The Stinking Great Lie

Catherine Jinks (author)

Puffin Books, Australia: 1999; 128pp

ISBN: 0141301023

Genres: historical fiction, humour

Issues: friendship, identity, stereotyping

Camilla is a twelve-year-old servant in medieval Italy. She collects and empties the chamber pots. She has been put into service with one of the city's bankers on the agreement that Bernado would provide her dowry when the time came for her to marry.

It never occurred to Camilla that the husband Bernado would choose for her would be Orazio, or that her father would agree to such a choice. ‘His head was big and brown and mushy, like a rotten apple. It was bald as an apple, too, except where the hair grew out of his nose and his ears and the moles on his chin. He had black, broken teeth and bad breath, and a vast, swollen belly that made him look pregnant. He was also old. Very, very old. At least fifty.' What is she to do? She cannot run away as she has no money and nowhere to go - and women have no rights.

Camilla vents her anger and frustration by telling an outrageous story. In a time when the Catholic church is omnipotent and the saints are worshipped as sacred beings, Camilla invents San Ugolino, the patron saint of sewage collectors. Not only does she invent him, but she gives him a complete personal history and several miracles to his credit. Things get a little out of hand, however, when the stories spread through the city until even the priest is asking Camilla about this unknown saint. But when he decides to write to the Pope for confirmation, Camilla knows she is in trouble. Serious trouble. The kind of trouble from which even her sassy attitude and sharp wit will not allow her to escape.

A rollicking narrative that will delight the reader.