Peter Tonkin on the joys and responsibilities of researching historical fiction. Since bringing the 30-novel Mariner series of action adventures to a close and retiring from full-time teaching, I have been working on two parallel series of historical novels. One is a sequence of murder-mysteries set in Elizabethan England and the other is a series […]
Losing the Plot
Robyn Young on her new novel, Court of Wolves, and its difficult path to publication. Over the thirteen years I’ve been in this business, I’ve spoken to many writers about their methods and while no two authors tackle a novel in quite the same way, there’s clearly a spectrum – at the opposite ends of […]
Dr Darwin’s Writing Tips
Our resident agony aunt, Dr Darwin, answers a common question – how do you research historical fiction? Dear Dr Darwin, Everyone says “research till your eyes bleed” – you did in your post about cultural appropriation – but when I Google, all I can find is the information I know already, repeated in a million […]
Historia Interviews: Kate Mosse
The Burning Chambers, the first in a new series by Kate Mosse, is published today. Anna Mazzola met with her to discuss how to write compelling stories, what historical fiction says about the present day, pre-publication nerves and strong black coffee. Firstly, congratulations on a brilliant and gripping novel. I tore through it in a […]
Researching the Land of Silver
Tom Williams recalls his Argentinian adventures in the name of research. My first visit to Argentina was in 2003. I had been learning to dance tango in London and I decided I had to see how they danced in Buenos Aires. I completely fell in love with the place, so when I was looking for […]
Reliable Libel
When using real people in historical fiction, how far must you be true to them? Or, rather, how wildly may you traduce them? William Sutton ponders a common concern for writers. Do you worry about misrepresenting historical figures? “You faithless writer,” cry my characters, as I attribute to them words and attitudes they would renounce. […]
Research and Reenactment
Christian Cameron on how experimental archaeology and reenactment influence his writing. I was recently in a panel that discussed the limits of authenticity in historical fiction. A wide variety of views were put forth, including some that might surprise; one author suggesting that it was impossible for any modern writer to accurately understand, much less represent, […]
Historia Interviews: Antonia Senior
Antonia Senior talks to Elizabeth Fremantle about her new novel The Tyrant’s Shadow. The Tyrant’s Shadow follows on from the events of your previous novel Treason’s Daughter, was it always your intention to write more than one book with these characters? I had intended to write only one book. It was my then editor’s idea […]