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Desert Island Books: Harry Sidebottom

31 May 2016 By Harry Sidebottom

Harry Sidebottom picks his top five historical novels for castaways.
Alfred  Duggan, Family  Favourites (1960)

Family FavouritesAs  a  boy  I  got  into  historical  fiction  through  the  novels  of  Alfred  Duggan, as  well  as  those  of  Graham  Shelby, George  Shipway, R. F. Tapsell, and  Wallace Breem. I  have  chosen  Duggan’s  Family  Favourites, not  only  because  it  is  a  wonderfully  told  story, but  also  because  it  has  influenced  me  in  at  least  a  couple  of  important  ways. The  novel  tells  the  story  of  Elagabalus, the  extraordinary  and  perverse  teenager  who  was  emperor  of  Rome  AD 218-222. The  emperor  is  viewed  through  the  eyes  of  Julius  Duratius, an  ex-Praetorian  writing  his  memoirs  in  obscurity,  four  hours  walk  from  Hadrian’s  Wall, and  thus  the  potential  safety  of  the  barbarian  tribes  outside  the  empire  should  the  authorities  seek  his  arrest. The  novel  sparked  my  interest  in  the  third  century  AD, which  led  to  my  scholarly  publications  on  the  period, and  then  to  the  setting  of  both  the  Warrior  of  Rome  series  and  the  Throne  of  the  Caesars  trilogy. More  specifically  Duratius  posed  a  question  that  has  remained  with  me. How  easy  it  was  it  to  run  or  hide  from  the  agents  of  the  imperium? Recently, so  many  years  later, I  explored  the  theme  in  my  short  story  Silence&Lies (2015).

Mary  Renault, The  Persian  Boy (1972)

the-persian-boyOnly the  best  historical  novels  convincingly  recreate  long  gone, alien  cultures. All  too  many  put  modern  characters, complete  with  contemporary  western  attitudes  and  values, in  fancy  dress. The  triumph  of  Renault’s  The  Persian  Boy  is  to  immerse  the  reader  in  not  one  but  two  ancient  cultures, as  the  Macedonians  of  Alexander  the  Great  are  viewed  through  the  eyes  of  the  Persian eunuch Bagoas. I read this  novel as a teenager. It  was  the  first  fiction  that  I  had  encountered  that  dealt  sympathetically  with  homosexuality, and  I  remember  finding  it  unsettling. Long  before  the  boom  in  scholarly  studies  on  ancient  sex  and  gender, it  shocked  me  into  the  realisation  that  Classical  sexuality  was  very  different  from  ours. Another  accomplishment  of  the  novel  is  the  complexity  of  the  main  character. Bagoas  in  many  ways  is  far  from  admirable, but  Renault  always  makes  him  believable, and  never  entirely  unsympathetic.

Patrick  O’Brian, Desolation  Island (1978)

DesolationIslandO’Brians  Jack  Aubrey  and  Stephen  Maturin  tales  make  up  one  of  the  greatest  series  of  historical  fiction  ever  written. Like  many  readers, O’Brian  came  to  my  attention  via  an  article  published  by  Timothy  Mo  in  The  Spectator (if  my  memories  are  correct). The  piece  was  called  something  like  ‘The  Best  Novelist  You’ve  Never  Heard  Of’. I  enjoyed  O’Brian’s  first  four  novels  very  much, but  it  was  Desolation  Island  that  got  me  totally  hooked. The  tensest  of  chases  through  the  mountainous  seas  of  the  southern  latitudes, as  Jack  is  pursued  by  ‘a  very  bloody  minded  Dutchman’, had  me  waking  in  the  middle  of  the  night  shouting  ‘Get  down  from  that  rigging!’ O’Brian  wrote  great  action  sequences, but  so  much  more. His  mastery  of  contemporary  documents  allowed  him  to  summon  up  the  food, clothes, music, and  above  all  mentalities  of  the  time. The  novels, which  illuminate  profound  things  about  friendship, transcend  any  supposed  restrictions  of  genre. As  has  been  said, these  are  the  novels  that  Jane  Austen`s  naval  officer  brothers  might  have  written  if  they  had  had  her  literary  talent.

Tolstoy, War  and  Peace (1865-1869)

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It  has  to  be  admitted  that  War  and  Peace  is  not  an  easy  read. It  took  me  two, perhaps  three  months. But  it  was  more  than  worth  the  time  and  concentration. Tolstoy  created  the  blueprint  for  the  multiple  story  line, multiple  point-of-view  novel. Arguably  no  subsequent  epic – all  of  which  are, directly  or  indirectly, in  his  debt – has  ever  equalled  this  monumental, but  tightly  controlled, story  of  the  French  invasion  of  Russia  in  1812. Few  novelists  have  had  the  intellectual  confidence  to  propose  a  new  philosophy  of  history. Tolstoy, reacting  against  the  then  prevalent  ‘great  men’  interpretation  of  history, created  a  world  where  Napoleon  and  Kutuzov  were  as  powerless  as  a  Pierre  Bezukhov  or  an  Andrei  Bolkonsky.

Given  it  was  written  a  long  time  ago, in  the  same  century  as  its  subject, it  is  all  too  easy  to  forget  that  War  and  Peace  was  a  historical  novel. Bearing  that  in  mind  illustrates  that  the  prejudice  against  historical  fiction  of  some  contemporary  self-consciously  literary  figures, the  idea  that  by  its  nature  it  is  somehow  second  rate  and  trivial, is  quite  a  recent  creation.

Cormac  McCarthy, Blood  Meridian (1985)

CormacMcCarthy_BloodMeridianThe  unnamed  young  protagonist, ‘the  kid’, joins  a  gang  of  scalp  hunters  operating  on  either  side  of  the  US-Mexican  border  around  1850. Relentlessly  violent  and  disturbing, the  novel  has  some  of  the  most  visceral  action  sequences  ever  written, and  in  Judge  Holden  one  of  the  most  repulsive  yet  compelling  characters  in  fiction. McCarthy’s  ability  to  summon  up  landscape  and  weather  is  unrivalled. As  a  friend  said  to  me, McCarthy  makes  the  English  language  get  up  and  dance. The  thrilling, if  perverse  Odyssey  ends  with  a  passage  which  may  hint  at  the  existence  of  a  Manichean  Demiurge. Stuck  on  a  desert  island, I  should  have  more  than  enough  time  to  reread  and  think  about  the  novel, until  I  could  work  out  what  the  ending  was  all  about, and  do  so  perhaps  without  using  words  like  Manichaeism  or  Demiurge.

Just  as  War  and  Peace  reminds  us  that  the  contemporary  denigration  of  historical  fiction  is  transient, so  Blood  Meridian  demonstrates  that, in  the  main, this  criticism  is  parochial  to  Britain. On  the  Continent, especially  in  France  and  Italy, historical  novels  can  be  freely  accepted  as  novels  of  ideas, and  intellectuals  can  write  them  without  being  accused  of  slumming  it (think  of  Hubert  Monteilhet  or  Umberto  Eco). Similarly  in  America  to  set  fiction  in  the  past  does  not  serve  to  undermine  its  credibility. The  March  by  E. L. Doctorow, Two  For  Texas  by  James  Lee  Burke, The  Son  by  Philip  Meyer: the  list  is  easy  to  expand. Hopefully  with  Wolf  Hall, Bring  up  the  Bodies, and  the  forthcoming  final  volume  of  Hilary  Mantel’s  trilogy  about  Thomas  Cromwell  a  salutary  shift  in  attitudes  will  begin  in  Britain.

Harry Sidebottom is a historian and bestselling novelist. His latest book, Fire and Sword, book three in the Throne of the Caesars series, is out now.

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Filed Under: Desert Island Books, Reviews Tagged With: Alfred Duggan, Cormac McCarthy, Desert Island Books, Harry Sidebottom, Mary Renault, Patrick O'Brian, Tolstoy

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