If the ground is too hard for ploughing, then it's probably impossible to dig a six-foot deep grave with a wooden spade. I've yet to meet a woman who would relish sex outdoors while wearing only a cape with nothing under it in a winter cold enough to have ice on the ground. I guess part of it comes from a love of museums - I tend to read exhibits in great detail and to do part of a museum in depth rather than skimming all of it. I'm now puzzling myself as to when/where I picked up trivia on this kind of thing. (this may have been harder in pre-Wikipedia days, but it can't be that hard, because the above all rang bells as I read them) Writing historical novels is a very tricky art, and probably almost impossible to get right, but I do wish he'd researched a bit more about dates of food. Loaf sugar won't be along for another century or so and won't' be made in England until the 1400s. Hops were not used in the brewing of beer until after this period. Squirrels do not hibernate -and they don't sleep on the ground in any case. Horse Chestnuts are mildly toxic (though you might eat them if desperate), but in any case, they weren't introduced into England until after this period. When he's talking about architecture, he seems to know his stuff - at least, I haven't caught him in a mistake yet.
I'm only a couple of chapters in, but every ten pages or so I'll get thrown out of the book. (It's a novel, set in the early 12th century about the building of a cathedral)
Watervole I'm reading 'Pillars of the Earth' by Ken Follet, which is a well-written book, but endlessly frustrating.
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