When a Child Is Born

Dr Maxwell's latest assignment should have been so simple: travel back to William the Conqueror's coronation on 25 December 1066 and observe the unfolding events; instead, Dr Maxwell and her team stumble over a gravely injured man, transport him to safety and help deliver a baby. It's not surprising that in her report to Dr Bairstow Dr Maxwell is uncharacteristically vague about what exactly occurred, considering St Mary's prime directive is no intervention.

I love spending time with the historians at St Mary's: you're never quite sure what you're going to get at the end, apart from some well-placed sarcasm and dry and deadpan humour. This (too) short story again shows that Jodi Taylor knows how to flesh out her tales by combining show more fictitious and historical characters and events into a cohesive whole. Time to read A Second Chance soon, I think. show less

A delightfully hilarious, yet beautifully sweet quick installment in the quirky Chronicle of St. Mary's series. This time around Max and her sidekicks (trust me, I want to travel through time with these hilarious rogues) are on their way to witness the coronation of William the Conqueror. As usual, things go horribly astray and they end up having to assist in a birth in a ---- nope, not a manger my friends. This is even better and my lord I loved the report scene where Max and Dr Barstow discuss the event. And as always I felt bereft at the end of the story as I wanted more.

A charming little standalone story finds our Chronicles of St. Mary's crew in 1066 England. A slight computer glitch finds them not in London for the crowning of William the Conqueror. Instead, in time for Christmas, they find themselves assisting a peasant couple during a snow storm in the birth of a new baby. Have they toyed with History or has History led them there to give a helping hand?

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: It's Christmas Day 1066 and a team from St Mary's is going to witness the coronation of William the Conqueror. Or so they think…

However, History seems to have different plans for them and when Max finds herself delivering a child in a peasant's hut, she can't help wondering what History is up to.

My Review: Sexism is a bitter dreg of monotheistic Western society. And remember the Prime Directive issue I brought up in the review for [A Symphony of Echoes]? Yeah, that too.

It's not *urgent* that you read this 99¢ Kindle Single to understand anything. You can infer the events easily enough. But 21pp and 99¢ is very little investment for an enriching and trenchant coffee-break read.

G'wan. What's a show more buck to most of us?


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. show less

This is a gorgeous Christmas story about the amazing coincidences of history, and their astonishing importance. The team from St Mary’s is off to witness the coronation of William the 1st in 1066, and end up delivering a baby miles from Westminster Abby. And its significance is important to us all.

Max and her little band of historians and security from St. Mary's are off once again, this time to London in 1066 to witness the coronation of William the Conqueror. At least, that's why they think they're there. But everything goes wrong, and they arrive well outside town, and trip over a wounded woodcutter while heading toward what they think is their destination.

History has other things in mind for them, though. They're soon in deep, deep trouble, and Max is wondering how she's going to explain this to Dr. Bairstow. Along the way, Max discovers that sometimes she needs to "not think like an historian."

It's short, fun, and free on Audible. Take advantage; you'll enjoy it.

Aside from the wry remarks from Dr. Bairstow and the belated realization that women in history *do* matter, this short, short time-travel SF featuring our favorite, Max, discovers, with the rest of the crew, that they're a bunch of softies.

Oh, yeah, and history *might* need a bit of a personification after this. What the heck? Well, alls well that ends well.