The award-winning, bestselling author Minette Walters speaks to Frances Owen for Historia.
I was delighted to talk to Minette Walters by phone recently to discuss her latest novel, The Swift and the Harrier, set in her home county of Dorset during the English Civil Wars of 1642–51, which is out in paperback today.
This is a sweeping story which doesn’t flinch from the horrors of war – there’s a gruesome execution near the beginning which triggers the action – but has room for humour and romance as well as insights into the conflicting loyalties of a divided society.
It’s 30 years since Minette’s first novel, The Ice House, was published in 1992 by Macmillan — after being rejected by many publishing houses. It went on to win the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey Award for best first novel. There is hope for aspiring novelists, then! So I planned to ask her for tips for new fiction writers.
But I soon threw away my list of questions to ask Minette as every one of them was covered in our conversation, and the interview was more like having a chat with a clever, amusing, and very knowledgeable friend.
Only the last three of Minette’s novels have been historical fiction. Her previous 17 books were all murder mysteries. So the obvious place to start was – why make the change?
“My favourite genres, growing up, were crime and historical fiction,” she told me. “When I discovered that Georgette Heyer went from historical into crime I was intrigued: you can write both genres.”
Which makes sense; she’s been quoted as saying: “I believe you should write what you enjoy reading. If you attempt to write something you don’t like, you’ll go mad!”
And living in Dorset, she added, you can’t go anywhere without being “steeped in history”. There’s a 12th-century church in the small village where she lives. “It was there before the Black Death. You can see the mounds where the medieval settlement was completely wiped out.” It’s not surprising, then, that her first two historical novels were about the changes in society that this catastrophe brought about.
Dorset was the first county in England the Black Death came to, most likely at the port of Weymouth, then called Melcombe. “Contemporary chroniclers thought that one in 10 people in Dorset survived, though now we think it was about 40 per cent. But it was colossally dreadful here. I wanted to write that story.”
And it wasn’t as if she was leaving crime behind: “There are many more criminals in history than there are in crime fiction, and it’s fun fingering them,” she pointed out, laughing.
It was this beloved county that inspired her latest book, The Swift and the Harrier, too. “Dorset featured very prominently in the Civil Wars, being between Cornwall, which was Royalist, and London, which was Parliamentarian. To get from one to the other you had to go through Dorset, so it kept changing hands. The towns tended to be for Parliament, but the rural parts were for the King.
“We had Cromwell here, King Charles here, Thomas Fairfax, Prince Maurice; all this happening in a small county.”
Minette decided to confine her story to the west of the county. That meant missing out two of the main Civil War events in Dorset: the siege of Weymouth, which changed hands several times (as many places in the county did) and the two sieges of Corfe Castle, held for the King by Lady Mary Bankes, which was slighted by the victorious Parliamentarians in 1645. However, there was another blockade, which has a major part in her story.
“The siege of Lyme Regis was extraordinary,” she said, her voice full of enthusiasm. “But it’s hardly known about. The women were lauded all over the country because they stood beside their men, they dressed as men, and fought to hold on to their homes.”
The port had a strategic position along the main shipping route between Bristol and the English Channel. It was claimed for Parliament at the beginning of the war in 1642, but, by early 1644, when Charles I ordered the capture of the town, it was surrounded by Royalist-controlled land.
Charles sent his nephew, Maurice (Rupert‘s brother), with around 4,000 troops, to lay siege to Lyme. For eight weeks from 20 April the Royalists kept up a steady bombardment and made three attempts to storm the walls. But the town’s defences held fast. The women, who helped build the earthen fortifications, carried ammunition around the town, reloaded weapons and disguised themselves as men to give the impression of a larger garrison, were hailed as West Country Joans of Arc.
But back to the broader picture, and to resonances with today. “One of the reasons I chose the Civil War was watching the fallout from the Referendum,” Minette said. “I can’t understand why there’s so much anger over it.
“History repeats itself. Bar weapons, we’re going through something similar. People have righteous beliefs, they think they’re right about everything. And I think: you should have studied the Civil War.
“I’m an optimistic person. But we’ve done all this before. Must we do it again? Let’s just go forward.”
Why, I asked, did she think there are comparatively few novels set during the 17th century?
“I can’t understand why we don’t teach it more, it’s such a pivotal period in our history. There was a colossally brutal war, followed by a military dictatorship. Then Charles II brought stability. It was a rollercoaster ride. And people are surprised when you tell them that we had a republic in this country!
“I don’t see why the 17th century doesn’t count above Henry VIII. Yes, we had the schism with Rome, but what else did he do other than marry lots of wives?”
Much laughter at both ends of the phone.
I wondered whether one of the problems was that it seems a particularly complicated period: King versus Parliament, versus the army, all the different religious denominations… How did she distil it all down for readers?
“Find your characters and they’ll predict the plot,” she said. In The Swift and the Harrier, the main character is a young woman, Jayne Swift. Minette wanted her to be a neutral observer who would see events close-up.
“One way was to make her a physician. Of course, then you’re stuck in the eternal problem writing about women in the past. Could a woman be a physician in the 17th century? Absolutely they could! There were two women [Elizabeth Moore and Mary Rose] who were granted licences as doctors by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
“So I felt it was perfectly acceptable to have a female physician in the Civil War, and that allows Jayne to treat both sides. She becomes an independent witness to what’s going on.
“Then I needed another person — William Harrier — who has a strong allegiance. And that was important because otherwise you’d think: what’s happening in the story? Nobody’s feeling strongly enough about anything on either side.
“Once you’ve got these two characters the story starts to write itself. All I do is steer them through real events. I read a lot on the subject, then picked what I felt were the most interesting episodes in the Civil War in Dorset.”
Would Minette advise new writers to start with characters, then? “No. You can’t tell people to write in a way that’s against their natural instinct.
“Authors fall into two groups. Some are plot-driven: the author controls the plot and the characters fit into the plot. But if, like me, you’re more of an exploratory writer, you need to have strong characters to direct the story for you. Though you’ll probably have to write more – and delete more.
“Plot-driven writers know where they’re going; character-driven writers don’t tend so much to do so.”
She gave me an analogy: if you’re driving from London to Glasgow, there are many routes you can take. But once you’re on the the outskirts of Glasgow, there’s only way to the centre. And it’s the same with writing: “You have to decide where you want to go, head off, delete where you’ve taken a wrong turning, and towards the end you’ve just got to motor in — and there you are.”
Isn’t it unnerving, not having a map? “It’s very exciting! You wake up each morning wondering what’s going to happen next, just like the reader does. If the suspense is constantly with you, it’s: Good Lord, where are they going next?”
What would Minette like readers to take away from her books? “When you research war, you realise it’s completely futile. Look at Ukraine; I knew it wouldn’t be overrun within a week. When people are fighting for their homes, they’re much harder to overcome, as The Swift and the Harrier shows. A small number of people will defend their homes like tigers — and they’re very hard to dislodge.
“I’d like readers to remember people’s strength in situations they’re thrust into. Jayne’s unwavering neutrality is a very honourable position. It means she can talk to either side; it’s a better way to be, especially in a civil war.”
And, from a character-driven author, her other wish is no surprise: “The greatest praise anyone can give me is when they put the book down and think about the people I’ve been writing about for the next 24 hours.
“I hope my people will live with you.”
The Swift and the Harrier by Minette Walters is published in paperback on 1 September, 2022.
Images:
- Photograph of Minette: suppled by her publisher, Atlantic Books
- Maurice, Prince Palatine by Gerrit van Honthorst: Wikimedia (public domain)
- Lyme Regis in 1723, from Itinerarium Curiosum by William Stukeley: Google Books
- Musketeers of the Sealed Knot reload during their re-enactment of the siege of Basing House: Anguskirk for Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
- Admiral Robert Blake from an engraving of a sea battle during the First Anglo-Dutch War, 1653: Wikimedia (public domain)
- Detail from St Elizabeth visiting a hospital by Adam Elsheimer: Wellcome Images via Wikimedia (public domain)
- Artillery from the Sealed Knot at Victory Park, Barnoldswick: David Nutter for Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
