On the blog KimikoSews, the author offers a detailed review of the book The Queen's Servants by Caroline Johnson which focusses on clothing of the serving class in Tudor England.

Everyone knows that the First Crusade began with a call from Pope Urban II to free Jerusalem from the Muslims. That is, everyone but British historian Peter Frankopan, whose new book, The First Crusade: the Call from the East, offers a different explanation.

The blog Res Obscura offers a review of the book Dressing Up: Cultural Identity in Renaissance Europe by Ulinka Rublack, which chronicles the importance of clothing to the merchant class during the Renaissance.

Leo Hollis sees the city of London as a “series of layered narratives that need to be explored.” This is what he does in his book The Stones of London: A History in Twelve Buildings. Philip Womack of The Telegraph has a review.

Stephen Marche believes William Shakespeare is the most influential man in history, showing up in the most obvious - and unexpected - places.

Ursula the Widow, Reviews Editor for the Pennsic Independent, is seeking SCA-related works of art and literature for review in the Pennsic paper.

Author of the Outlander series, Diana Gabaldon, recently reviewed Elizabeth I by Margaret George. The review was published in the Washington Post.

On the blog, A Corner of Tenth-Century Europe, Jonathan Jarrett offers a review of a paper by Jane Kershaw entitled New Insights on the Viking Settlement of England: the Small Finds Evidence, presented to the Institute of Historical Research Earlier Middle Ages seminar on 9 February, 2011.

The 13th century Temple in London, the headquarters of the Knights Templar in the city, is a round church, but it has also served as a bank and document storage facility. Christopher Howse of the Telegraph looks at a new book on the Templars, The Temple Church in London.

The knight, the pardoner, the miller and the wife of Bath all made appearances recently when ren faire enthusiast Phil Tomassian presented the Canterbury Tales as dinner theater at his Murray Theater, Utah Dinner Show. Austen Diamond of the Salt Lake City Weekly has the review.

Mistress Emma de Fetherstan, of the Kingdom of Ansteorra, offers a review of the new edition of the Known World Handbook, available through the SCA Stock Clerk.

Michael A. Cramer's new book, Medieval Fantasy as Performance: The Society for Creative Anachronism and the Current Middle Ages, considers the organization as an improvisational art form that presents the Middle Ages in a pleasing and entertaining, if not always accurate, way.

The marketers of Electronic Arts' videogame Dante's Inferno had an unusual rollout plan: self-protest the game, based on Dante Alighieri's 14th century work, as an evil, anti-Christian entertainment to drum up publicity for the game. Reviewers found Inferno to be less hellish and more of a dud. Mark Oppenheimer of the New York Times has the story.

Author Ethan Gilsdorf has produced a new book entitled Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms, which looks at the role-playing and fantasy culture, including the SCA. (video)

Historians have long debated the motives and actions of the medieval crusaders who took the Holy Land by force in the 11th century. New York Times reviewer Eric Ormsby has a review.

Author James Shapiro, whose 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, delighted the literary world, has a new book, this time investigating whether the Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon actually wrote his plays. Robert McCrum of The Observer has a review.

To many Americans, the sport of curling is a mystery of complex scoring and opaque strategies. A deeper look reveals a sport that dates back to the later SCA period and whose participants have much in common with SCA martial competitors.

In a review for The Telegraph, Philip Hoare looks at Bodies in the Bog and the Archaeological Imagination, a book by University of California, Berkeley professor Karin Sanders.

The Lady in the Tower, a new book by Tudor scholar Alison Weir, looks at the last four months in the life of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn. Janet Maslin of the New York Times has the review.

Mysteries set in ancient Rome continue to catch the imaginations of readers.

For centuries, Englishmen have revered King Henry V as "the greatest man that ever ruled England,” but 1415: Henry V's Year of Glory, a new book by Ian Mortimer gives a new view of the king. Dominic Sandbrook of The Telegraph has a review.

In an article for the Chow website, Lessley Anderson and Roxanne Webbe review 10 Meads You Should Try. The American meads range from peucts produced in Portland, Maine to Anchorage, Alaska.

Reasons given for the study of Latin over the year have ranged from "better understanding of English" to "looks good on a resume," but a new reason, according to Globe and Mail arts columnist Warren Clements, might be "to keep up with all the amusing Latin books that have been pouring forth for the past 60 years."

Posted on YouTube is a video clip of the medieval music duo performing Quant la doulce jouvencelle. The performance is in French.

Caroline White of the Times Online has put together a list of the "10 most historically inaccurate movies" of all time. Mel Gibson holds the record with three of the ten, including 1995's Braveheart.

The popular perception of the Druid as either a sage with a long beard or a blood-thirsty expert in human sacrifice is the topic of a new book by Bristol University professor Ronald Hutton: Blood and Mistletoe: a History of the Druids in Britain.

On May 20, 1609, the first collection of Shakespeare's sonnets was published in London. On his book blog Paper Cuts, New York Times reviewer William S. Niederkorn looks at the impact of some of the world's most famous poetry.

Single illuminated pages from medieval manuscripts often end up as single exhibits in museums, or worse, stuck in a drawer, unviewed and unappreciated, but a new exhibit Heaven on Earth: Manuscript Illuminations From the National Gallery of Art showcases these single pieces as the gems they are. Paul Richard of The Washington Post has a review.

A 12-year-old boy fights off Vikings to help complete the Book of Kells in a new animated adventure from Cartoon Saloon. The film was scheduled for release late winter 2009.

Just when you think you've seen - or read - it all, comes this review by New York Times theater critic B Neil Genzlinger of Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage, a new production by Jason Craig, at the Abrons Arts Center, accompanied by klezmer music.