The historian Eric Lee made some surprising discoveries when he found himself going down research rabbit holes in pursuit of plots to kill Hitler. I love working in archives. Holding in one’s hand original documents written a century ago (or much longer) is the closest thing I will ever experience to time travel. (I’ve written […]
I want to write a parallel narrative novel, but I don’t know how
Historia’s resident agony aunt, Dr Darwin, answers another question about the craft (and art) of writing. This time: how to write a parallel narrative novel which grabs – and keeps – your reader. Dear Dr Darwin, I have fantastic idea for a novel which is made of two almost entirely separate historical narrative threads plaited […]
I know what story I want to tell; how do I tell it?
Dear Dr Darwin, I’ve found a gripping set of historical events that I want to build a novel round, and before you start shaking your Tudor bonnet, it’s not because I have a non-fiction agenda: this is a glorious concatenation of politics, faith, personalities, clothes, weapons and all the other things that make historical fiction […]