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Author Note

Sometimes history sparks ideas. Other times you get an idea and discover only later that it is documented in history. When I began work on this book I knew the premise might stretch my readers’ credulity. How realistic is it to expect that a woman could live as a man undetected, particularly in the Middle Ages? There was no co-education, no trouser suit, no common ground for the two to meet.

But sometimes history calls to us in mysterious ways. As I began my research I discovered a medieval woman who had done exactly that: attended the university in Krakow, disguised as a man. And she maintained this façade for two years. So as you embark on Jane’s journey, remember: it could have happened this way.

Dedication

To the boys in the locker room.

Thanks for letting me in.

You probably think this one is about you.

Acknowledgements

Phil Cushman for loaning the book; Lindsay Longford for persisting when I looked dazed; Beverly Long and Pat White for early reads; Anna Louise Lucia for finding the right pele tower, and Chris Hodak for the Olympic cheers at the finish line.

O Swallow, Swallow by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

‘O tell her, Swallow, thou that knowest each, That bright and fierce and fickle is the South, And dark and true and tender is the North.’