Beds and Chambers in Late Medieval England

The recent literature on medieval houses includes a good range of studies of types of building (such as town houses), and those belonging to various sections of society, from peasants to royalty, but this rewarding book is unusual in focusing on a room found in houses of all kinds, the chamber. Because sleeping was the central function of most chambers, it is appropriate also to examine beds in the context of the space that they occupied. This book is based on a doctoral thesis, which is apparent in the customary claim that the subject has been neglected, which allows the author, Hollie L.S. Morgan, to present herself as a pioneer. The habitual deference to French theorists is on display, and, for the first time in this reader’s experience, illustrations are devoted to ‘word clouds’ which show terms and ideas associated with beds and chambers set in a variety of typefaces floating in a circular space. After twenty-four pages, these preliminaries are set aside, and the reader finds the writing becoming more informative and substantial

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