John Lydgate: Chaucer contemporary's coded graffiti recalls lost literary talent

Striking discovery in a Suffolk church reawakens interest in the once-revered prolific writer and 14th-century monk

Historians studying graffiti in ancient churches have found what they believe might be writing by one of medieval English literature's most extraordinary "lost" talents including his signature.

Benedictine monk John Lydgate, a contemporary of Chaucer who wrote for three kings and the late 14th and early 15th-century social elite, was one of the most prolific English writers.