I’ve established myself as a novelist, specifically as an author of historical fiction for young adults. But I’ve also published over a dozen short stories, mostly in themed anthologies. I don’t identify myself as a short story writer and don’t actively seek opportunities in that market – but when an editor asks me to make […]
Not What it Used to Be
Taking the helm as our first Historia guest, Livi Michael considers how historical fiction has changed and how we can define it now. In the course of my lifetime, historical fiction has been on a journey, from mass-market romance to literary bestseller. It has absorbed and reflected the key changes of the 20th and 21st centuries […]
Hooked on History: Andrew Taylor
Novelist Andrew Taylor explores the childhood favourites that made him the writer he is today. I have a theory that childhood reading maketh the man or woman. A few of the books I read and re-read as a child and young teenager survived the Stalinist purges of later adolescence and young adulthood. These are the books […]
Writing About Writing
Emma Darwin ponders the challenges of writing her new guide to historical fiction. I’ve been known to argue that writing historical fiction is the ultimate challenge for a novelist, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that when John Murray Learning commissioned me to write Get Started in Writing Historical Fiction for their Teach Yourself imprint, […]
I’ve fallen in love with a real historical character: how do I start writing the novel?
Dear Dr Darwin, I’ve been writing short stories and contemporary-set fiction for years, but recently I fell madly in love with a real historical character: a fascinating, forceful, charming person, Jocelyn, who was deeply involved in the big dramas of the day. I know I want to write a novel, not a biography, and I’ve […]
The Reichenbach Falls
The tumbling cascades of the Reichenbach Falls loom large in the many worlds of Sherlock Holmes and the works of Conan Doyle, second only to 221b Baker St as a touchstone. The Falls, though, are not only a memorable setting but also a powerful symbol, of an author tired of his creation, of the most […]
Picture This
In early 2013 I found an intriguing old photograph in a local charity shop. I love anonymous old pictures of people, especially if they hadn’t realised they were being photographed: they’re like a stolen glimpse into a vanished life. This scene was of a narrow street running between rows of small, conical stone houses, and […]
How to make us believe your bucklers are swashing and your Tyrian is truly purple
Dear Dr Darwin, You keep saying “make it vivid and convincing”, but how do I do that? When I put in lots of detail my writers’ circle say it slows up the story; when I cut it back they say they don’t believe in the places. When I make my characters act/think/react differently from how […]