I Will Adventure
Delightful historical with Tudor London background centred around the adventures of twelve-year-old Andrew Talbot who "in his own eyes...was small, quiet and dangerous". Andrew, youngest son of a large, loving squire's family, leaves somewhat reluctantly for London to become the page of cousin Sir John Talbot. Woven around the ups and downs of paging - from scolding and chores to lute lessons, seeing London, and puncturing the bran-expanded trunks of the Talbot steward - are Andrew's joyful encounters with Master Shakespeare, who, having recently lost a son, tenders fatherly advice. The story is indeed simple, but the warmth of characterization, the bounding youthful good spirits, and the scholarly detail selected for function rather than flourish (Andrew, blessedly, does not meet the Queen, and Sweet Will in the boy's view is merely pleasantly and vaguely adult) make a buoyant, gay excursion into the past.