Maybe it was a marketing thing, but it just seemed so completely out-of-place. It's bad enough when characters in historical fiction start spouting modern theories/philosophies/lifestyle choices. But this was a biography, which is *supposed* to have more grounding in fact. The application of modern standards to medieval marriage annoys me on any level, but the fact that he makes the statement completely out of the blue without acknowledging that it was, in fact, the way things were done.

I have read a few reviews of the book that criticise Hicks for using the vehicle of Anne Neville to launch some sort of strange tirade against Richard III. Of course, that's really part of what my dissertation is about, so, paedophilia or not, looks like I'll have to read it. Sigh.