Blog
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....
Historical Fiction – Deadly Sin 3 – Stuck in the Past
Excess Verbiage When I was growing up I read classic fiction such as Dickens, The Brontes, Dumas, and Blackmore. These were my formative influences, and nuances of their language still make their way into my books. This is both an advantage, and a disadvantage. On the...
Gilded Leather Glitz – 17th Century wallpaper
If you were an important personage in 17th Century Antwerp, your house would be furnished with gilded leather wallpaper, a status symbol of the rich merchant. Inevitably this fashion spread to England. On a visit to The Hague, I took this picture in the Mauritshuis...
Second of my historical fiction deadly sins – Purple Prose
Description Over-writing. It's a sin! Historical fiction demands that we paint a vivid picture of the past. To do this, we have to tell our story, describe a world, and still bring the novel in at a reasonable length. Unnecessary adverbs and adjectives must be the...
Sugar – The favourite ‘nip’ of the Tudors and Stuarts
Sugar became enormously popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was sold in loaves and wrapped in blue paper (patented 1666) to make it appear whiter. A sugar loaf could be from 8" to nearly 3 feet tall, but the smaller the loaf, the higher the quality and the...
Subtlety and Melodrama in Historical Fiction
Many of my books are set in the English Civil war, a time of high tempers, and of settling disputes by the sword. Writers of historical fiction find they are often writing against backgrounds of high tension. So with all the fighting, blood, gore, deaths and...
The strengths of a first historical novel #histfic
Before I came to write my first historical novel, The Lady's Slipper, most of my writing was contemporary. I read a lot of contemporary fiction as well as historical fiction. A few years ago I would have been surprised to find I had produced a historical novel. So why...
Forged in Ice – what inspired my new Viking Saga by Ken Hagan
Today I welcome Ken Hagan to tell us what inspired his new novel, the first in a Viking Trilogy. Ken: My thanks to Deborah for inviting me as guest author. Forged in Ice is set in 960AD. It tells the story of a boy and his family who leave the Norse Kingdom to...
Historical Fiction – The Power of Then, and the Power of Now
All historical fiction readers understand the power of Then. The lure of an unknown time or place which is only unknown because it happened to take place before we were born. Unlike fantasy, this is an unfamiliar world which, if we took them back far enough, our own...
Spinning a Tale – writing and weaving
The language of story is peppered with references to the craft of spinning. We 'spin a yarn', and 'weave' a tale. The art of 'fabric'ation has very deep roots as one of the earliest forms of creation. Spindles and spinning are also built into our mythology and...