Ladies Whose Bright Eyes

A Different take on time travel to the Middle Ages

Ford is supposed to have been inspired to write this book after reading Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court. The book is not a direct response to Twain's, but Ford imagines the modern man adapting with relative grace to the Medieval period, not trying to change it to suit him.

Mr. Sorrell is an early twentieth century publisher - a decent man, but I suspect Ford of getting some revenge for his frustrations in publishing. Sorrell is flung back to the 14th century after a train crash. He is in England at the time after the death of Edward II when Queen-Mother Isabella and Mortimer were ruling in the name of Edward III.

In a paradox, Mr. Sorrell had taken as collateral a family heirloom, a golden cross brought from the Holy Land by the slave of a Crusader ancestor. In his hospital gown and still bearing the cross, Sorrell becomes the "slave" delivering the "miracle-working" cross, and is welcomed (and fought over) as a holy man. Sorrell insists upon being given clothing, as he is not about to run around in a night shirt, whereas his bemused hosts think that his miraculous garment, so shiny and so white, is much more fitting.

Sorrel is originally convinced that he was wandered into a pageant, and keeps asking about trains to London. Finally, he realizes that the people he takes for lunatics really believe that they are in the 14th century, and gradually accepts that he really is in the past. The story is funny, swash-buckling, informative and thought-provoking.