Our resident agony aunt, Dr Darwin, answers a common question: how can we make sure our historical details are accurate – and believable? Dear Dr Darwin, Someone in my writers’ circle keeps getting facts wrong: things like calling a 17th-century character Tiffany, and giving her mother a vote in elections. He makes both of them keen […]
Twisting the Tale: should historical fiction stick to the facts?
Author Chris Bishop discusses why writers of historical fiction don’t always adhere solely to the ‘facts’ – and why they sometimes shouldn’t. As a writer of historical fiction, I am frequently asked whether my work is based solely on fact. My stock answer is that I am a writer not a historian and, as such, […]