John of Gaunt III's rule was becoming unpopular due to high taxation and his affair with Alice Perrers, political opinion closely associated the Duke of Lancaster with the failing government of the 1370s. Furthermore, while King Edward and the Prince of Wales were popular heroes due to their successes on the battlefield, John of Gaunt had not won equivalent military renown that could have bolstered his reputation. Although he fought in the Battle of Nájera (1367), for example, his later military projects proved unsuccessful. When Edward III died in 1377 and John's ten-year-old nephew succeeded as Richard II of England, John's influence strengthened.
The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches was translated into English as "The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches" by Sheila Fischman. The novel is about two siblings who live in complete isolation with their father. They are both his "sons". One day the father kills himself by hanging and his sons decide one of them needs to go to the nearby village to get a coffin. While in the village it is unveiled that the one son is actually a female although she has no idea of that (she has no idea of sexuality and thinks she was castrated when she was very young