Historical fiction offers more than just entertainment. It brings the past alive for modern readers. Writers can question what we know, speculate, explore new perspectives and redress absences in the historical record. Paul Burke explains.
Historical fiction can be fun, a light entertainment, as with any genre. There is nothing wrong with that; but I think this genre offers more.
It is a thread woven into the fabric of history which creates a tapestry, a picture of the past. Novelists, whether they challenge or reinforce our current understanding of history, generally engage with the past with respect. There is no reason to alter history for narrative purposes; it is exciting and intriguing enough, it does not need improving.
Writers aim to bring bygone eras alive for modern readers. While not reengineering the past there is still plenty of room for invention and interpretation. Fiction is about storytelling and the writer can question what we know of the past, speculate, explore new perspectives and redress absences in the historical record.
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Hilary Mantel’s meticulously researched reimagining of Thomas Cromwell is her version of the man, not real but credible. Mantel was always working to the inevitable end of Cromwell, his execution by Henry VIII in 1540. The end of her fiction was preordained.
Though not historical, when Frederick Forsyth wrote The Day of the Jackal he and we knew that de Gaulle was not assassinated. To save Cromwell and kill de Gaulle would take us into alt-history; perhaps a valid genre but not the same thing at all.
Our views now on sex, sexuality, religion, human rights and politics have changed over time and good historical novels have to reflect the values and beliefs of the time being written about. Yet bridging the gap to people long gone is not as difficult as we might imagine. We live by the same intellectual and emotional impulses as the people of the past: love, grief, anger, loyalty and so on. Writing novels is an act of empathy.
As editor of Aspects of Crime I love a murder mystery, even if a pure invention. I know the writer has striven to capture time and place, to make that backdrop as authentic as possible.
Historical novelists are lovers of the past. They share that passion with historians; that love of subject should not be underestimated. The historical novelist has to work harder than the contemporary writer to create the backdrop; a contemporary writer can look around them for authenticity.
A reimagining of the past is not a historical record, it’s an interpretation; but so is a history, which also has bias, précis, reflections of current societal values and, in the worst cases, misinterpretation, perhaps for ideological reasons. Non-fiction history is still the best way to access the past, but novels help us with a window on events and an understanding of our ancestors.
So historical fiction is entertainment with a little insight into the past too. Crime, in particular, looks at those moments — the tragedies that define people — which is why literary fictions lean into the same territory.
Fiction’s secret weapon is interiority; imagining thoughts and feelings, exploiting the gaps in knowledge. A portrait of a real historical figure in fiction can give us a sense of character and mood — fear, jealousy, revenge, lust, lust for power, psychosis and goodness — in a way factual books cannot where there are no clear sources (primary accounts, diaries, for instance).
I grew up on I, Claudius, The Three Musketeers, Ivanhoe and Robinson Crusoe, and I believe fiction can be a gateway drug for history, which I also love. Among my favourite historical thriller writers are CJ Sansom, SG MacLean, SJ Parris, Walter Mosley, Steven Saylor, Jane Thynne, Mark Ellis, and Philip Kerr. They all take me to a country, an era, an event, by bringing the past to life on the page.
I relish stories of polymath detectives. SJ Parris has reimagined Giordano Bruno, who we know was a spy, as a detective. Her series is reaching a natural end, Bruno is a few short years from falling into the hands of the Inquisition, an unavoidable reality the writer must sadly face.
A scholar makes for a clever sleuth and is also a way of exploring the philosophy, religion and politics of the time too; the clash between science and faith, the nature of power, how people lived and what they thought. Fiona Forsyth in her series set in Tomis on the edge of the Roman empire around AD9–15 has chosen exiled poet Ovid as her protagonist.
The novelist can help to redress misconceptions. Mark Ellis’s DCI Merlin inhabits a WWII London in which crime rose by 60 per cent, contrary to the all-in-it-together image we have had handed down to us. The reality was less savoury.
A fictional character has to be true to their time; they can be a radical, but not anachronistic. A suffragette could be bold and revolutionary for her day, shocking to those around her but still of her time; so, perhaps, still class-bound, or not at all what we might expect of a feminist today.
Crime intrigues us. Matthew Carr has used his knowledge of Seville for his 16th-century Bernardo de Mendoza novels. The city at the heart of the Spanish Empire had 3,000 brothels and up to 27 agencies with responsibility for the law and law enforcement: local, regional, state and church powers.
We often want to compare now with then, maybe to feel better about ourselves. Certainly to glean from the past something of now. “How did we get here?” is not a question we will ever get tired of.
I would never substitute historical fiction for history, but both enable me to engage with the past. As a judge of the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Fiction I can say that historical fiction is in rude health. The number of submissions, of a superb standard, is rising.
The more we know of the past, the greater scope for exploration in fiction.
Paul Burke is the editor of Aspects of Crime and Crime Time FM. He is a CWA Gold Dagger judge and a regular contributor to crime publications. His first book, Spies on Screen: From Silent to Streaming, will be published in September, 2026.
Quoted texts:
Fiona Forsyth: Publius Ovidius mysteries
SJ Parris: Giordano Bruno mysteries
Mark Ellis: DCI Frank Merlin series
Matthew Carr: Bernardo de Mendoza mysteries
Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall series
Jane Thynne: Clara Vine series
Walter Mosley: Easy Rawlins series
Philip Kerr: Bernie Gunther series
CJ Sansom: Matthew Shardlake series
Robert Graves: I, Claudius
Alexandre Dumas: The Three Musketeers
Walter Scott: Ivanhoe
Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe
Dive deeper! Several of the authors Paul mentions have features in Historia about their writing and the history behind their books. Here are links:
Rome’s lost exiles by Fiona Forsyth
Fiona Forsyth interviewing Eleanor Swift-Hook
Six tips on researching your historical novel by Stephanie Merritt (who writes as SJ Parris)
The Second World War crime boom by Mark Ellis
Historia’s Q&A with Mark Ellis
16th-century Seville: Spain’s criminal capital by Matthew Carr
Hitler’s Sex Life by Jane Thynne (one of our most popular features)
You might also enjoy LJ Trafford‘s review of the TV series I, Claudius
Images:
- The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, illustration by Jules Huyot after Maurice Leloir for the Calmann-Lévy edition, Paris, 1894: Wikimedia (public domain)
- Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, German school, 1530: Petworth House via Wikimedia (public domain)
- The knight delivered a fearful blow on the head of his opponent, illustration by Charles Edmund Brock for Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott, 1897: British Library via Wikimedia (public domain)
- Ovid in Exile by Ion Theodorescu-Sion, 1915: Wikimedia (public domain)
- View of the City of Seville attrib Alonso Sánchez Coello, c1585: Museo del Prado via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0
