good facsimiles of historical sources, such as the Getty manuscript of Fiore dei Liberi’s Il Fior di Battaglia. He also produces a whole bunch of academic books on historical martial arts as well. If you haven’t already heard of him, go back and listen to episode 21 as well.

In today’s episode, we talk about how Michael took on Wiktenauer and saved it from deletion, for which we all owe him a beer. It has changed and grown enormously since its inception in 2009.

We talk about translation, including how to interpret multiple translations of the same source, or even multiple versions of the same treatise, such as the different manuscripts of Fiore’s Il Fior di Battaglia. We discuss the frustration of knowing that there is a manuscript out there, owned and hidden away by the Pisani Dossi family, which we just can’t access.

Michael talks about the process of reproducing manuscripts, and the lengths he goes to to ensure that his versions are as accurate as possible. This includes reproducing the collation, and the rough and smooth sides of the original parchment.

Since Michael’s first appearance on the podcast in 2020, he’s changed his mind a little about what he’d do with a million dollars to improve historical martial arts. We also hear about what he’s got coming up and the huge project he hasn’t started yet.

What I’m reading

Very many years ago I read Max Barry’s Jennifer Government (brilliant book, do read it), and it came up in conversation. So I wondered if he’d written anything else. Turns out that yes, professional novelist, actually churns out a book every couple of years or so. I picked up Lexicon, and it totally lived up to expectations. Imagine a shadowy subculture of people who can make you do anything they want, because they know words that can bypass bits of your brain and implant suggestions. Wizardry, basically, but wizardry done by, basically, NLP. Of course there’s good and evil, and a romance, and a massacre, and a weird talisman that takes persuasion to the next level… I don’t want to say any more than that because spoilers spoil things.

You know those books that get loads of hype, and then you try them and can’t see what all the fuss is about? Well that does not describe Hugh Howey’s Wool. I’ve been hearing about it all over the indie publishing scene since forever, because he’s the poster-child for making a fortune publishing your own books. And holy crap you can see why he’s a bajillionaire. It’s brilliantly done. A dystopian future with people living in a giant silo underground, in which even to express the wish to go outside is a death-sentence… executed (literally) by being sent outside into the toxic wasteland to clean the sensors. It’s very grim, but very hard to put down. Even the dopy title makes sense in context.

cheers,

Guy