Flushing Scarlett

Story © 1998
by Clayton Emery

Podcast © 2009
by Clayton Emery

Art by
Allen Davis

This story first appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine under the "Robin & Marian Mysteries" banner, but actually stars Will Scarlett and his son Tam Gamwell, Robin's crazy cousins.

The podcast is available here.

The print version is available in
MANDRAKE AND MURDER: The Robin & Marian Mysteries,
available from Amazon.

The story is a fabliau, a type of comedy featuring raunchy sex and excement that was - not surprisingly - very popular in the Middle Ages. Chaucer's The Miller's Tale is the most famous example. Nowadays the fabliau lives as sit-coms and movies like American Pie. Tastes never change, only the medium.

For more on Will Scarlett and Tam, see their Merry Men entries. They also star in my Tales of Robin Hood books,
ROBIN HOOD AND THE BEASTS OF SHERWOOD and
ROBIN HOOD AND THE BELLS OF LONDON.