The Load of Unicorn

infobox Book |
name = The Load of Unicorn
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Cynthia Harnett
illustrator = Cynthia Harnett
cover_artist =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
genre = Historical novel
publisher = Methuen & Co.
pub_date = 1959
english_pub_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 239 pp
isbn =
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Load of Unicorn" is a children's historical novel written and illustrated by Cynthia Harnett. It was first published in 1959, and was republished by Egmont Classics in 2001. It is set in London in the fifteenth century, and concerns the adventures of an apprentice of William Caxton, the printer. This book has been published in America as "The Cargo of the Madalena".

Explanation of the title

The title refers to a load of paper from Flanders, printed with the Unicorn watermark, which has been ordered by Caxton but never delivered.

Plot summary

Benedict, known as Bendy, has been apprenticed by his forward-looking father to the printer William Caxton. This infuriates his mean half-brothers who are scriveners and fear that the new-fangled printing press will drive them out of business. They have secretly waylaid the printer's delivery of new paper and are hiding it. Bendy knows about it but is worried about the consequences of telling, especially as his half-brothers may be involved with Lancastrian rebels.

Caxton sends Bendy and another apprentice on a quest to find the complete manuscript of Thomas Mallory's stories of King Arthur, but it proves dangerous as others are also on the trail.

Allusions to history

There is lots of detail about life in London in the fifteenth century and especially about the craft of printing, all meticulously researched. In the author's postscript, she explains the process of researching and writing the book, and compares then and now. The endpapers of the first and some later editions are printed with fifteenth-century maps of London, and the illustrations show many of the everyday objects of the time.