Polygon have launched Darkland Tales, retelling of Scottish history from contemporary Scottish authors. Rizzio, by the fabulous Denise Mina, is the first. It is very short - 117 pages in big, well-spaced print - and it is breathtakingly good. Mina revels in the artifice of it all, cutting to and fro through the limited timescale and describing her characters with cool detachment. The whole episode is a sort of pageant, albeit deeply brutal and, as all readers will know, ultimately pointless.
It introduces me, not especially versed in Scottish history, to people like Lord Ruthven, roused from his deathbed to lead the conspirators. The first question everyone asks him is, "What are you wearing?" Then there is Lennox, whose descent I knew about but not his personality. He is apparently the most hated and distrusted peer in Scotland, which is some going considering he is the father of the appalling Darnley. The standout character is probably Henry Yair, a Calvinist conspirator and thug who is unhinged by the slaughter of Rizzio and finds hunself standing over the body of a murdered priest.
Mina is right to cut her tale short with Queen Mary's escape from Holyrood. We don't need to explore what happened after. That is another story.
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