Hello and welcome to the History Extra Podcast from BBC History magazine, Britain's Best

Selling History magazine.

I'm Ellie Cortón.

What should you do with a medieval mule?

Well, if you carry on listening, you're about to find out.

Dr Catherine Smithies is a medievalist based at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

She's just written a book about donkeys in the Middle Ages, which was a topic that I

had content director and resident medieval animal enthusiast Dave Musgrove leapt at the

chance of recording a podcast about.

So Catherine, firstly, welcome.

Thank you very much for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

Why have you written a book about the medieval ass?

Well, to me, it's such a fascinating, fabulous and complex creature.

It's got so much meaning and significance in symbology in the medieval period, but I felt

it deserved to be considered in its singularity in a standalone book.

There are books that consider animals in medieval society, but there's nothing that focuses

on the ass alone.

So that's really why.

And then on top of that, I've always really had a soft spot for donkeys, stems from a

childhood.

I think like everybody else, donkeys rides on the beach, donkeys stories.

...