Geraldine Hazbun - Reading Illegitimacy in Early Iberian Literature

The New Middle Ages is a series dedicated to pluridisciplinary studies of medieval cultures, with particular emphasis on recuperating womens history and on feminist and gender analyses. This peer-reviewed series includes both scholarly monographs and essay collections.

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I would like to thank all those who have contributed, directly or indirectly, to the creation of this book. Warm thanks must go to the anonymous peer reviewer who helped me to really see what I was trying to say. I would also like to thank my Modern Languages colleagues at St Annes College for their unique brand of encouragement and mockery.

The book was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic and I would like to thank the team at Palgrave Macmillan, especially Allie Troyanos and Rachel Jacobe, for their patience while I took longer to complete it than expected. Also related to Covid, special thanks are reserved for my husband Saleh, for providing enormous amounts of moral support when finishing the revisions to the book seemed to me to pale in comparison with his own job as an NHS Consultant, and yet to him seemed more important than ever.

In a book that is so much about fathers and children, I would like finally to thank my father, John Coates, for encouraging me, years ago, along the path that led me here and for teaching me what is at the core of this book: that things are rarely as they seem.