The Load of Unicorn

Cynthia Harnett, who wrote historical stories for children set in the Middle Ages, often incorporated real-life characters such as Dick Whittington (in Ring out Bow Bells) and William Caxton in this book, The Load of Unicorn.

It is so many years since I read it last (maybe 40!) that I'd forgotten the meaning of the unusual title of this book. Unicorn in this context is not the mythical beast but a 'brand' of paper with a unicorn watermark (the cover illustration shows people unloading some Unicorn paper from a ship). The book is set in the late 15th century at the time that Caxton is just establishing his printing press in London, and part of the plot concerns the conflict this causes, as the scriveners (scribes) fear being put out of show more business by this new-fangled technology, and some use disreputable means to sabotage Caxton's business. A young boy, Bendy (Benedict), is at the heart of this conflict: his father and stepbrothers are scriveners, but he is taken on as an apprentice by William Caxton.

The plot also incorporates another historical figure, Sir Thomas Malory, suggesting how Caxton might have come by the manuscript of his Arthurian tales. There are deeper and darker themes too than commercial rivalry and the history of printing - glory and chivalry, dishonour, treachery and danger are all encountered by young Bendy who learns that the world is a more complex place than his daydreams about chivalrous knights. show less