First of all, I'd like to make a polite request that actually isn't a request and frankly isn't that polite either. Damn well stop plagiarising my blog!!! You know who you are, people! I keep seeing my posts reproduced on Facebook and Tumblr and Ancestry.co.uk and other sites, without citation and without a link. Just copied and pasted from here, as though the copier wrote the text him/herself. Look, if you'd like to quote one or several of my articles, you're most welcome, but acknowledge that it's mine and not yours, name me (I'm Kathryn Warner and my name appears at the end of every post and all over the blog, so don't pretend you don't know who I am), and put in a link to this site. I'm getting really sick of it. I put a hell of a lot of work into this site, it takes a lot of my time, it takes a lot of reading and research and writing, and it angers me to see my hard work plagiarised elsewhere without my permission and without even the sodding courtesy to name me as the author. JUST STOP IT!!!! I will take the matter further if you keep doing it.
Calming down and moving onto much better news, I'm delighted to announce that my book Edward II: The Unconventional King is now available in paperback in Europe and Canada. Yay! I'm afraid that in the US, though, you'll have to wait till 19 January 2016. Links below if you'd like to purchase a copy:
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada
Amazon Germany
Amazon France
Amazon Italy
Book Depository (in the UK but free delivery worldwide)
Guardian Bookshop
More news: tomorrow, Tuesday 17 November at 9pm, on the Yesterday TV channel in the UK, there's a programme which is the second part of a series called Medieval Murder Mysteries and which is entitled King Edward II: A Mysterious Death. I'm not sure what to expect, really; I had nothing to do with the programme and don't know anyone who did (at least not anyone who's told me), and I hope it's not too awful. If we get the silly old stories about red-hot pokers and Edward being held in a cell near rotting animal corpses being presented as though they're fact, I might just scream. (Not true. Definitely not true.) Though maybe I'm being unfair to the makers and it'll be fab, and it's Edward II getting more exposure so yay for that. Though then again, the programme website does say 'Discover the grisly truth about this royal scandal', which doesn't sound like a particularly measured account of Edward's possible survival in Italy. 'Grisly truth' sounds very much like a damned red-hot poker to me. Anyway, report to follow, assuming I can watch the programme soon, and Anerje's intending to write one too. The next in the series, to be shown on 24 November, looks like it could be really interesting as well: it's about Arthur, duke of Brittany, who disappeared in 1203 and is assumed to have been murdered by or on the orders of his uncle King John.
9 comments:
I think when ever this poker poop comes up, we should send them a copy of Lady Gagas song Poker Face.
Kathryn, I am so sorry to hear about the rude people who keep plagiarising your posts. If this continue, you should definitely do sth about it.
Haha, Sami!
Kasia, I am so annoyed. It happened again yesterday on a Facebook page - long passages from my blog were copied without citation. I left a comment on the page complaining and nothing has been done, therefore I have no compunction in naming and shaming: it was the History of Wales page. I'm going to keep doing this till people damn well stop copying my work.
Totally sympathise about the plagiarism. In fact, your post about Medieval Murder Mysteries reminds me of all the time I've spent over the years trying to make just such a series; it looks like some TV exec has taken my idea and run with it - and since they haven't interviewed me for any of the episodes, I suspect that they feel they can't, perhaps for reasons of guilt. But perhaps it's a complete coincidence - and the reason they did not interview me about Edward II, Richard II or Thomas of Gloucester is that they haven't done any research of they;re own. They've just plagiarised mine.
I've suffered worse though. How many times have I had to spend thousands of pounds stopping people ripping off my Time Traveller's Guide idea? I have to foot the bill even though THEY can't be bothered to check it's a trademark. And even worse than that, in 1998 I assisted a BBC exec who wanted to make an 'antiques roadshow' for family historians. I said it wouldn't work, explained why, and sent them a 4-page email outlining how they should take a celebrity and do a programme on his or her family background. It was a blueprint for 'Who do you think you are?' - internationally the most successful TV history production ever. But I never got a credit and never a word of thanks, apart from an email thanking me for that original 4-page suggestion.
In the end, you get used to these things. But the fights are ugly, painful and can be costly. And the news that there's a series on supposed medieval murders which has been made without even consulting me - after I've done more on that subject than anyone else, and at the highest scholarly level - is deeply depressing.
Ian, thanks for the comment, and I'm really sorry to hear about all this :( It's so weird that they've made a programme about Edward II's murder/not-murder without asking you of all people to be involved.
Yes, how can this be an academic series if no historian is presenting it/involved in it. I fear it is just an "overview" type series with the emphasis being on luridness rather than accuracy, the only good part being the locational shots!
Hi Kathryn, I'm so sorry people are pinching your posts!!!!! Your research is meticulous and I know how much effort you put in - the detail is amazing!
Ian - what a shame about getting no credit for 'Who do you think you are?'! It's outrageous!
I'm all set for Medieval Mysteries. Tracey Borman was involved in the episode on Marlowe, and also on a programme about Medieval Spies - which was about Thomas Cromwell. The narrator said Catherine of Aragon was Charles V's sister - shoddy research! The programme talked about Cromwell 's network of spies - without any evidence. Fingers crossed for tonight's programme.
You have every right to be upset. When I do my genealogy work I always, ALWAYS credit source and link back to the source, even if it's from a book published 150 years ago. I find it terribly important for myself or any other serious researcher to know where the information comes from. Congrats on your book! I'll be looking into it!
As a fan of work of Ian and Kathryn, I can only imagine how annoying it is to be treated like this. To me it seems that we live in times, where ripping off, stealing and cheating seems to be ok as long as nobody raises hue and cry, sorts of. Few of my ideas have been stolen in the past too and others have taken full credit (and money) for them. Not a nice thing. But we know to whom the credit belongs!
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