Blog
Historical Fiction – learning from ‘The Nightingale’ and ‘The Secret World of Christoval Alvarez’
Vianne and Isabelle are sisters whose challenge is to survive after the fall of France to the Nazis in WWII. Vianne's house is requisitioned by the Gestapo, whilst her husband is away fighting, leading to knife-edge tensions as she tries to protect her daughter...
Cabinet of Curio-stories – Shoes from the Mary Rose
The Mary Rose, warship of King Henry VIII, lay undiscovered beneath the waves for almost 300 years until one day, a fisherman’s line got tangled in the wreckage and her whereabouts became known. That was in 1836, but the salvage wasn't attempted until the 1980's...
Historical Fiction – Seven Virtues – No 1 Bravery
Having thought about what might constitute the Seven Deadly Sins in Historical Fiction, I'm now getting a little balance by paying attention to the Seven Virtues. And one of them for certain is bravery, and by this, I mean courage with the language. It is a chance for...
Research Find of the Week – ‘Tudor Wimbledon’
I bought this from a charity shop in Kendal for £1.29. As Wimbledon was a village so close to London (then 10 miles distant), it does include a few anecdotes about famous London personages, such as Catherine Parr, and Henry VIII. The King visited Wimbledon in his...
From Queen to Queen, the fate of A Tudor Rectory
The Old Rectory, Wimbledon's s oldest surviving residence, was originally known as the Parsonage House. Once a moated Manor, it was built in the early 16th century, close to St Mary's Church. In 1536, after the dissolution of the monasteries, Parsonage House was...
17th Century Research Find of the Week
My local bookshop has 100,000 second hand books. It's a five minute drive, or a brisk half hour walk along country lanes. I always think I must have exhausted their supply of Tudor and Stuart gems, but they keep getting more stock, and this week I was lucky. Here is...
Historical Fiction – deadly sin no 7 – mistaking it for a genre
Like most readers of historical fiction, I have my favourite eras. I love the seventeenth century, the Tudors and the medieval period, with the occasional foray into Victoriana, WWII and Greek myth. So I am unlikely to purchase anything set in the Napoleonic era,...
Cabinet of Curio-stories – An Apostle Spoon
I wonder what this spoon, which has survived for three hundred years, has stirred, or served, since it was first made? It is a 17thC Apostle spoon with an engraving of `Ave Maria` on the bowl. There are also further marks and chasings made during the Edwardian era, so...
Historical Fiction – deadly sin no 6 – the Aura of an Era
One of the things that attracts writers of historical fiction, is the lure of the past - its costumes, its pageantry, its beautiful buildings and architecture, many imbued with a craftsmanship mostly lost to us today. Often great love and attention is devoted to...
Cabinet of Curio-stories – Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn entwined
As a gift to King's College Chapel, Cambridge, Henry VIII erected a beautiful screen, the work of Renaissance Italian craftsmen. The work was carried out between 1533 and 1535 in the brief period when Anne Boleyn was Queen, and Henry's royal crown surmounts their...
Historical Fiction – deadly sin no 5 – The Length of Time
In the past, travelling took much longer. Because journeys took longer, messages took weeks to arrive, and news was days old by the time it reached you. Talking to historical fiction writers who are starting out, I often find that one of the first things they have had...
Historical Fiction – The Dark Lady’s Mask by Mary Sharratt
It is a brave writer that sets out to tackle anything about William Shakespeare and how he wrote his plays. Even more so when the author posits the idea that Shakespeare relied on a female poet as his collaborator. I dare say the novel will have its detractors,...
Historical Fiction – Deadly Sin no 4 – Lost or Glossary?
Like most historical novelists, I've spent much of my research time immersed in the everyday life of an earlier century, and my vocabulary has expanded. It has expanded to include words that most people have never heard of. As a novelist, this was brought home to me,...
Historical Fiction – Deadly Sin no 4 – Prologue vs Intrigue
When writing a historical novel and portraying a whole world, it is tempting to use a prologue as an introduction to the period you want your reader to inhabit. A prologue seems an ideal place to do this - to explain who conquered whom, who is on the throne, what the...
Fascinating old words for the historical novelist: ‘posnet’.
Whilst investigating something else entirely, I came upon an article in our local paper about the 'Carnforth Posnet'. This apparently was a rare bronze vessel dating from medieval times. Amazing what sidetracks I end up on, when I get to our local library's archives....