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SOLANDER
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THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
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Bring on the historians!
Advocates of fiction genres such as romance, horror, science fiction and mystery plead with only limited success for the recognition that comes with literary honors. Historical novelists, on the other hand, have been reasonably well represented with Nobel Prizes (e.g. Sigrid Undset, Henryk Sienkiewicz), Man Booker Prizes (Pat Barker, J.G. Farrell), and National Book Awards (Charles Johnson, Charles Frazier). Literary giants like Flaubert, Tolstoy, Thackeray, Twain and Balzac have taken one or more turns at historical fiction, and specialists in the genre such as Walter Scott and Mary Renault are taken seriously by departments of literary studies.
Ifwe can recognize that historical fiction receives its due from the literary establishment, perhaps it is time to advocate for historical fiction as part of the process of recording and interpreting history. Cambridge Professor Paul Cartledge's new biography Alexander the Great includes references to historical novels as part of the way the world understands Alexander. More historians should take the time to look at imaginative reconstructions and blend them in their work, considering that the general public absorbs history through fiction more often than not. Common justifications for the study of history include: Making people aware of the past. Showing the simi larities and differences of the human condition across time.
Keeping rulers aware that judgment of their actions can be recorded.
Naturally, this list could go on endlessly, but the major point is that historical fiction serves the same purposes. Just as popular science recruits young scientists and promotes public respect for the enterprise of science, historical fiction inspires the young with a sense of the past and keeps the public aware of its heritage. Just as scientists should correct and guide popular science, historians should pay attention to the production of historical fiction in order to criticize it and to encourage it. Humanizing history does not mean trivializing it.
At the same time, historical novelists should assume more responsibility for leading their readers to the underlying history. Readers deserve Afterwards, Authors' Notes, and Select Bibliographies to help distinguish history from invention. For example, Paul Maier's Flames of Rome attempts to document itself with 37 pages of notes referring to classical and Biblical sources. George McDonald Fraser's Flashman series works historical sources in through the device of a disapproving editor who leads us to further historical sources
Historical fiction plays an important role in the way the past is preserved. This should be recognized by novelists, historians, critics, or any combination thereof. Our sister publication Historical Novels Review plays a leading role in a movement to assess historical fiction along historical dimensions.
SOI.ANDER
James Hawking
To Katherine on her Fiftieth Birthday
TAMARA MAZZEI assesses the impact of Anya Seton's most acclaimed novel.
Interview With the Medieval Murderers
Crime authors MICHAEL JECKS, BERNARD KNIGHT, IAN MORSON, PHILIP GOODEN and SUSANNA GREGORY banter about their craft.
Medieval History Thl'ough One Hundred
Novels
JAMES HAWKING reads a great number of books in a very short time.
Virtues of War
JAMES HAWKING talks to STEVEN PRESS FIELD about the life and times of Alexander the Great.
JUILENE OSBOURNE-MCKNIGHT talks to ILYSA MAGNUS about storyte llin g in ora l and written tradition. Sermons, Beetles and a Cartload of Fish
To Katherine on her Fiftieth Anniversary
TAMARA MA ZZEI on Anya Seton's classic novel
Katherine, the story of the mistress, and later the wife, of John of Gaunt, was the sixth of the ten popular novels• written by Anya Seton. All of Seton's novels were best sellers, yet in the fifty years since its original publication, Katherine stands apart, showing the longevity of a classic. This is illustrated most clearly by the book's inclusion in the listing of the top 100 favorite books in the BBC Big Read (2003).
J first read Katherine as a teenager-around the time of her 25 th anniversary. I was not yet the devoted lover of historical fiction that I would later become, but even then, I was captivated. Twenty-five years later, I'm still captivated, so much so that I've tried on more than one occasion to learn more about the "real" Katherine Swynford.
As Seton pointed out in her author's note, historical interest in Katherine Swynford, of which there isn't much, has mainly centered around her connections to Geoffrey Chaucer, who is said to have married Katherine's sister Philippa, and to the legitimation of the children she had with John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, prior to their marriage.
In the intervening years since the publication of Katherine, little has changed. Apart from a pamphlet by Anthony Goodman published by Lincoln Cathedral Publications in 1994, Katherine Swynford is as much an enigma today as she was when Seton was writing The tide of feminist scholarship that might have brought more information to light , instead, turned away from scholarly biographies, leaving Anya Seton's portrayal of Katherine as the most comprehensive to date. University of Huddersfield undergraduate Jeannette Lucraft, in a persuasive article called "Missing From History," published in History Today, [Vol. 52, May 2002, pp. 11-17] argues that Katherine Swynford is deserving of more attention by
* Seton also wrote several novels for young adultssee below
historians. Lu craft's article, whic h won a joint Royal Historical Society and History Today prize, once again sparked my interest in Katherine: both th e rea l one and the fictional one created by Anya Seton.
There are traces of the real Katherine in cast le ruins, archives, and chronicles, but my present interest lies more in the realm of the "why" than of the "where" or the "when." Specifically I wished to understand the reasons for which Seton selected Katherine Swynford as the subject for a novel, the reasons why she has never been of interest to historians, and finally, the reasons why her story has continued to hold so much resonance for generations of readers.
Why Katherine Swynford?
It's easy to speculate why Seton chose Katherine as the subject for a novel. As the mistress, and then the wife of the Duke of Lancaster, Katherine played an important role in the lead-up to the Wars of the Roses; she lived in interesting times and little had been written about her. More importantly, Katherine's story had a romantic conclusion in her marriage to Joh n of Gaunt-Seton admitted herself that she needed to make money-a romantic story sells books! It's also possible that Seton's rather unconventional upbringing played a role in her choice of subject.
Anya Seton was the on ly child of naturalist, artist, and author Ernest Thompson Seton (Wild Animals I Have Known) and travel author Grace Gallatin (A Woman Tenderfoot in the Rockies, Nimrod's Wife). Ernest was the co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America, the founder of the Woodcraft League, and with Grace, the co-founder of the organization later known as the Campfire Girls , as well as a pro lific artist and writer of nature stories Ernest, born in Durham Eng land in 1860, emigrated to Canada in 1866 with his parents, though he returned to England in 1879 to study at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. He met Anya's mother on a later journey; on a ship bound for Paris, where he intended to continue his art studies at the Julian Academy. Grace was the daughter of wealthy socialite Clemenzie Rhodes Gallatin, who moved from California to New York City following a divorce from Grace's father. A large part of Grace's childhood was spent in trave ls w ith her mother, and throughout her life she continued to travel in much the same way. Ernest Thompson Seton and Grace Gallatin were married in 1896; in between their travels, they made their home in the northeastern United States, primarily in Connecticut. Their daughter Ann (Anya) was born in 1904.
Anya's unconventional childhood was not simply due to the background of her parents; it was also influenced by their lifestyle as she was growing up In addition to his stories, art shows, and nature studies, her father designed several large, impressive homes , requiring the family to move house frequently. During World War I, Anya's
mother took an ambulance corps to France, leaving Anya with governesses when her father was away.
Rather than continuing her education, nineteen-year-old
Anya married Rhodes scholar Hamilton Cottier; they spent the first two years of their marriage in England while he completed his studies at Oxford. After five years of marriage and two children, Seton and Cottier divorced. In 1930, Anya married again, this time to investment banker Hamilton Chase. Around the time of Anya's second marriage, her parents separated. Her father sold his East Coast properties and moved to New Mexico with the woman who had been his secretary for more than ten years. Ernest Thompson Seton married his former secretary, Julia Moss Buttree, in 1935, after his divorce from Anya's mother was finalized. Three years later, they adopted a daughter, Beulah; he then declared that Beulah would be the sole heir to his considerable property. Disinherited and married to an investment banker in the middle of the Great Depression, the stage was set for Anya Seton Chase to embark on a new career: author.
Anya's first book, My Theodosia, the tragic story of Aaron Burr's daughter, was published in 1941. She continued this success with a string of Gothic romances: Dragonwyck in 1944, The Turquoise in 1946, The Hearth and the Eagle in 1948, and J:oxfire in 1951. She returned to a more biographical format with the publication of Katherine in 1954.
The lives of her chosen heroines were somewhat tragic, often involving divorce and forbidden love, in some ways echoing the life of Seton herself, and the lives of her parents. It would not have been surprising if Seton had been attracted to the character of Katherine Swynford because her story had a "happy" ending.
Why Not Katherine Swynford?
I suspect that the same factors that inspired Anya Seton to write about Katherine Swynford may also be responsible for removing Katherine as a subject for further historical study. The problem? Romance. Katherine's story had a happy ending; she was dismissed as a romance novel stereotype. Comments by popular culture and literature professor Kay Mussell, who used Seton's Katherine as an example of the historical biography version of a romance, illustrates this attitude:
"Romances are primarily concerned with the process of mate selection and, secondarily, with those domestic activitiesnurturing and homemaking-traditionally assigned to women in Western culture." [Fantasy and Reconciliation: Contemporary Formulas of Women's Romance Fiction; Kay Mussell; Greenwood Press, 1984. P. 6.)
"Many romantic biographies feature the marriages or illicit affairs of royalty. In addition, plots include anachronistic ideas about marriage--for example, voluntary choice of
mate-that conflict with conventional historical interpretations." [Mussell; P. 50)
Though it's worth noting that Mussell has since changed many of her views on romance novels, her views on "anachronistic ideas about marriage" are repeated frequently, yet while it cannot be generalized across society, there is evidence that women did sometimes choose (or reject) a mate. One example of this (among many) is the case of Margery Paston, who, to the dismay of her parents, married the family bailiff in a clandestine ceremony in 1469. Margery's family tried to intervene, but in the end, the marriage stood. The circumstances of Katherine's life were not typical, but neither were they stereotypical-unless they were the origins of the stereotype itself!
Dubbed a strumpet by chroniclers of her own day, and more recently, a stereotypical romance-novel heroine, is it any wonder Katherine Swynford's life has not been studied in more detail? She may have been obscure to some, but her the English throne has been occupied by one of her descendants since the coronation of Henry VIL
Why Seton's Katherine?
My final question, "Why has Katherine showed such staying power?" is answered easily by reading the comments posted on various websites that feature book reviews. Katherine has not only stood the test of time (with no advertising!), it meets the standard of excellence in fiction, historical and otherwise. Though parts of the narrative show Gothic overtones, and others have the rosy glow of the variety of romance that was popular in 1954, Seton's prose transcends formula. Considering the lack of readily available sources, Seton's research is really quite impressive, and more importantly, her conception of the major characters allows us to find value in Katherine's role, leaving us to feel that we have seen the world through Katherine's eyes; to feel that we can truly appreciate the trials of Katherine's life; to feel that Katherine is not , after all, "missing from history."
BOOKS BY ANY A SETON
My Theodosia, Houghton (Boston, MA), 1941. Dragonwyck, Houghton, 1944. The Turquoise, Houghton, 1946. The Hearth and the Eagle, Houghton, 1948. Foxfire, Houghton, 1951. Katherine, Houghton, 1954. The Winthrop Woman, Houghton, 1958. Devil Water, Houghton, 1962. Avalon, Houghton, 1965.
Green Darkness, Houghton, 1973. OTHER
The Mistletoe and Sword: A Story of Roman Britain (YA), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1955.
Washington Irving (YA), illustrated by Harve Stein , Houghton, 1960.
Smouldering Fires (YA), Doubleday, 1975.
THE MAGAZINE OF THE HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY
An Interview with the Medieval Murderers
A Whodunit How to by
MICHAEL SHANKLAND
'Medieval Murderers' are a group of British authors producing some lively and intriguing murder mysteries set in Medieval England. With the help of MM author Susanna Gregory, it was agreed to send a list of questions by Email. The authors could answer whichever questions they felt appropriate. Kim Malo, from the historical murder mystery website www.crimethrutime.com kindly assisted with some questions The interview took place in July and August 2004.
1. Which authors are currently involved in 'Medieval Murderers'?
Michael Jecks, Bernard Knight, Ian Morson, Philip Gooden and Susanna Gregory. Susanna Gregory also writes as Simon Beaufort, and Philip Gooden as Philippa Morgan.
2.Which historical series are you working on?
Gooden: My main series is an Elizabeth one featuring an actor in Shakespeare's company called Nick Revill. But I have just started a second series involving Geoffrey Chaucer, under the Philippa Morgan pseudonym. The first one - Chaucer and the House of Fame - appeared in July and the next one, Chaucer and the Legend of Good Women should be out the same time next year.
Gregory: The Matthew Bartholomew series (ten books published) which is set in Cambridge just after the Black Death; writing as 'Simon Beaufort' , the Geoffrey Mappestone series, which is based in England and the Holy Land after the First Crusade 1097-1100.
J ecks: I am writing the nineteenth in the 'Templar' series starring Sir Baldwin de Furshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock, SOI.ANDER 16 Vol.
set in early Fourteen Century Devon, mainly Dartmoor and Exeter.
Knight: I have just sent off the MS of my ninth novel in the 'Crowner John' medieval mystery series, entitled Figures of Hate published by Simon & Schuster. Another is about to be started, as one comes out every Spring. I have also just had one of my old 12th century novels republished, which came out in 1973 and sold out in hardback and paperback. This was Lion Rampant , based on the true story of Princess Nest, mistress of Henry I and mother of a dynasty from which JFK could trace his ancestry. It has been brought out again by Back In Print Books Ltd. in print on demand format. ( NB. BBC Radio are dramatising my first 'Crowner John' book, Sanctuary Seeker, for transmission in March.)
Morson: My original series was the 'William Falconer' stories set in Oxford in the 13th century. Falconer is Regent Master at the university, fond of applying the logic he teaches to the students to the solving of murders Most recently , I have been working on stories set in the same time period , but far away at the Mongol Court of Kublai Khan. There, Venetian entrepreneur and con-artist, Nick Zuliani, finds himself embroiled in murder.
3. How are the public appearances going? What should one expect if turn up at a literary festival or bookshop to hear you speak?
Gregory: The Medieval Murderers are high in demand for their appearances in bookshops and at various literary and THE MAGAZINE OF THE HISTORICAL NOVEL SOC IETY
historical festivals, and audience feedback has been very positive. Not all the Murderers turn up for every event, but they aim to number at least three (usually more), since they all like an audience!
The appearances usually take the form of an informal chat between the Murderers, during which they discuss their various approaches to writing, the parts they find easier or more difficult, the lengths to which they go in order to conduct their historical research , and the problems of setting fiction in an age when life was very different.
Knight: All said, but I would emphasise the informal and chatty style which seems popular with audiences, rather than dull readings of their work, often meaningless and out of context.
4. Why do you place your novels specifically in the Medieval era?
Gooden: The medieval setting follows on from choosing Chaucer as one of the principal characters. He's an interesting figure though large areas of his life are shadowy . He certainly worked for the royal court as a diplomat, possibly as a spy when he was in his early 30's.
Jecks: Obviously, first and foremost , I had a fascination with history
There's more to it than that, though. All novelists, especially crime writers , are always looking for troubled times to throw characters into. In my case, I wanted to write about the reign of Edward II because it was such a terrible time. The whole of Europe was in a turmoil, because at the end of the previous century they had lost their colonial footholds in the Holy Land. Since they believed that this meant God was angry with them (why else would he have taken away lands from His people?) there were forecasts of famine, war and plague and the populations on Europe were terrified.
And it did come to pass. There was first the great European famine, caused by torrential rain from 1316 to 1321, which it is thought wiped out up to half the population. Then there were wars, with the civil war throughout the 1320s in England, various barons arguing with the King about his advisors, the Despensers , culminating with the beginning of the Hundred Years War. Finally, to top the lot , there was the great Plague, which wiped out about half the remaining populate which hadn't already starved to death or been murdered by gangs of mercenaries.
There couldn't be a better time to write about!
Knight: I am a twelfth century fanatic, having previously written two non-mystery novels about 12th century Wales. Both in Wales and England, it was a fascinating time, especially as the groundwork for the English legal system was established then.
Morson: I originally chose the period for the 'Falconer' stories because ofmy interest in Oxford's history. While it
is a distant era allowing some freedom in the creation of characters, there are still enough contemporary records to allow me to get a real sense of the period Somehow , it seems more possible to create larger than life characters , who can meddle in solving murders without the problem of the modem 'amateur s leuth'.
5. Judging from feedback from readers and critics, do you think that your public want a Pre-raphaelite style romantic portrayal of the Medieval era? Or are they open to read about more intellectual currents of the time - such as nominalism versus realism, the theories of physicist John Buridan-to use examples that have featured in Susanna's novels?
Gregory: This is a difficult question to answer. On the one hand, most readers don't want to be faced with a world that's too alien, but on the other , they expect the historical setting to be as accurate as possible. I have tried to include a few of the more important intellectual debates that were current at the time, and work a plot or two around them , but at the same time , I think it's important that these complex scholastic debates don't interfere with the plot. The Medieval Murderers are working on a combined book called The Tainted R e li c ( well that's probably going to be its title). My part revolves around the very complex theories of Blood Relics, and a massive polemic th a t was going on in the 1350's between Dominicans and Franciscans about whether such relics were (a) physicall y and theologically possible and (b) were worthy of veneration. It provided a framework for the tale, although I hope I haven't put off the reader with too much detail regarding the academic debate.
Jecks: I don't think most of my readers want a sanitized version of history. I believe, or hope, that they want to have an idea about life as it really was, not a romanticised version that bears little resemblance to the reality. However, I tend not to get involved in the arguments about church politics, because my characters are more secular that that. Their lives are tied up in matters of the law only in so far as it related to the common folk. For that reason, my books tend to look at the history of the country and countryside, to see how they'd have lived and what their fears and anxieties would have been. the more detailed intellectual debates would probably have passed them by.
Knight: This is a bit over my head! I just try to write interesting, exciting yams, usually with a 'whodunit' theme , but my main interest is in trying to portray 12th century life as it really was, warts and all. Much of the feedback I get from readers shows an appreciation of this 'socialist realism'! Also the research needed on food, clothing, customs etc. is the fun part of writing.
Morso n: I don't think that readers expect a romantic portrayal of the period. They certainly don't get it. They are more likely to be immersed (not literally!) in the open sewers and rotting food of medieval towns. As for intellectual currents, I choose rather to expose my readers to the more practical end of the spectrum.
6. How important do you think that regionalism is to your work? I have noticed that many medieval murder writers base their novels in a particular place such as Brother Cadfael being set in Shrewsbury, Michael
Jecks basing work in Devon, Susanna placing Matthew Bartholomew in Cambridge?
Gregory: I find it easier to write about an area where I know the physical geography, so I choose Cambridge, because I work there. The Beaufort novels are a bit more mobile, although I try to spend as much time as possible in a place when I am writing about it. lfl don't the readers will know. I'll have letters of complaint about Geoffrey going up hills when he should be going down them! However, it can be difficult trying to imagine a place 900 years ago (Bristol was almost impossible) when a place has been bombed, had rivers culverted or diverted, castles razed, new roads built and so on.
Jecks: I think that regionalism is vital to my stories, because it gives the whole series a specific context. The folk who lived in Devon, especially Dartmoor, were to some extent like settlers in the Wild West in the nineteenth century. They were often far from the king's law, and had to make do more than others. There were aspects of their lives which would have been entirely regional, the crops, for instance tended to be oats, which meant that Devonians were looked down upon for eating food that was looked on as being suitable for cattle and horses elsewhere. Still, oats were better suited for the land at that time.
The regional flavour is also important because people can travel to Dartmoor and see the land as it would, more or less, have appeared in medieval times. Visitors can see rolling hills, can hear only the wind and larks; no cars or trains. There are few places so unspoiled, and so medieval.
Knight: As my series is about the first coroner, the post being established in 1194, I could not use Wales as the locale, as we were still free until 1283. I had to go to England to find a county coroner and as some of his duties involved wrecks, royal fish etc. it had to be a maritime county. Devon was an arbitrary but an excellent choice.
Morson: I think its inevitable in an era when travelling 30 miles in a day ( on horseback on good roads) would be a momentous achievement, that medieval crime writers coneentrate on a specific place for their series character. Developing a sense of place also creates continuity for the stories that the regular reader can fell comfortable with.
7. How frustrating are the technical limitations (eg. different attitudes to forensics) when trying to create a medieval murder?
Knight: Having previously written about seven contemporary crime novels, full of forensic stuff, it was a relief to get away from it to the 12th century. I have virtually no need of this stuff now, as all the coroner could do was test for rigor and stick his finger into wounds to see how deep they were. Much easier to write.
8.What are the most important elements of a Medieval murder mystery when trying to make the novel seem
accessible to the modern reader whilst staying true to our perspective of the past?
Knight: I'm not sure that it makes much difference , as long as we leave out the sophisticated investigations and forensic stuff. People were people just the same then, motives and methods were much the same.
9.To what degree to you study medieval buildings, clothes and objects of every day use?
Gregory: I think we all study them fairly extensively. It can be a time-consuming process, when nothing can be taken for granted. We research not only for obvious things like clothes and buildings , but items such as coins, milling equipment, sacred vessels, liturgy, social hierarchies - the list is endless. The more I learn, the more I realise I still need to read.
leeks: It is a source of constant concern to my wife, that I am buying books and papers on medieval life and law. I spend much of my time reading about my period, and I think that the Medieval Murderers have acquired probably the most scary fascination with all aspects of life . My library now includes not only buildings, clothing and objects of everyday use, but treatises on fighting , combat, and weaponry, surgery and medicine, cathedral architecture, history of the law and courts, the calendar and crime through the centuries, the English language , ghosts and superstitions, Devonian legends, Exonian tales the list is endless. Suffice it to say, last year I had to move house to make space for more books and treatises!
Knight: Exhaustively! As I was a scriptwriter for radio and TV as well, I use their methods and keep a BIBLE , an indexed compendium of characters, names , dress , food, religion, etc etc. and constantly update it as my reading and Internet research progresses One problem is in a long series, is that you later find that some of the earlier stuff is incorrect.
10.How do you engage with the problem of dialect and speech when trying to convey an impression of the Medieval era? Obviously we can not expect medieval murder mystery writers to be written in Middle English but speech using blatantly modern reference points can jar tremendously.
leeks : When it comes to dialect, I avoid it. It would overconfuse the average reader to read an accurate depiction of how Devonians talk today, let alone how their forbearers would have spoken. In the same way it is impossible to put down the correct speech. Words have disappeared , their meanings have changed, and the language has altered beyond comprehension I look on my job as being largely that of translator. Someone today picking up a contemporary version of Chaucer would not be able to understand it. So I see it as my rule to give a flavour of the language by using some obsolete words ('corrodian', 'chevauchee') and use their context to explain them , but to tell the story in more or less modem English, just as a translator of Dostoievesky would. I see myself as a storyteller first and foremost, not a historian
Knight: I always put a Foreword to indicate that no attempt is made to give dialogue an 'olde worlde' flavour as this is futile. In Devon in 1194, they spoke Norman-French, Western Welsh, Early Middle English and Latin, all of which would be incomprehensible to most readers. So I use modem speech, though perhaps tinge it with a little formality to convey a sense of the past. I do not subscribe to the use of modem slang etc. as David Wishart does in his Roman books because I feel this jars in a historical novel.
Morson: There are two possible approaches here . lfyou are seeking to create a total sense of past time, the language of your writing will avoid anachronisms. For the 13th century I would avoid 'vendetta' and use 'feud' for example. Dialogue would avoid obvious modernisms in speech, but it is still modem English. I like to make it sound just a little old-fashioned, with maybe fewer abbreviations. 'Do not' for 'don't'. But some his to rical mystery writers are very successful in giving a deliberatel y anachronistic flavour to their writing. Ancient Rome as 40s New York. Either way works as long as it's consistent!
11. How far do you try to incorporate 'real' events and actual people in your work?
Gooden: My first 'Chaucer' novel involved him in a mission to Aquitaine to try to prop up support for the
crumbling English rule over that territory. The historical facts here are more or less accurate (although there's no evidence that Chaucer himself was involved in such a mission). My current one has Chaucer involved in negotiations with a Florentine bank over loans to the English king-and this did happen.
Gregory: I know the names of scholars who lived in Cambridge at specific times, along with the heads of various religious institutions. It's satisfying to use these real people, but at the same constraining-sometimes, the plot cries out for a character to die, but I know perfectly well that this particular prior or scholar lived for another thirty years! The Beaufort books make use of a slightly higher echelons of society-kings and bishops . This means I get to spend a lot of time researching the lives of these people in Cambridge's fabulous University Library, which is great fun.
Jecks: All the time. Most of my stories are based on real eve nts that happened. To take two examples: Mad Monk of Gidleigh was set on a case that came before the Bishop's court in Exeter, and my latest Chapel ofBones, is set on the historical murder of Walter de Lechdale. It is the depiction of the characters which is what turns my books into pure novels, but the events described tend to be genuine. The people, however, tend to be invention. I hate the thought that in future years someone could take 'Michael Jecks' and use him as a detective, putting words in my mouth or thoughts in my mind that would be alien or repugnant to me. I try to avoid real people or where it's impossible (the King, Bishop Stapeldon etc.) I try to use them as figures without trying to put thoughts in their heads. Naturally I regularly fail.
Knight: As much as possible. Some ofmy colleagues shy away from using real people as characters, but I use them whenever I can, as it was over 800 years ago. We do not know who the first coroner of Devon was, so I have to invent Crowner John, but the sheriff, most of the clerics and many others come from the pages of history. A great source is the record of the 1236 Eyre of Assize in Exeter from the Public Record Office, full ofreal names and incidents.
I also use real historical events, mainly in the development of the legal system, rather that political events, though a recurring theme in the series is the treachery of Prince John against Richard the Lionheart.
Morson: Real events are usually the springboard for a story. Small events-not major historical moments. The first 'Falconer' story (Falconer's Crusade) was inspired by a single minor event in the history of the University in Oxford. And real people do appear in my stories. The Chancellors of the University are those who would have occupied the office at the time . Though little is known about many of them, and so historical fact does not prevent my creating particular character traits for them.
12. I am interested in the mechanics you use when writing your novels. Do you think that plots of novels can be written in advance, or are your novels in 'freefall' during the process of writing and just shape themselves as they proceed?
Gooden: I plot to a limited extent but find that the thing develops as you go along. In a couple of cases I've not decided on the murderer until the closing pages - of course, some retrospective adjustments are usually needed
Gregory: I like to sit at the computer and see where the plot leads. I don't find writing to a pre-established plot very easy.
Jecks: I find that it's a little of both . More and more, I'm relying on a fairly taut synopsis, which is then developed on the page. What seems to happen is, that I write through the afternoon and evening, and the next morning review and edit the previous day's work. That way I build myself up to the new day's effort in the easiest way. But although the synopsis is reasonably complete, the story is really driven by the characters in each tale, and they never exist, really , until I have started to put them into the story. Thus each book develops and grows in the writing.
Knight : I am a 'planner' rather than 'hope for the best writer'. I begin with a flow- diagram of the plot, then add suitable names, then write chapter synopses right up to the end. Having said that, this rarely survives in entirety, during the writing and sometimes radical changes seem to present themselves, even to the extent that I may change 'whodunit' halfway through.
Morson; There are probably as many different approaches as there are writers. Personally, I have to start with an outline of the complete story. I have to know who is the perpetrator in order to imbue him or her with relevant traits and have them behave in appropriate ways. Am I a control freak? I know writers who just let the story flow and cope with what happens. I can't. Which is not to say that the unexpected twists and turns don't occur as I am writing. Your own characters can surprise you, and frequently do.
13. One criticism of the medieval murder genre is that the 'detectives' often seem too 'modern' or 'progressive'. Brother Cadfael at times seems more of an 18th century deist than a 12th century Roman Catholic monk. Or when Matthew Bartholomew encounters some prejudice against gypsies he immediately defends the travelling population. For example, do you think that it would be possible to have the 'detective' character calling for a return to trial by ordeal, or justifying the burning to death of heretics, or even arguing that masturbation was more sinful that rape? Or does the dynamic of medieval murder mysteries call for an enlightened lead character?
Jecks: I don't think that there's any need for the lead actors in a novel to be "enlightened". There is a conflict here, because some editors are nervous about non-politically correct views being portrayed, but it's up to the author to ensure that even those concepts which are now thought to be repugnant are still described and explained. And if we are to put forward well-rounded characters who are believable, we have to do so warts and all. For this reason I describe bull baiting and gladiatorial fighting, because these things happened and were thought of as natural. In the same way I will also support the concept of execution of felons, the loathing of usury and banking, because it's how my characters would have thought - and yet I'll also have one character displaying a tolerance for homosexuality, because he had been in the Holy Land and the east, and he knew that such things went on, although others were less relaxed. We do know that this was a great period in the evolution of humanism. One only has to read Chaucer to know that. The only area of difficulty, I think, is in the description of the more ribald side of life. Although I try to tackle the thorny issue of sex and love in an age when many folk slept in the same bed, when many servants lived in the same chamber, and when rape was considered far less important unless committed against a married woman, it's hard to understand, let along explain such a difference in view point.
Knight: I have the advantage over monks like Cadfael and other non-legal persons , in that my coroner's job is legitimately to investigate deaths and other violent crimes, in an era before any police force.
I make my characters stick to the thinking and mores of the times and avoid any liberal wanderings. On one occasion I had the coroner wondering if there was a better SOI.ANDER 16 Vol. 8 No. 2 DECEMBER 2004 9
way to deal with juvenile thieves than hanging them, but my editor complained that such a thought would never have entered his head in 1194.
Morson: All I can offer is that I have to feel comfortable with my main character's opinions and prejudices. If that make him modem in his thinking, so be it.
14. Do you think that there is still space in the market for more medieval murder mystery writers?
Gregory: There's always a danger of saturating the market, and when that happens, the quality tends to go down. Of course, there's always room for good new books - in any genre - as long as publishers don't drench the market with inferior products just to jump on the bandwagon and make a few quick pounds. We all like reading good fiction, so if there are any budding medieval writers out there , go for it!
Jecks: There are only a few medievalists in the market. There is space for many more. The only thing that matters is that each new writer brings a new voice and a different outlook to the market.
Knight: Good ones are welcome, but there are some poor ones out there where the anachronisms and lack of insight into medieval times degrades the genre.
15. What advice would you give to anyone who had written a medieval murder mystery, but doesn't know what to do next?
Gregory: Buy the Writers and Artists Year Book and look for a suitable agent. Once you have an agent, he or she will tell you what to do next.
Knight: Same problem with any kind of writer-huge competition. All one can say is to hawk it around the publishers, if you can find some who accept unsolicited MSS. Most agents will not take on unknown writers, unless the work is outstanding.
16. Finally what is the lure of murder in fiction? Why are we reading so much murder fiction today?
Knight: It is difficult to sustain 120,000 words on a story concerning a robbery - readers expect crime fiction to be murder-orientated. In a long book, you usually need more than one to keep it going .... hence the current fad for serial killers in contemporary fiction.
Medieval History Through a Hundred Novels
JAMES HAWK.ING looks at a thousand years, some best-loved episodes, and makes his own choice of the best novels.
The following selection of one hundred medieval novels is not meant to be comprehensive , but I have made an effort to include some of the most prominent novelists specializing in historical fiction such as Sharon Kay Penman or Robert Graves, in addition to the writers better known for other works who took a turn or two in the Middle Ages , like George Eliot or Arthur Conan Doyle. I have for the most part avoided fantasy, time travel and romance , not from disdain for any of those sub-genres but rather to focus more on novels that represent the past, not necessarily accurately, but always in a way that is engaged with history
I have accepted the dates 476-1492 as traditional boundaries of the period The term medieval has connotations that imply more than these dates, but my selections do not presuppose any particular social arrangement. One bias that was inevitable occurred because the body of historical novels available in English naturally has a Eurocentric, even an Anglocentric focus. In an earlier article "Roman History through a Hundred Novels" (Solande r 1) I selected ten favorite historical novels set in the period of the Romans Changing that format slightly for the medieval period , I have chosen ten recurring stories and selected my best novel from the list
concerning that theme - see the table MOST OFTEN TOLD STORIES, at the end of the article. Medieval mysteries have been treated as a special case . If an author's name is marked with an asterisk , this indicates that the novel is one of a mystery series
Successors to Rome
The novels set in the period after the fall of the Rome often deal with the efforts to preserve or restore the structures of the empire, most notably in 6th Century Byzantium. Mary Reed and Eric Mayer's* Thr ee for th e Letter features John the Eunuch , the chamberlain of Emperor Justinian who solves the murder of one twin and saves the life of the other in the third entry of the series . Gillian Bradshaw's The B earkeep er's Daught er gives a fuller account of the improbable but basically true story of Theodora, the circus performer/ actress/ lady of the night who became a Byzantine Empress Much of the plot revolves around her efforts to keep her husband Justinian from learning the identity of the son she had earlier. Michel de Grece's Le Palais des Larm es tells a version of this story in the sympathetic form of a first person narrative by Theodora herself. This time the secret illegitimate child is a daughter, whom she calls the ugliest baby she has ever seen in her life Some of the works by this author , also known as Michel Prince of Greece , have been translated, but I could not find an English version of this one In Count Belisarius Robert Graves blames Theodora and Justinian for barbaric mistreatment of their great general and follows Procopius's S ecr et History in dredging up a series of scandals. Much of the book concerns Belisarius's part ially successful efforts to reclaim lands in North Africa and Italy in an attempt to· restore imperial authority in the West.
Other efforts to bring Italy back under something resembling Roman control include Gary Jennings' Raptor in which a sexually ambiguous follower of Theodoric named Thorn, narrates a story of 6th Century attempts to establish Gothic leadership in a power vacuum. Some might be distracted by Thorn's moving from male to female as the situation seems to demand , but overlooking this, the reader can get a picture of the transition from the ancient to the medieval world. George Gissing did extensive research for Veranilda , set in the relatively obscure period around 546 when Toti la captures a Rome in which all the fountains have run dry. The suspenseful struggle of young lovers provides the main fictional focu s, but giving away the ending is impossible because the novel was unfinished at his death and the heirs disagreed as to whether he intended the lovers to be happy at the end
Julia O'Faolain's Woman in the Wall depicts Clovis , a Frankish king about whom it is said "the scope of his crimes is Biblical." The woman he forces to be his wife, Radegunda, eventually takes refuge in good works and self-abnegation , making a surprisingly dramatic story.
Melvyn Bragg's Credo (The Sword and th e Miracle in the United States) uses the history of 7th Century Ireland and
Britain where Celtic and Roman versions of Christianity competed. Unlike most efforts to reconstruct this period, relatively solid history provides a foundation for the love story of a saint. In Peter Tremayne's* Absolution by Murder, the attempt to resolve the conflict between Celtic and Roman Christianity at the Synod of Whitby is interrupted by a murder which Sister Fidelma uses her forensic skills to solve. The popularity of this series might
Vikings
The Vikings figure into medieval fiction in various venues and at various stages. They provide the feared opposition in King ofAthelney, a novel about the king known as Alfred the Great by the historical novelist named Alfred Dnggan (who should also be known as The Great). The West Saxon King Alfred fights off and buys off various invaders from the North while also finding the time to attend to governmental, ethical, and intellectual matters. In The Thirteenth Warrior, Michael Crichton blends accounts by Ibn Fadlan of his embassy to the Vikings with fictional sections which record the Bagdad Muslim's reaction to Viking men who are savage in war and women even more savage in love. The original title, Eaters of the Dead emphasized an unappetizing subplot that is best omitted, but notes throughout the book link the fanciful novel to its realistic background. The Swedish writer Frans Gunnar Bengtsson's The Long Ships shows the Vikings at their height, pillaging Ethelred's England in one section and sailing to the East in another. Numerous battles between the hero's Danes and various enemies such as Swedes and Jomsvikings provide historical background while still capturing the spirit of the sagas . Some of the action comes in the years leading up to I 000 A.D. when it was widely predicted that the world would come to an end, much as was imagined in the computer industry a millennium later.
After the Northmen settled down "to go no more aviking," the resulting Christian society in Norway
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be related to the strong independent sleuth, empowered by the Brehon Law System., a system that the introduction observes "gave more rights and protection to women than any other western law code at that time or since."
Back in Byzantium, the title character in H. N. Turtletaub's Justinian, commonly known as Justinian II, reigns in both the seventh and the eighth Century Eastern Empire. The story of how he is overthrown, has his nose cut off, and recovers his throne shows persistent courage , but the multiple narrative structure gives his detractors sufficient chance to comment. In Cecelia Holland's The B e lt of Gold, Hagan, a Frankish warrior on his way home from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land , becomes involved in (pardon the expression) Byzantine intrigues under the Empress Irene. The perspective is the West looking at the East around the tum of the ninth century. The reverse is true in Judith Tarr's The Eagle's Daughte r which features the I 0th Century Byzantine princess Theophano who marries Holy Roman Emperor Otto II Her struggles to protect the throne for her son give an opportunity to contrast the thought and customs with the Eastern Empire with those of the successors of Charlemagne.
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provided the setting for 1928 Nobel Prize Winner Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter Trilogy. The Bridal Wreath opens with the childhood of a rich and happy girl whose worries included how her rural table manners would appeal to the nuns and nobles at court. An unhappy marriage dominates The Mistress of Husaby, and a heavy dose of sexuality within the limits of permissible morality permeates this volume. The Cross ends with the Great Plague, a feature in so many medieval novels. The Master of Hestviken tetralogy goes over some of the same territory , including racy sex between a betrothed couple in The Axe when the stark, unemotional Olav Audunsson takes a wife. The Snake Pit sees Olav returning from outlawry to resume his rightful estate. In the Wilderness concerns wars and sea battles as the Vikings become involved in disputes between the kings of England and Scotland. The Son Avenger finish<;:s the family tragedy that has unfolded through the books. Jane Smiley The Gre en/anders portrays survival in a long-established outpost of the Norse world, this taking place around 1400. Seal hunts and the efforts of the farmers to cope with a bad winter provide drama, and contact with the mainland for trade reminds us of the sea-faring skills of these people formerly known as raiders.
Normans - 1066 and all that
No single battle has inspired as much fiction as Hastings, and the tales of 1066 and thereabouts are central to a number of historical novels. Sile Rice's The Saxon Tapestry uses its own brand of Anglo-Saxon to present a story of heroes fighting off Norman invaders. Omens strike fear in the heart of these Saxons whose way of life is about to be overwhelmed by the invaders and their unfamiliar patterns. Similar attitudes are expressed in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Harold, a tale of the Conquest that comes up short on battle action and love scenes. Bulwer-Lytton chooses sides directly, preferring to tell us how to feel as was the fashion in novels of his time. After we put aside a style so cluttered as to have a prize for worst sentence named after the author, we should pay tribute to Lytton's efforts to pioneer the novel based on history and to take it to places Scott never considered. In The 14th of O c tob e r by the single-named Bryher, a Saxon warrior who had some Norman training narrates the events leading up to that fatal day. After having seen the brutal suppression of peasants in Normandy, the narrator especially wants to help Harold drive them out but arrives after the victory at Stamford Bridge and too late to help at Hastings. The last English King's fate was "to have broken the Danish terror, ... only to be slaughtered by a band of worse barbarians." Bryher's other novel about the Conquest, This January Tale, describes a smith caught in the effort by the Godwins after 1066. In both cases, the English way of life is held up as more egalitarian and less bound up with an oppressive interpretation of religion. Much the same
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attitude comes through in Julian Rathbone's The Last English King, a novel which follows one of Harold's housecarls on a trip to Byzantium while he reminisces
about the events of I 066 . The central event of this version of the story is the oath that Harold claims to have been tricked into giving at a banquet held by Duke William of Normandy Edward Marston's* The Lions of the North comes the closest to having a good word to say for the Normans. The protagonists are trying to complete The Domesday Book but manage to take time out to investigate an apparent case of suicide by lions. Farther afield , Cesar Rotondi's The Garde n of Persephone takes place in the Norman kingdom of Sicily at the time of Roger II. The multicultural mixture of Greeks , Italians , Arabs and Normans makes this area unique in the 12th Century.
The Coming of the Plantaganets.
If you thought the Vikings of fiction were vicious, and the Normans of novels were nasty, you haven't met the Plantaganets When Christ and his Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman describes the devastation of the war between Stephen and his cousin Empress Matilda (called by her alternate name Maude for reasons of clarity) in their
struggle for power in England. This story captures the shifting sides and the twisted moral atmosphere when the most depraved tactics coexisted with occasional acts of grace and mercy. Both leaders are presented somewhat sympathetically, with the most unchivalrous acts usually attributed to followers. Diana Norman's The Morning Gift describes Mathilda de Risle, an heiress in these troubled times. The heroine betrays and is betrayed by both Stephen and Matilda, but she perseveres in her quest to have her son inherit his estates. A strong and independent woman is not unusual in medieval fiction, but one who is as cruel as the rest of the Normans does deserve some special consideration. She cheerfully orders the death of a peasant caught poaching and looks down on her soft Saxon husband who wants merely to cut off the fellow's left hand. Pillars of the Earth marked a departure from his modem-day suspense novels, but Ken Follett showed himself to be adept at creating an historical novel rich in background as well as suspense. The political and military struggles in the time of King Stephen interfere with Tom the Builder and the rest of his village in their quest to build a magnificent cathedral. Roberta Gellis* set Bone of Contention, one of her mysteries involving the whoremistress / sleuth Magdalene la Batarde during the same political struggles. Much of the action takes place in a brothel where the heroine is staying as a professional courtesy. Romantic subplots involve men who care for her, but she is refreshingly unsentimental about such things.
Eleanor of Aquitaine narrates Pamela Kaufman's Book of Eleanor and purports to cover her entire life. The revelation here is Eleanor's affair with a home town boy from Aquitaine, providing the fictional underpinning that explains many of the problems in her famously tempestuous marriage. Cruel as the Grave is one of Sharon Kay Penman's* mysteries featuring Julian de Quincy, a favorite of Queen Eleanor, willing to do whatever it takes to protect King Richard's throne from his wicked brother John while solving whatever incidental murders pop up in his path. Penman's Time and Chance tells a fuller story of the tangled events leading to Thomas a Becket's murder in a fashion very unflattering to the late sainted archbishop. The novel uses dialogue a great deal, and the characters speak a dignified modem English. On the other hand, the Swiss-German writer Conrad Ferdinand Meyer called his fictional biography of Becket The Saint. The Marxist critic Georg Lukays's The Historical Novel gives his highest praise to this short novel, probably because Meyer's Thomas defends the rights of the oppressed Saxons as vigorously as those of the church. Fictional subplots render Henry II even more odious than usual in this telling of the story. Judith Koll Healey's 2004 novel The Canterbury Papers is her first, but her brief and helpful historical introduction and informative afterword confessing the inevitable liberties taken could serve as a model for more experienced historical novelists. The main action is set in the year 1200, narrated by the French princess Ala1s. The best parts of this excellent novel are Ala1s's memories of incidents involving the characters who are dead now, such as her shy would-be Prince Richard and his father the depraved Henry II.
The Crusades
The story of the Crusades dominates history from a little before the beginning of the 12th Century through much of the 13th, both in the Middle East and back at the European home front. The premiss of Stepen Rivele's Booke of Days is that the Duke of Lune! has kept a careful journal of his Crusade experiences. The device of a recovered document allows the author to include useful notes to help keep track of the actual historical events. Count Bohemund appears as a particularly dishonorable Crusader, and that is just from those on the so-called Christian side. Walter Scott's Count Robert of Paris brings Robert Curthose to Constantinople where he and the other crusaders struggle against Alexis Conmenius and his daughter Anna Comnena, the historian princess. Scott has imagined much of the history, but the characterizations accord with contemporary sources. Evan S. Connell's Deus Lo Volt uses the structure of a 13th Century knight looking back at the First Crusade. Much of the novel comes from contemporary Crusader documents, and Connell takes exceptional care to reconstruct the style
and ethos of both Crusades involved. James Patterson and Andrew Gross's The Jester begins with a trip to the First Crusade, capturing the confusion and disorganization of that unfortunate venture. Most of the novel concerns the activities of the Crusaders back in France where all of the noblemen , without exception, are cruel and sadistic, greedy for possession of a mysterious relic brought back rom the Holy Land.
In her introduction to Scott's Ivanhoe, Diana Gabaldon writes 11 ••• from the point of view of modern techniques, Sir Walter could almost be used as an illustration of 'How Not To."' Although set in England, the hostility between King Richard and the Templars can be traced back to events in Jerusalem. Zoe Oldenbourg's The World is Not Enough follows Ansiau to the Crusades where the early optimism ends in disaster. Back at the estate in France , his wife Alis copes with the wanted and unwanted sexual advances of various relatives Oldenbourg's reputation for scholarship is impeccable, and she tells a compelling tale of marriage and war. A scholar of another sort, Umberto Eco, follows a protege of Frederick Barbarossa on a search for Prester John. Much of his novel Baudolino concerns the weighing of statements as to their truth, making it one of those historical novels which makes us think about how
history is recorded. Bernard Knight's* The Sanctuary Seeker involves Crowner John, the royal coroner in Exeter, who investigates a murder which must be solved lest the local village become responsible as a whole. John has returned from the Crusades where he was part of Richard the Lion-Hearted's party shortly before his capture and imprisonment, so the setting is an England impoverished by the enormous ransom.
Most of the accounting of the Crusades comes through Western sources, but there are a few exotic exceptions. From Amin Maalouf, the same Lebanese author of the non-fiction The Crusades through Arab Eyes comes a work of fiction called Samarkand consisting of an historical novel about Omar Khayyam for the first half and the story of how the lost manuscript was recovered in the second part. From an historical point of view, the portrait of the assassins and their leader at Alamut makes the most interesting reading. Arabian Nightmare by Robert Irwin concerns the investigation of a mysterious dream in 15th Century Cairo. Italicized chapter headings like those employed byl 8th Century novelists and an insistence that this is a tale told best at night give it an original appeal.
Stories of Love
Most of the novels discussed here have one or more love stories, but in a few love is the central theme. Of course, the most notable of all medieval love stories is that of Heloise and Abelard. The love story is treated in circumspect fashion in George Moore's Heloise and Abelard. which dwells on religious scruples even in the earliest stages of their relationship. In the Paris of the early 11 0O's, Abelard the philosopher receives the kind of adulation reserved for rock stars in our day, and young Heloise is said to be the wisest woman in Paris. Marion Meade's Stealing Heaven portrays the love affair in much more sensuous terms and stays closer to the recorded history. Abelard, far from being the virgin Canon Fulbert thinks him to be, sees his young pupil "as a lamb to a hungry wolf." Helen Caldwell's Peter Abelard traces the protagonist's development from an inexperienced sensualist to a worldly ascetic with Heloise only a little more than one stop along the way, albeit one with catastrophic consequences. Interestingly, the three novels diverge a great deal at the beginning of the story when matters were largely between the two lovers, but as the story develops, the well-documented events of the relationship make the tragic conclusions of the novels more similar than the idyllic beginnings.
Duggan's Leopards and Lilies describes the marriage between the adventurer Fulk de Brealte and the heiress Lady Margaret as more of a business arrangement than a romance. The period covered includes the end of the reign of the King John and the regency of Henry III. In The Marriage of Meggotta, the adult Henry III keeps a pair of well-matched child lovers apart. The romance and marriage between Simon de Montfort and the king's sister provides another source for the monarch's displeasure. THE MAGAZINE OF THE HISTORI CAL NOVEL SOCIETY
Kings vs. Barons
Struggles in Wales interacted with discontent among the barons in the marches during the time of King John and after. H ere B e Dragons opens Penman's Welsh trilogy with Prince Llewelyn of an independent Wales contending with a slightly less diabolical than usual King John. The book's dual Welsh and English perspective comes from the central character Joanna, John's illegitimate daughter who must adapt to Welsh ways after her marriage. Falls the Shadow repeats the pattern of a woman caught between warring men with King Henry IIl's widowed sister Nell joining Simon de Montfort in the previously mentioned scandalous and therefore happy marriage The action takes place over a broad area and over thirty odd years ending with the last stand at Evesham. Most of the third volume , Th e R eckoning , concerns Llewelyn ab Griffith , the grandson of the prince from the fust volume Once again the battle is to re-unite Wales, weakened by divided inheritances and English encroachment. Much of the same territory is covered in Edith Pargeter's The Brothers of Gwynn ed, a quartet of novels including Sunris e in th e West, Th e Dragons at Noonday , Th e Hounds of Suns et, and Afterglow and Nightfall Ellis Peters'* Th e Summer of the Dan es has Brother Cadfael visiting his native Wales only to be kidnaped by Danish mercenaries hired in a dispute between Welsh princes.
Nigel Tranter wrote over 90 novels on Scottish history before his death in 2000. St eps to an Empty Thron e, the first in a Rob ert the Bruce trilogy, seems a good place to start. Historical figures such as William Wallace and Edward I struggle with and against Robert Bruce , who is fighting against the elimination of a separate Scottish identity. Perhaps the most dramatic of the struggles between the king and the barons involves the deposition and death of Edward IL The story is one of the threads in Maurice Druon's masterpiece The Accursed Kings, consisting of seven historically accurate though frequently speculative novels tracing the misfortunes of the last five Capetian and the first two Valois kings In Th e Iron King, an executed Templar places a curse on King Phillip the Fair's family , among others. Part of the genius of the work is that the main action of most of the novels pits two villains against each other, the treacherous Robert d'Artois and his even more murderous aunt. Their inheritance dispute touches off the Hundred Years' War. The Strangl ed Qu een concerns the process by which Louis X became free to marry after his wife's imprisonment for adultery came to a violent end. Th e Poison ed Crown tells of the regency for Louis X's posthumous child . Th e Royal Suc cession shows how Phillip V decides that the Salic Law holds that the French throne cannot be inherited through a woman. An infanticide and a fraudulent papal election no longer shock as the curse works itself out.. The next volume , The Sh eWolf of France, is probably the best of the series to read if you choose only one Isabella , Mortimer and her husband Edward II take center stage in this volume , with a final scene featuring a red-hot poker. The Lily and th e Lion sees the death of Charles IV and the beginning of the Valois dynasty When a King Lost Fran ce changes the form , employing a first person narrative and eliminating the historic notes which add much to the previous volumes. This story of Jean le Bon is set some years after , and the observations of the Cardinal de Perigord add s to the story of the king's capture. In Folli es of th e King Jean Plaidy uses an omniscient but not prescient narrator to te ll the story from the death of Edward I to Edward ll' s murder in Berkely Castle. The royal favorite Piers Gaveston appears as gracious and attractive but bent on self-destruction. Queen Isabella and her lover Mortimer come across as villains , but they do have genuine grievances at the hands of the Despensers P.C. Doherty's* D eath of a King has for its subject an investigation into the death of Edward Il , a death th a t ha s also been the subject of his 2003 non-fiction work Is ab ella and th e Strang e D eath of Edward II. In the nov e l, an investigator appointed by King Edward Ill to look into hi s father's death follows the story through a twisted plot worthy of this mystery writer, better known for hi s no v els involving Brother Athelstan and John Cranston. Th e Mad Monk of Gidleigh by Michael Jecks* solves the murd e r of a pregnant woman whose lover , a local priest , becom e s the leading suspect. A family of arrogant overlord s beha ve s in a despotic fashion because they are friends of the Despensers , but this is not a major plot feature .
The Hundred Years' War
Bernard Cornwell's The Archer's Tale (UKHarlequin) begins with a young archer who joins the 1343 invasion of France. Sacking and plundering actions form a backdrop for tales of personal revenge with good and evil divided about evenly between French and English. Arthur Conan Doyle's Sir Nigel tells the story of a physically unimpressive knight who exercises leadership and ga llantry in France in the early stages of the conflict. The White Company, a related novel written earlier, concerns a troop of English men who show bravery and chivalry in their campaigns under the heir to the English throne known to history as the Black Prince Holland's The Lords
of Vaumartin begins with a you ng lord escaping death at Crecy and continues through the capture of the French King Jean le Bon. Part of the book concerns the study of alchemy which is a refuge between the wars.
In a Dark Wood Wandering by Rella Haasse, one of the best-loved authors of the Netherlands, describes the strugg les between the Valois kings and the Burgundy and Berry as loyaltie s ebb and flow. The focal point of much of the book is Charles of Orleans, the poet of the royal fami ly held hostage in England, but the dynastic rivalries across France and the Low Countries help to explain the weakness of France for much of the period.
SOlANDER
The most heartening moments for France begin with the wildly improbable story of a pious teenage peasant girl who leads an army of men after telling them to give up camp followers and stop swearing. In An Army of Angels Pamela Marcantel uses documents from Joan of Arc's two extensive trials , one by the English finding her guilty and one by the French rehabilitating her after her death. The transcripts are used to form much of the novel including the things she said she was told by God and voices of various saints. Michel de Grece has also written a novel on this subject, called La Conjuration de Jeann e. This version of the story contains a subplot involving conspirators who promote her career, but most of the story follows well-documented public events.
One sign that history is being used directly comes when you have unusual brutality, unthinkable crimes and unimaginable horrors ; a fledgling author who had a character murder over a hundred children in sexual ritual would be criticized for exaggeration. Robert Nye's The Life and Death of My Lord Gilles de Rais contains much that is drawn from documents that show this former general of Joan of Arc to be guilty of crimes on a literally unimaginable scale . The events of the story come after the death of Jehanne , but her story and that of those who deserted her linger in the background. In Lawrence Shoonover's The Burnish ed Blade, helpless little Pierre wishes he could go on to rescue the Maid of Orleans from the fire. Growing up with skill in languages and friends in THE MAGAZINE OF THE HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY
high places, he travels around the 15th Century world before returning to France. All of the novels about La Pucelle seem to be favorable, so those who prefer to think of her as Joan, the French witch and whore who deserved burning, are advised to stick to Shakespeare.
Even after the major action of the war was over, there was still fighting in France. Scott's Quentin Durward portrays a courageous Scottish archer in the service of a less than scrupulous Louis XI during his conflict with Charles the Bold. By modem standards, the novel is replete with anachronisms and burdened with excessive machinery, but the depiction of William de la Marek, the Wild Boar of the Ardennes, more than justifies any deviations.
Lancaster and York
Nothing could be more evocative of medieval fiction than the rather anachronistic symbols of Lancaster's red rose and the white rose of York. On the Lancastrian side, Anya Seton's Katherine gives a sympathetic portrait of the mistress and eventual wife of John of Gaunt, and the link to Katherine's brother-in-law Geoffrey Chaucer brings the world of language and literature into the book. Catherine Darby's The Love Knot presents the same story from the point of view of Philippa, the older sister who married Chaucer in spite of her contempt for his "scribblings." According to this version, Gaunt dallied with both sisters, and the reader is led to prefer the stately older sister to a younger and more vulgar Katherine.
A character in Robert Louis Stevenson's The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Tll'o Roses observes " ... if the barons live at war, ploughfolk must eat roots." Set at a time when victories and loyalties were swinging between Lancaster and York, circumstances bring Richard Shelton to the side ofYorkists. Interestingly, this novel is available online and fully searchable free from something called Text Masters. Rosemary Jan11an's Crown in Candlelight starts with separate stories of Katherine of Valois, Prince Hal and a Welsh troubadour with the unlikely name of Owen ap Tydier. A prophecy that Wales will one day rule England drives the action that lays the groundwork for the Tudor dynasty. Valerie Anand's Crown of Roses tells the story of Petrone! Faldene, an abused wife involved on the side of the Yorkists in their various struggles from the start of Edward IV's reign to Henry Vll's final victory. Female characters such as Margaret Beaufort, Bess Woodville, Jane Shore, and both Neville daughters receive particular emphasis. Anand does not tip the scales in favor of the House of York as much as most Ricardist novelists do , but those who are convinced that Crookback killed his nephews will once again have to find their support in Shakespeare. Penman's The Sunne in Splendour takes the story of Richard III from
THESl}NNE IN SPI .EN DO\. J1~ Sharon Perunan
his idealistic youth to his brave defeat. His love for his childhood playmate Ann forms the emotional heart, but most of the book concerns Richard's unwavering loyalty to his otherwise ill-served brother. Jacqueline Tey's Daughter of Time can be called an historical novel even though much of the action consists of a modern day detective obsessed with uncovering the facts. The point of view is unrelentingly favorable to Richard lll, and the attack on Tudor historians is as dramatic as the exculpation of Richard. In Jarman's Courts of Illusion Nicholas wants to avenge his father who fell with Richard Ill , leading to his joining with Perkin Warbeck. This picaresque novel concerns the struggles within a family of Yorkist archers trying to maintain their loyalty to a lost cause.
Culture and Religion
Some novels involve the cultural and religious phenomena rather than military and dynastic matters For instance, Tracy Chevalier weaves a complex tapestry in The
TheLady
anc.i theUnicor
rLady and the Unicorn, a common observation about historical novels, but one that is literally true in this case. She takes the justly celebrated tapestry as a starting point and imagines how it might have been made, a forn1ula she had used previously when giving life to Vermeer's girl with her pearl earring. The story of how a planned tapestry of the Battle of Nancy becomes one of a virgin and her unicorn is authentic only in its background, but it does imagine the creation of art in late 15th Century Paris and Brussels. Dmitri Merezhovskii's The Romance ofLeonardo da Vinci takes Leonardo through his appearance at the Holy Inquisition. The previously mentioned critic Lukacs uses this Russian writer as an example of the worst of the decadent bourgeois writing of his time. Bany Unswmih's Morality Play makes few references to the world outside a troop of actors devoted to medieval mystery theater and involved in a mystery and suspense story.
Life in religious orders makes up another theme within medieval literature.
Eco's Name of the Rose involves a series of mysterious deaths in a monastery in no1ihern Italy in 1322, but this critical and commercial success is no ordinaiy mystery, with an investigation that is more philosophy than detection. The action takes place over seven days, each divided into the canonical hours, and the way the ordinary regimen of the abbey unfolds even in extraordinary circumstances provides
insight into monastic life. Sylvia Townsend Warner's The Corner That Held Them covers several years in the life of an English nunnery from 1349-1382. Few historical events intrude on the story of an enclosed community of women, but they must sometimes defend themselves against male authorities who thought that "the nuns made hay of the rule and needed to be supervised." Susanna Gregory* has set a series of mysteries in the more loosely organized male religious communities of Cambridge. An Unholy Alliance opens with a dead friar found in a chest also containing a sensitive history. The rationalist Brother Jaques, the protagonist in Edward Burman's The Image of Our Lord, interrogates Templars in order to find a relic which will help its owner to rule the world, and King Phillip the Fair is relentless in its pursuit.
Italy is the scene of a number of novels, some involving business, some religion. Dorothy Dunnett's series House of Niccolo begins with a young scapegrace travelling to ltaly in order to avoid enemies he made in Bruges. The story of his marriage and his business career begins with Niccolo Rising and continues through seven more vo lum es.
In the preface to Bulwer-Lytton's 1848 novel Rienzi, the hero is described as "a Roman in advance of his time." One chapter heading of this pedantic but passionate book reads "An Historical Survey - Not to be Passed over Except by Those who Dislike to Understand what They Read." (They don't make chapter titles like that any more.) ln a 14th Century Rome, abandoned by the Pope, Rienzi dreams of restoring the best of the Roman republic. The text and the appendices are all designed to show that, even if Cola di Rienzi was not quite perfect, his enemies were much worse. ln Romola, the great 19th Century novelist George Eliot's research and fidelity to historical facts of the 15th Century Florence of Savanorola was far ahead of most historical works of the time. However , the reason that this is often considered one of the weakest of her works may be that the title character appears unusually good and her husband Tito Melema proves too cowardly and weak to represent evil effectively.
In order to bring our discussion to an end in the year 1492 , we select 1492 , a novel by Romero Aridjis, one of Mexico's leading writers. lsabel de la Vega flees from the Inquisition while the novel presents the problems of Jews and Conversos in 15th Century Spain.
Smmnary
Finding historical novels by period was much easier in preparing this piece than seven years ago in doing the Roman article. Databases like NoveList, magazines like our sister publication Historical Novels R eview, books like Lynda Adamson's World Historical Fiction and the greatly expanded resources on the Internet have all made looking
for fiction by subject an easier and more rewarding proposition than it once was.
One interesting note came after completing the project. Counting the en tries revealed an almost comp lete balance between male and female writers, even after an intentional exclusiqn of romance. Women are more prominent as characters in the histories of this period than they were in those of the ancient world, and that seems to be reflected in those who choose to write about the period.
MOST OFTEN TOLD TALES TABLE
Event Characters
Byzantine rebellions and Theodora and Justinian conquests
Norman Conquest Harold and Edith Swan-Neck
Heloise and Abelard
Canon Fulbert and the lovers
The murder in the cathedral Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II, Becket
Wars over the succession to King Stephen and Empress Henry I Matilda
The deposition of Edward II
Joan of Arc
Lancaster and York
Battles for Wales
Richard III
Mortimer, Isabelle, Edward II, Edward III
Charles VII
Joan of Arc
Henry VI
Edward IV
Llewelyn ab Griffith
Richard III, Ann Neville
Favorite Novel Author
Count Be/isarius Robert Graves
The Last English Julian Rathbone King
Stealing Heaven Marion Meade
The Canterbury Judith Koll Healey Papers
The Morning Gift Diana Norman
The She-Wolf of Maurice Druon France
An Army of Angels Pamela Marcantel
Katherine Anya Seton
The Reckoning Sharon Kay Penman
Crown of Roses Valerie Anand
The Virtues of War
JAMES HAWKING
talks with STEVEN PRESSFIELD about Alexander the man
Steven Pressfield has published five novels and one work of non-fiction.
The Legend of Bagger Vance was his first novel, set in the American South of the l 930's. It portrays an epic golf match between Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen against a local Savannah golfer with a transcendental caddie who helps him find his "authentic swing. It was made into a movie starring Will Smith.
Gates ofFire (a translation of the Greek Them1opylae) retells the story of Leonidas and three hundred Spartans holding off a numberless Persian advance. Like all the best historical fiction, it presents characters caught up in the events of history . The book gives a sympathetic treatment of Spartan military training, building to a climax where the valor of the wa1Tiors has been foreshadowed and explained.
Tides of War takes the form of a narrative by the murderer of Alcibiades fighting for and against Athens, siding now with Sparta, now with Persia. Some of the choices to switch sides seem reasonable given the situations presented, all of which are drawn from the historical record.
Last of th e Amazons mixes legend and history in porh·aying the battles involving Theseus and the Amazons , battles commemorated by Greeks for centuries after, although doubted by skeptical male historians. Most of this book comes from the imagined point of view of the female.
His non-fiction work is entitled The War ofArt: Winning the Inner Creative Battle.
His latest book is called Alexander: The Virtues of War or The Virtues of War (more about those titles later.) It follows the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Pressfield was kind enough to submit to an interview with Solander about this recently published work (Doubleday, NY, 2004 $24.95)
SO LANDER 16 Vo l. 8 N o . 2 DE C EMBER 20 0
Solander How was writing a novel about Alexander similar to writing a non-fiction biography?
SP A lot of the work is quite similar. You start with a complete mastery of the material , almost inhaling the sources, especially the ancient authors who were contemporary or writing a few centuries later. Arrian , Curtius, Diodorus and Plutarch were the ones I went back to the most. You need them for the basic facts and also for the attitude shown toward the history.
I must have read thirty or fo1ty biographies of Alexander , naturally of variable quality but I picked up something from most of them. They make you see things a little different each time. 1 pa1iicularly recommend Robin Lane Fox' s Alexander th e Great and NGL Hammond's Alexander th e Great: Th e Genius ofAlexander.
Some of my research was not even in the same period. I found myself reading a great deal about military tactics , especially cavalry, as late as the 19th Century. Some things stayed the same.
So lander What were some of the differences between writing a novel and writing history?
SP Writing a novel gives me more scope to pick and choose, more room to shape around a theme. My title, my American title, is The Virtues of War, and that gives my theme most clearly The British publishers wanted A lexander.-The Virtues of War. Of course, in Alexander's time virtue was seen as bravery on the battle field, selflessness in warfare. Alexander's daimon or his driving force is what the book is really about.
So lander Reversing the question, if you were writing a contemporary novel about a warrior, how would it be similar and how would it be different?
SP The first difference would be the access you would have to diaries, letters, even film and videotapes. I'd feel obliged to talk with those who were really involved , and that in tum would impose restrictions. All books change as you write them, and if there were active participants still alive, I imagine that would change the story even more. Also, the military personality and ethic would have a different meaning in a more contemporary setting. I think my book shows the limitation of the warrior archetype. Alexander's daimon wouldn't have a place in the modern world.
Solander There seems to be an element of myth surrounding the way you and many other writers deal with the individual fighter. Can one many possibly make a difference in a battle involving several hundred thousand soldiers?
SP All the contemporary sources suggest that this is possible and that it really happened It might not be as improbable as it sounds, given the role that leadership plays in a key group like cavalry. The leader going forward first inspires the men to follow at the key point.
Solander Your descriptions of battle do concentrate on sma ll actions within the battle. Alexander tries to have a numerical advantage at strategic points.
SP What was most interesting was not the grand strategy, but the fighting at certain moments and in certain places. It's not like moving chess pieces, and Alexander was a fighter. He was a general who could create the tactical advantages he needed, but above all he was a fighter. He was naturally responding to his inner daimon, a word I choose to adopt into English to convey the meaning 1 wanted.
Solander I've noticed something like "the authentic swing" from Bagger Vance in your other books: The natural talent of the Amazon horsewomen, Alexander's instant comprehension of battle.
SP Alexander has a natural gift for war, and it's that gift I focused on. Writing a novel gives me the freedom to leave things out. For example, none of the southern campaigns like the one into Egypt really fit into my story. I don't deal with his father's murder other than to mention
a few rumors much later. His mother Olympias was an interesting character, but she does not play a role in the story I am trying to tell.
Solander You don't deal much with anything sexual either.
SP Right. It doesn't relate to my theme. A gay group criticized me as ifl were trying to cover up his true nature, but I don't deal with his marriages either, or his relations with women. It's not a question within my theme.
Solander "A physical element far superseded by the philosophical" was how you had him describe his relation with Hephaestion.
SP Not so much denial of the sexual as putting it to the side. It isn't that clear-cut in the literature and there is much conflict about it to this day. Some Greeks resent the suggestion that the kind of love commonly described had any physical element. But none of that really had anything to do with the story I was trying to tell.
Solander Alexander says that his listener, his brother-inlaw ltanes, "likes the bloody parts."
SP It is , after all, a book about war. But I think I avoid the excessively gruesome scenes of intestines and piles of slippery corpses. I don't think the book glorifies war. Alexander was not a builder of civilization or even a spreader of culture. When the Indian King Porus challenges him on how he conquers territory but keeps the same satraps in power and the same structure at work, he is commenting on this. Of course, the Hellenic culture was formed by his successor kings , like Ptolemy.
Solander You have one scene where Alexander discusses the lands each of his generals will rule, but I thought the division didn't take place until after he died.
SP What I mean is for Alexander to be making a prophecy. It would seem logical that the generals would have already shown some preferences for different areas, and I imagine Alexander would have been aware of something like that. But spreading Greek culture was a side effect of the conquests, not the main purpose
Solander The narrative deals with Alexander looking back on his past, particularly from the time when he reaches the point in India where his men do not want to go farther. You also use the device of someone listening to a first person narrator in most of your novels , Iike the aspiring golfer in Bagge r Vance, the assassin's grandson in Tides of War.
SP I wanted a structure that allowed me to carry through into an epilogue after Alexander's death. I wanted to take the story to the ends of the world.
Solander For me, a lot of the appeal came in catalogs of names and places. "Athenians, Corinthians, Achaeans, Magarians, Euboeans, Corcyrians, Acamians, Leucadians, in Greece and finally on to the Oxydracae, the Mallians, Brachmanes, Agalasseis, Sydracae and the kingdoms of Musicanus, Porticanus and Sambus.You put quite a strain on my reference books, but I enjoyed looking them up in historical atlases and other sources.
SP The names all come from the ancient sources. They give an idea of the extent of the operation.
Solander Everything is rooted in the ancient sources. In one of your earlier books, I noticed the word chivalry used in what I thought was an anachronistic sense, but you explain that in your reader's note.
SP Yes. I am aware that the concept was invented much later and belongs to another era, but something like it existed before, and I think this is the most effective way to communicate these ideas to the modem reader.
Solander Do you attempt to interpret history or make any particular arguments?
SP Sometimes. For instance, in Gates of Fire I tried to humanize the Spartans whose history mostly comes down to us from hostile Athenian sources. The Spartan training regimen was more complex than they suggest.
Solander Will we see any more of your books turned into films after the success of movies like Gladiator and Troy?
SP I would like to see that. There is an option on Gates of Fire.
Solander I hope they make it. It wouldn't be that costly either because you'd only need about 300 extras on the side with faces. But novels like yours re-create history better than film can ever do. Thank you for your time and sharing your insights on your historical fiction.
SP Thank you for giving me the opportunity.
Barbara Allen
Fiction by MARK BAKER
I was sitting in the Duck and Swan with a new red jacket on my back and Jenny on my knee. I was trying to persuade her of that no man should go to war a virgin, and she was firm that she had no wish to be a widow before she was a wife, or to make a child an orphan before he was born. She is a practical one, my Jenny, which is a blessing to me now, though it was a trial to me that night.
Sir William Grove was our captain, though he was made a soldier the same day we were. We didn't mind that, though, for Willie Grove was a proper gentleman, and no man in Scarlet Town would dispute it. No man bought his own drink that night. It came from Willie's purse. There were a dozen lasses round him, but no man minded. We loved young Willie Grove, and no man of us would fault him. And not one ofus supposed those lasses were lost to us for more than a season, for if Willie's eyes wandered, we all knew where they rested from their wandering. We knew on what face they lingered.
"A health to fair Eleanor!" Willie, proposed.
"Fair Eleanor!" we shouted as one man, and downed a healthy measure to her care.
Jenny jabbed me in the ribs. "What is Eleanor's health to you, John Thatcher," she chided.
"Do you wish her sick then?" I asked. "Cruel woman!"
"A health to bonnie Betsy!" Willie roared out, and we replied as good men should.
There was a hurt look in Jenny's eye, which I supposed was meant only to tease me .
"And if Betsy were took sick," I said, "Would you have the blame laid at my door, for failing to wish her well?"
"A health to lovely Lauralie", Willie demanded. Jenny drooped in my arms and sighed as if she were dying of the consumption. I saw at last that her grief was not that I drank to another's health, but that I had failed to drink to hers. I made to get to my feet, but my arms were full of Jenny, and before I could rise, Willie had spotted her , and he leapt up onto the bar, which was the only open way between his table and ours. He danced the length of the bar, his feet flying, but never upsetting any man's glass. He reached down and took Jenny's hand and before I could protest, Jenny was up on the bar beside him.
"Silence, Gentleman!" Willie called. And silent we were, at his command. "A health to our wise and virtuous Jenny," he proclaimed. The whole company drank her health in solemn silence. You may think I would have resented Willie making court to Jenny like that, and for robbing me of the chance to toast my own lass. But Willie had left me words to say, and I had the wit to find them. I climbed up on the bar beside her, and he place his arm around her shoulder, while I placed mine around her waist. "Jenny!" I proclaimed, hoisting my glass, "virtuous, wise, and beautiful."
The fellows roared their approval , even Odd Bob, though I had knocked over his glass in my clumsy scramble up the bar. But the cheer was cut off before it was done, for we all saw that Willie's compass had found its north (That was the charm of the man, you see, that even in a bar full of drunken men and pretty lasses, when he grew still, every tongue grew silent and every eye turned to see what moved him.)
She stood in the doorway of the tavern, hair like the raven's wing and cheeks like the robin's breast, the parson's daughter, Barbara Allen. Why she should have risked her father's whip to come there, I cannot think, unless it was because she knew that he would be there, and tomorrow would lead us off to Spain. So there Sweet Willie stood with a glass in one hand, and the other hand on Jenny's shoulder, and the look of a man caught by a gamekeeper with the king's hares in his bag. Why he should have looked like that, I cannot think, for he had paid no court to Jenny, except for a joke. But that was how it was. Strange too , for if the squire's son stoops to court a parson's daughter, she should be glad of it. But beauty is rank of its own and she was his equal in this, and knew it well.
She paused in the doorway, to make sure we had all seen her. And I am sure I grieved Jenny again, staring at Barbara Allen. (Still, Jenny knows that a man's heart runs truer than his eye.) When she was certain that she had drawn her due measure of admiration, and of envy, she swept into the room, granting a word here and a touch there to every man with a red jacket on his back. All except one, for you would have thought from her that Willie Grove were a leper or a coward. She paid him no attention at all.
Willie dropped his hand from Jenny's shoulder and danced back along the bar to his old place.
"Darling Daisy!" he proposed to the company.
We gave Daisy a fair toast, though we had lost our old enthusiasm, seeing how Willie burned at Barbara Allen's slight. Then Willie drew a pistol from his coat pocket. It was the one his father had presented to him when he bought him his commission, and everyone ofus had eagerly admired it earlier in the evening
"The health of our dearest , fairest, Maria ," Willie bellowed, raising Maria up on the bench beside him and kissing her upon the cheek We gave Maria our healthiest cheer, uncertain what Willie meant to do with his pistol. And just as our cheer was loudest, he pointed the pistol at one of the ceiling beams and pulled the trigger. It went off with a bright flash and a roaring crash. Maria screamed in
fright and fell across the table, where Danny Weaver caught her. (He did himself much credit in the deed. They have three daughter's now, and Danny hopes desperately that the next child will be a boy.)
The pistol shot frightened us all to silence not a good omen for a company ofredcoats off to fight Boney Willie was lost for a moment in a cloud of pistol smoke, from which he emerged coughing, and as startled as we were by the crash of the pistol in that closed space. Barbara Allen must have gained her composure quicker than any ofus , for in that moment of pure silence, as Willie waved the cloud of smoke from round his head, she offered her arm to Tom Drake , the miller's son, who wore only a plain brown jacket on his back, and had told every man ofus that we were damn fools for taking the King's shilling, and she said to him :
"Tom, will you see me home, for it is terrible rowdy in this place."
She chose well , for every other man there would have hated to give Willie offense. But it was no matter to Tom Drake. Tom laid his glass aside, bowed to her , and gave her his arm.
"With pleasure, miss ," he said He led her to the door and they passed out into the night.
"Goddam Frog lover!" Willie roared after him . But Tom Drake took notice. He had Barbara Allen on his arm , and both men knew who had had the better of that argument.
We marched for the depot the next morning with jaunty steps but sore heads. Jenny sent me off the Spain with a kiss and a wish that I should come home knowing no more than I did at leaving. Barbara Allen was not there to watch us as we marched away, though I fancy I saw the curtains twitch upstairs in the parsonage as we marched by. Perhaps it was Bartholomew Allen that kept his daughter away , having found she had visited the Duck and Swan. Perhaps it was her pride kept her. Willie did not ask after her , nor give any sign he missed her presence . Nor did he give more than the briefest courtesy to any of the ladies who came out to see us go. He stayed on his horse the whole time as we were formed up and got our gear in order. "Are we not ready to march, Sergeant?" he asked three times of old Sergeant Shaker, who the regiment had sent to march us to the depot. Shakes would just shake his head and go on with his business , neither harried not hurried by the demands of a lovesick young officer. We grew to love old Shakes , after he had licked us into shape and taught us to be soldiers, and Shakes came to love Willie, as everyone did , and made him into a pretty good officer. But on that day, Willie was in a black temper and we were all glad to have Shakes there to stand between us and Willie's disquiet.
At the depot they taught us to stand in a straight line while men were shouting at us , then shipped us off to Spain where we learned to stand in a straight line while men were shooting at us. I leaned a great deal more than I had known on leaving England , though little to my profit and nothing to Jenny's shame .
Shakes died at Talevera. A French musket ball tore out half his thigh. The surgeons cut ifoff. Old Shakes wept like a child all the time the surgeon was cutting , but that was not
for him. Jemmy Harris, the drummer boy, had been shot in his eye. He had been dead before Shakes got to him, but Shakes had picked him up and tried to carry him back. That's when the ball tore out his leg. The surgeon made a good cut and sowed him up neat, but the wound festered, and Shakes was gone inside a week. Willie made me sergeant, then Told me I was the best man in the company, though I can't see how I was better than any other. But sergeant I was , and Willie and I were soldiers together, and sometimes he would leave the officer's mess and come and sit with us around our fires. I would read aloud the letters Jenny sent me, full of news from the town. Other men would have me read their letters too, for most of them had not been schooled. Then we would ask Willie to read us his letters , and he did so with a good heart. There were letters from his mother, full of gossip and affection, and letters from the squire , full of trade and duty . But if ever he had a letter from Barbara Allen (who could write well enough, being a parson's daughter) he never shared it with us. And because I knew that he would hear my letters, I never asked Jenny for news of Barbara Allen.
A French ball broke my knee on the Bussaco Ridge. Another tore through Willie's thigh. He begged the surgeon to save the leg, for he did not want to be sent home an invalid or sent to serve behind the lines as a quartermaster. The surgeon did as he asked, against his own judgment.
Willie did not heal well. I healed up quick enough, but my knee was locked straight and though I got used to the pain of it, I was not fit to march . They sent me home, and they sent Willie with me, telling him to return when he was healed. I brought Willie home to Scarlet Town. I rode up front with the coachman, with my leg propped up on the rail. I was brown from the sun, and my old red coat was threadbare and pink, though the sergeant's stripes on my sleeve still looked new enough. Willie rode inside, with a uniform bright and new, but his face pale as a ghost. The leg would not take life . There was too much flesh lost, and he should have had it off. But no one could persuade him. He told the surgeons that he was determined he would dance again, and fight again besides But one night, as he lay drunk on the deck of the ship that took us from Lisbon to Portsmouth, he had looked me in the eye and said, "You think me a damn fool."
"No, sir," I said, for which lie may God forgive me
"The surgeons tell me I'm a fool."
"They do, sir?" I replied.
"They do. But she would never have me as a cripple."
"I'm sure she would, sir ," I said , and may God forgive me agam.
He made no further reply, but took another pull at his bottle , which may have eased his pain, but I'm sure did nothing to speed his healing. He did not speak her name. The town turned out to welcome Willie. Jenny came to welcome me , which was all the greeting I needed. She did not mind about my leg at all, but hugged me and kissed me until I nearly wobbled over. Willie rallied enough to open the windows of the carriage and to wave and exchange a word or two with those who came to greet him. I do not
know ifhe asked after Barbara Allen , for I was busy with Jenny. But she was not there to greet him.
In due time I had from Jenny, without need of asking, the particulars of every courtship and every wedding in Scarlet town for the last two years. She mentioned Tom Drake's name, which gave me a start, but he had married Eleanor White. Barbara Allen's name was not in her catalogue. For my part, I did not ask after her. There is one girl in Scarlet town of whom no wise man asks his sweetheart for news, and her name is Barbara Allen. I found work at the manor, as a secretary to the squire, and blessed my mother for making me learn my letters. I know them better now than I did then, and now my work is worthy of my title . But it was my sergeant's stripes and my battle-worn red coat that approved me to the squire. Willie was better at Christmas, and worse in January In February he seemed to rally, and at Easter he decided to go riding. It took two of us to get him into the saddle, but once we got him up he trotted around the training path ably enough and there was more color in his cheeks and cheer in his manner than I had seen since we left Spain He urged the horse to a canter and shouted to me as he rode by:
"She'll soon see me a whole man, John! Then we'll see."
He twitched the rains, and turned the horse off the track and into the center of the field where some small fences had been set up to teach children to jump. The fence he chose was not high, and the horse sailed over it with ease. But Willie could not keep his seat and down he came and landed on the bad leg.
They carried him back to his bed. He was bleeding, but he would not have a doctor. "I know what he'll say , John ," he told me. "Bind it up for me like a good fellow " I bound it up like he asked, for a knew something of field dressings. For a week it seemed he had done himself no great harm, but then he began to worsen again, and there began to be a terrible smell to the wound. I begged him to send for the doctor, and he at last consented.
"You won't cut it doctor?" he asked.
"No point now , " the doctor said. He gave him laudanum and went to talk to the Squire.
Each day after that he grew worse, and the smell more vile. We tried to keep his room well aired , but there was no helping the stench. We knew he was beyond help. And Willie knew it too. He lingered to the first week of May, and on the trees outside his window the buds were swelling green. He called me to him then and said, "Bring her to me "
"Who?" I asked, thinking perhaps he wanted his mother.
"Barbara Allen ," he said. "Bid her come and see me before I die. Go quickly , and bid her make haste."
I went, as he asked. I had them harness up the pony trap, and I drove into town and went straight to the parsonage . It was her mother who answered the door.
"What ails you, John Thatcher," she asked me , as soon as she saw my face.
"Sir William's in a bad way, ma'am ," I told her , "And he's asking for Barbara Allen."
She paused a moment then, as if she was thinking where her husband might be .
"You'd best tell her then," she said. "Come in. She's in the parlor."
I took off my hat, and she showed me into the parlor, where Barbara Allen sat by the window reading a letter. By God, she made my heart thump just to look at her. It thumps now just to think of her.
"John Thatcher," she said, seeing me, "What news brings you here?"
"Sir William Grove sends his compliments, miss," I said, "And asks that you pay a call on him. He is right unwell, but he wishes urgently to speak with you. I have a pony trap outside."
She considered this, then picked up her letter again and began to read. "I will come this afternoon," she said, without looking up. "I will come if my time allows, and the weather keeps fine."
"He's in an urgent way, miss," I said.
"Many a month has gone by, John Thatcher, and he has not asked for me, or come to call. He cannot be in such a hurry as I must change my morning's plans for him. I will come this afternoon, if I my time allows."
"Yes, miss," I said. ''I'll come back with the pony trap after luncheon."
"No need, John Thatcher. I have my strength, and two good legs. I will come on foot. But only ifmy time allows."
"Yes, miss," I said. I bowed and went out. Now you would think that the secretary to the squire would have a right to say to the parson's daughter, "Come on Babs. He didn't want you to see him a cripple, but now he's dying and it's only mercy that you go and see him." But she was Barbara Allen. She outranked us all.
She did come that afternoon, however. She came as the light was dying, and Willie had all but despaired of her coming. He was pale and thin, and his stink was terrible. I could see it shocked her. There was pain in her eyes, such as I had not seen in her before. But Willie was angry, the damn fool.
"It is a little late to be calling," he told her, without any other word of greeting.
"Young man," she replied, holding her handkerchief to her nose, "I think you're dying."
Willie's pride crumbled and I saw tears prick in the corner of his eyes. "You did not answer my letters," he said. "Why did you not answer my letters."
"Don't you remember the night in the tavern," she told him, "Before you marched for Spain? You saluted every lady there, but you slighted Barbara Allen."
"I saluted every lady there," he said, "But my love I gave to Barbara Allen."
He turned his face to the wall, and I heard his breath come rasping. I went to him, but there was nothing to be done for him.
"John," he whispered , with his failing breath. "Be kind to Barbara Allen."
He was done, and as !"turned from him, I saw a look of grief on the face of Barbara Allen.
"He is dead," she said, as if she had never understood the meaning of it.
"Yes, miss ," I said.
She gave a cry of pain and fled. I was minded to let her go, but I remembered Willie's last wish and I hobbled after her as fast as my stiff knee would allow. But she was too quick for me and I had only the chance to see her running away across the fields as the church bells chimed the evening.
It rained heavy that night, and the wind blew hard. There was no light from dusk to morning. About midnight Bartholomew Allen came pounding on the manor door, soaked to the skin and angry that his daughter had not come home. He found the house in mourning. I was still sitting up by the fire with the squire, who had taken it into his head to pass the night, and to parcel out his grief, in writing letters to carry the news of Willie's death to the world. I told the parson my story, how I had seen Barbara Allen run off through the fields, and been unable to follow. But I had never thought that she might not find her way home.
They made a search for her in the morning, and found her at last, huddled in a ditch and blue with cold. She had not turned for home but had gone straight on across the fields until night and rain overtook her. They took her home and her mother put her to bed. But she sickened, and the women say she never found the will to recover. By week's end, her father had to make her grave.
They buried Sweet William beside the church wall, and even Bartholomew Allen could see no impropriety in burying Barbara Allen beside him. They planted a rose over Sweet William's grave, and a briar blew in on the wind and planted itself over Barbara Allen. I married Jenny that summer. I loved her and made no pretence. We have five children now. But every spring I tend the rose that grows upon Willie's grave, and she tends Barbara Allen's briar. Some damn fool made a song about them, but it is nonsense. Men do not die for love , nor women of a broken heart. Sweet William died of gangrene and Barbara Allen died of fever. But this much of the song is true: He was foolish proud, and she was heartless cruel.
Research List & Reference Collection for Writers
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The Lure of Celtic Lore
JUILENE OSBORNE-MCKNIGHT talks to ILYSA MAGNUS about storytelling in the oral and written tradition and her transformation from college instructor to respected novelist .
As a doctoral student in the l 970's, I enrolled in every Irish and Celtic literature course New York University offered. And then I discovered Lady Gregory's translation of the Red Branch Cycle, aka the Ulster Cycle - and I was hooked for good! Being the purist I was, I wanted to read the Red Branch stories in the original Gaelic - how else to
savor and appreciate the fine nuances of these Celtic stories? (The recent translations of the Ulster Cycle by Randy Lee Eickhoff have led me to the inevitable conclusion that Lady Gregory was probably one of the most vigilant censors of all time. The early Celtic storytellers were uninhibited, to say the least.)
To my utter chagrin, I learned from my graduate advisor that reading the Red Branch Cycle in "old" Gaelic
was tantamount to wanting to walk on the moon without an oxygen tank. He told me that there was but a small handful of people in the United States who knew how to read those gl orious tales in the original. Being young and na"ive, I caved I , clearly, wasn't cut out to be one of these folks anytime in the foreseeable future. That didn't appease me though. I continued to read stories steeped in Celtic lore and legend - and frankly, I never stopped.
When I received the Winter 2000 catalog from Tor/Forge, I happily noted that a new historical novel about St. Patrick was about to be published. The author: Jui Jene Osborne-McKnight, a "seanchai" or traditional storyteller and member of the National Storytellirng Association, teaches at DeSales University in Center Valley , Pennsylvania and has been teaching drama, literature , creative writing and storytelling for over twenty five years.
THE MAGAZINE OF THE HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY
From the minute I opened I Am Of Irelaunde: A Novel of Patrick and Osian (Forge, 2000, reviewed in Historical Novels Review, Issue 12), I knew this reading experience was going to be special. The story of the former slave, Patrick, and his seminal role in Celtic history and legend is
Judene l).:.hor.w Mc KniglH
told both in his own words and those of a dead warrior, Osian. So beautiful, lilting and melodic are those words that the reader is instantly held captive it's almost like having Juilene in the room, reading to you. Also, rather than drawing a caricature of a universally recognizable, saintly Patrick, Juilene dares to focus on his humanity and human-ness - his foibles, his failings, his loss of faith. It is a marvel of storytelling and a stunning debut.
In quick succession, since the publication of Patrick's story, Juilene has published two other historical novels: Daughter of Ireland (Forge, 2002, reviewed in Historical Novels Review, Issue 19) and Bright Sword of Ireland (Forge, 2004, reviewed in Historical Novels Review, Issue 29). As in her Patrick novel, Juilene chose one seminal figure around whom each novel revolves: in Daughter of Ireland, Aislinn, a Druid priestess living during the time of Cormac Mac Art and in Bright Sword of Ireland, Finnabair, the daughter of the seductive warrior queen, Medb, who battles Cuchulainn in the ultimate showdown between Connacht and Ulster over the ownership of the
brown bull. In each of those stories, Juilene captures the very stuff of Celtic lore - loss, victory, honor, pride, loveand has transformed to written words the oral stories carried on by generations of Celtic storytellers.
Juilene will be one of the participating speakers at the Historical Novel Society conference in Salt Lake City,
Utah in April, 2005 and will be offering her views on the topic "History to Legend, Legend to Myth."
Juilene's website, which contains additional biographical and historical information, is ,vww.imcknight.com.
You come from a family of lawyers. What twist of fate led you into storytelling as a vocation?
What an interesting question. The practice of law, especially litigation, really is the art of storytelling. A good litigator tells his client's story, performs it, illustrates it with precedent law, with the Bible, with Shakespeare. More than that, however, ancient Ireland was mad about the law. There were thousands of laws, for things as minute as bee-keeping or repayment for breaking the fingernail of a harper. Of course there had to be lawyers to interpret all of this; at one time period during the reign of King Conchobar Mac Nessa, it is estimated that there were more than a thousand lawyers in Ireland. Believe it or not , the time period is circa 30 B.C.E. - 30 C.E. So when immigrants came to America, they often went into the legal professions - law, politics, jurisprudence, police work, FBI, DEA, ATF, etc. So to be a storyteller is just to take that familial obsession one step further into myth and history.
What about Celtic lore was attractive to you?
I came to Celtic lore by a unique serendipitous occurrence I was in my early twenties and was teaching Arthurian mythology in my high school Brit Lit class I came across a throwaway line in a research book which said that of course the Arthurian code of behavior of the Knights of the Round Table was based upon the Fenian code of Ireland in the third century. From that point on, it was Alice down the rabbit hole.
What keeps you connected to Celtic lore after years of storytelling and novel writing?
I sometimes think that now I am so steeped in the ancient Celts and the way they thought and perceived that I am oftentimes seeing the modem world through their ancient lens and not the other way around. The stories are magical, archetypal. There is such an obvious awareness of the sacredness of all things, that every blade of grass
and every bird's wing is imbued with and held inside the Spirit , that the line between the "real" world and the "sup e rreal" world is very thin indeed It seems to me now, afte r s o many years of storytelling, that all cultures in all tim es te ll the same central stories - we dress them in di ffe r e nt clothing surely, but underneath are the preoc cup y in g themes of being human .
Is there any other oral tradition that interests you? If so , what culture and why?
I ac tu a ll y grew up on Native American stories ; both my mo th e r and my father were steeped in tribal belief and lo re, particul arl y Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and Ani shn a be (Ojibwe) s tories , though my mother knew sto ri es fr o m do ze ns of nations When I came to Celtic lore in my twe nti es it wa s like coming home . In the Celtic sto ri es I ex p e ri enc e d r eco gnition . The themes and st ru ctu res, the preoc cup a tion with the sacred and with hon o r, th e r es pect for women and children , were the same th emes a nd structures of the Native stories my mother had to ld me g ro wi ng up Her name is on the honor wall at the
have written I think without those First Nations stories I could not have lived or breathed
How did you start as a storyteller? When did you tell your first story?
I began my teaching career as a middle school teacher. As anyone out there who has ever taught middle school will tell you, it is a daily hormone roller coaster and the teacher had better hang on for the ride! One day my eighth graders were experiencing lift-off, and I began to teach a Shakespeare lesson, but I did it as a story in full voice and gesture. The students closest to me grew quiet. They leaned forward. The quiet spread Their bodies grew still. I watched as their eyes fixed on me, as their jaws actually opened in rapt attention . Oh miracle of miracles! I became a professional storyteller, joined the then-fledgling National Storytelling Association in its very beginning, joined local groups , practiced techniques . To this day I consider it the strongest tool in my teaching arsenal and practice it regularly in my college classroom . (As an aside, in the Celtic tradition we call a storyteller a seanchai, pronounced shawn -a - key and in ancient Ireland the "bardic" position was second in power to the position of the High King) . Middle schoolers show us why that was true.
I'm aware that keeping oral tradition alive is important to you. What motivated you to make the transition into the written word? Was it difficult to make the transition? Why?
I was actually writing poetry (lots of it and lots of it bad) before I ever became a storyteller. I also worked as a newspaper and magazine reporter and columnist. Once I began practicing storytelling , I realized that oral storytelling had the rhythm and cadence and repetition of formal poetry and that a way to capture "poetic" story might be to try to capture at least some of the oral tradition in print. Also , my beloved friend Eileen Charbonneau, hi s torical writer extraordinaire , herself of Irish , Shoshone and Huron ancestry , encoura g ed me to write
I'm also aware that you teach storytelling on the university level. How do you TEACH storytelling?
Storytelling is a form of theatrical practice. I teach at a wonderful university (DeSales) where we have theater , dance and film as majors and we sponsor a nationall y recognized Shakespeare festival. So storytelling fits well there . Storytelling is taught first as archetypes , as the work of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung. Then it is tau g ht as technique , as a practice art. A good storyteller will find hi s or her true water level , whether it be Appalachian tal es or tales of growing up in Chicago or tales of being Hispanic-American and then practice those tales until the y become universal tales of being human, until they provoke the awestruck recognition , the nod in the crowd that s ays, "This story is also my story."
How, if at all, is your life as an oral storyteller different than your life as a novelist? How does telling a story orally differ from telling a story in writing? If there is a nexus between the oral and written word in your experience, what is it? What are the pros/cons of each genre?
This is a tough , tough question and one that I think about often. Oral storytelling has cadence and rhythm and repetition. It has theatricality - costume and gesture and voice. Written storytelling, I believe , tries to capture those same aspects of story with pacing and dialogue , with nuance and believable character motivation The nexus for me is the stories themselves and some "metaphysical" sense that pervades them. For me, a story needs to have in it a kind of river of light, a sense that the story is crossing boundaries, that in it is some profound human truth that I need to capture. Of course , the pro of oral storytelling is that it is a communal and social activity ; the AmericanIrish tend to be very gregarious folks. Written storytelling is a very solitary pursuit ; when I have been at it for days at a time , I will often take myself to my local bookstore and write there just to be in the company of other humans Strangely and conversely , however , I sometimes find that when I am writing, time telescopes. I begin at 9 a.m. and I look at my watch and it's 3 p m I have vanished into the story So in oral storytelling , the gift that I receive is a sense that the audience and I have been transported together ; in written storytelling , it is almost an out-of-body experience that we have all heard writers describe. Both are stunning-wonderful.
Your first novel, I Am Of Irelaunde tells the story of Patrick, the man who became the patron saint of Ireland. What compelled you to choose Patrick as your first subject?
P a trick really chose me . I read his journal and his "Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus" and I was so captivated. He was irascible , passionate , fascinated and troubled by women , mad at God . So incredibly complex In a wonderful example of "writer's confluence" I happened upon a myth called the "Agallam na Seanorach" which means the "Meeting of the Old Men." And who were the old men ? Patrick, who had been sent to Ir e land against his will and O s ian , the storyteller of the ancient Fenians of Ireland , who had been sent back from the country o f the dead to tell stories to Patrick . Why ? Because God knows that stories have the power to change the human heart. As a storyteller, what else could I do but write down their interaction ?
You use an interesting technique in I Am Of Irelaunde to move the action along and to teach the reader about Patrick and about Irish culture Osian, a dead warrior, returns from Tir Na Og to tell stories throughout the novel. Why did you decide on using this technique ?
Patrick is Romano/Welsh/British . His voice is superior, edgy , angry, defensive , civilized. Osian is an ancient pagan Irish warrior. His voice is passionate , wild, humorous. I wanted the two voices to be visually and verbally different from each other so I alternated first and third and alternated Roman type with italics
You were unafraid in I Am Of Irelaunde to focus on the human side of Patrick, his foibles, his vanity and his shortcomings. What motivated you to humanize Patrick so thoroughly?
In the long history of religion, it is fascinating to me to see how often God seems to choose the difficult ones to carry it on Abraham? David? Paul of Tarsus? Simon Peter? Joan of Arc? Patrick is cut from that cloth. He is captured as a slave into Ireland and the result is that he hates the Irish . He is stubborn , recalcitrant , resistant to the call , certain of his civilization's superiority. Yet by the end of his life he is a man in love - deep , passionate, love with his adopted people. How does that happen ?
Did you find that writing about a famous historical figure about whom we have a significant wealth of information was more or less difficult than writing about a druid priestess, Aislinn ni Sorar (Daughter of Ireland) and Finnabair, daughter of Queen Medb (Bright Sword of Ireland)? How does your technique differ, if at all?
With Patrick we have an existing tone that helps us to understand personality while we don't have those with Aislinn and Finnabair. However , I think the most important thing to do with historical characters is to try to write them as they were One of my students just asked me ifMedb really was as sexually "active" as my book portrays her and the answer is yes . Irish women of that time were extremely powerful and very much unafraid of their sexuality . It's probably the most difficult imperati v e for the historical writer - to not create anachronistic dialogue , clothing , dwelling s, behaviors , attitudes After all , we are writers of modem sensibility writin g about little known ancient cultures , but we have to try to be true to them and to their times.
Did you have any difficulty telling the story of Patrick and Osian because the story was told from a male perspective? Did you relate more easily to Aislinn and Finnabair? Why? Why not?
Aislinn and Finnabair are both younger than I am , s o I had to write from a position of youthful inexperience , naivet e, hope and disappointment , but certainly we have all been there. Finnabair was a difficult character because she has been shaped in opposition to a mother who is a stunning power figure In many ways , l admire her moth e r Medb , but Finnabair's story is the story of a pawn in a power game who must find a way to es cape that position I had to imagine that position fully; what would it be like to
grow up powerless and disenfranchised? I didn't; my parents and my Aunt Vivvy (Niniane of the tale) tended to believe that I could hang the moon. So I shared my Vivvy (Niniane) with
You combine historical fact with fantasy and supernatural elements in all three of your novels. How do you decide where to diverge from historical fact and move into the fantastical? In your experience, how do the two elements of history and fantasy play off of each other in Celtic storytelling?
BRIGH ..f SWORD ,1f IRELAND
Finnabair; one person who believes in us is a powerful force. For Aislinn, I have lived in a number of locations, so it was easy to imagine the position of outsider or newcomer. 1 also had a great affinity for her metaphysics, her perception of things magical in the world. Too , her love of her child is a mirror of mine. I suppose, however , that Patrick and Osian are really two sides of me; both of their vo ic es are very close to mine. I could strongly identify with them both a nd l thoroughly enjoyed the male perspective
In humanizing Patrick, yo u made him more approachable and less saintly. What was your goal in approaching Aislinn? Finnabair?
Aislinn's arc hety pe is the grail quest ; she is searching for th e cup of answers. So, of course, are all of us. Finnabair really was th e pawn of Medb. In our culture , the closest parallel to Finnabair would be the child who is actually the vicarious vessel; the actor child of a stage parent , the sports child of an "armchair coach," the child who "must" go to m ed school. I see a number of students like Finnabair so she is very recognizable to me.
Irish poet Nuala Ni Dhornhnaill says "Even the dogs in West Kerry know that the Otherworld exists and that to be in and out of it constantly is the most natural thing in the world " In the Celtic world, the fantastical is just behind a little "smokescreen," if you will. The "real" world and the "superreal" world intersect constantly. Western culture tends to think life/ death, natural/supernatural, reality/ unreality. The Celtic world tends to just think different forms and states of life. So you don't so much move among them in Celtic story as simply recognize their presence
After your first book on Patrick, what process did you use to decide that your next book would be about Aislinn? Did you already have her in mind when you were working on Patrick's story?
In the way of so many writers, I actually wrote Aislinn first and Patrick second , but they were published in reverse order.
Why did you place her at the time and place you did: in and around the court of Cormac Mac Art? Why a druid priestess?
She really was an actual character of that time and place though we do not know her name. The histories tell us that "a woman of the tribe of the Deisi" was kidnapped by the son of Corn1ac Mac Art and brought to the high hill of Tara. Many women trained to be druids during this time period in Ireland, as well as physicians, warriors , etc. Many , if not most, levels of society were open to women in this period in Irish history
In Bright Sword of Ireland, you focus on Finnabair as the protagonist when she is actually a very secondary character in Celtic lore. Why? What moved you about her story sufficient to plot a story around her?
In the Tain, Ireland's epic, there are two mentions of Finnabair. One says that she drowned herself in a mountain river. The second says that "Finnabair stayed with CuChulainn " CuChulainn was her mother's sworn enemy and so that line set me to wondering. What would a gir l who was a pawn of her mother do if she didn't want to drown herself? What would be sufficient revenge? Push all her mother's buttons, as it were The story grew out of that single line.
Cuchulainn plays a crucial role in Bright Sword of Ireland. What about Cuchulainn attracts you?
I love CuChulainn. He is funny and smart and selfdeprecating. He isn't handsome, but he is so male. Mostly, he is a warrior who is unafraid to stand on the rock in defense of his country. For me, in that sense, he is all the brave young men and women who are scattered around the world in defense of our countries and he salutes their dedication, their humility and their fearlessness.
How much, if at all, did you depart from the standard line about Cuchulainn?
Not much. The Tain gives him to us as brave and intrepid, dangerously skilled, but funny and wise. He stands alone in defense of Ulster and he does it with all of his abilities. He was a natty, even flamboyant, dresser and he really was attractive to women, but madly, passionately in love with his Erner and particularly with her mind, her quick wit. He was short and bulky and rather unappealing by Celtic standards as the Celts at this time were very tall, large, handsome people, but CuChulainn overrides all of that with his "gifts," which are formidable, almost "superpowers."
Have other authors influenced you? Who? Why? What authors do you read in your spare time?
Isn't this the killer question for writers? First Shakespeare. He is "my Will," which is a particularly quirky "Yank" sort of claim on the boy, but oh my. Macbeth in six weeks by the tallow fat of a pub candle? Never mind the curse, still so powerful that my students won't speak the name. And every set of lines works as a poem alone. He harnessed the lightning After that, I am a powerfully eclectic reader and would be afraid to miss someone whose words I worship.
How do you plot out a novel? Where do you start? Once you start, how many hours a day do you spend writing?
When I am on a writing "tear," I will write for eight hours a day, pretty much every day. I cannot do this during my teaching semesters, however, so then I have to content myself with shorter "spurts" of writing. As to plot, I tend to know the "bookends" of a story and all the rest is intuition and flow when it works or pacing around and sighing when it doesn't. I do know writers who plot even the most minute details; one friend ofmy acquaintance plots with multicolored notecards on a huge corkboard, but I am not much for detailed outlines. As a storyteller, one of the best pieces of advice I ever received came from my teacher , Abenaki writer and storyteller Joseph Bruchac. He said, "Carry the story and let it tell itself." I try to do that in both the written and the oral forms.
How do you research your novels? What process do you use in determining the subject matter of your next novel?
I read voraciously. My early research took ten years before I ever started writing. My methodology is somewhat old-
fashioned. I take thousands and thousands of notecards, each one subject specific and each one attributed with accurate citation. This probably comes from years of teaching research methodology to students. It is a slow, ponderous method, but I do find that my boxes of notecards, once completed and organized, are a compendium of sources in and of themselves and are wonderfully useful and instructive.
Have you started your next novel? What's. the subject matter? How close are you to finishing? Do you have any others planned out in your mind?
My next book is called Song OfIreland. Myth would have it that the Celts from the Iberian peninsula of Spain migrated to Ireland somewhere around 500 B.C. While archeological evidence does not support a large-scale migration, linguistic and cultural evidence does support cultural absorption. Also, a recent dna study strongly links the Irish and Spanish "brooks" of the gene pool. So who did these Spanish Celts encounter when they arrived in Ireland? Legend says that it was the little people, in full possession of magic. The intersection must have been interesting because the little people dwell in Ireland still, as do the descendants of the Spanish Celts. I love stories about intersection, so that is my next book. It is finished in draft and currently in the revision stage. After that, I actually have about eight more planned out. The problem with being a writer and a reader is that we can't live long enough!!!
Historical Fiction Enthusiasts!
Join
THE HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY at nur fin,t. North Atnerican Conference.
V,/hen.? April 15 - 17, 2005
Where? S,1lt L:1k,~ C:i1.·y
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Sermons, Beetles and a Cartload of Fish
Fiction by CHARLES PEARSON
"Watch out for your souls, you miserable sinners!" the parson thundered, hammering his fist so hard on the edge of the pulpit it really hurt. He successfully hid that from his congregation.
Sternly, he looked down at them. There was Molly Patchet. What had she been doing behind the cowsheds the other evening? He had been chasing a rare type of butterfly when he came across the flustered-looking Molly. The butterfly had escaped, but he had caught something else; a whiff of that strong tobacco that Horace Minto always smoked. Horace, sitting with his buxom wife and four daughters, was looking up at him now as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.
Then there was William Pendergast. Come to the village with his hoity-toity city ways and fat wallet. He was already on the Parish Council and threatening to dominate it. But why was he always gallivanting off to London? His wife did not seem to mind. Some said that it was only when Pendergast was away and the maid had been given the day off, that the milkman, Archie Meadows, called at the Pendergast's secluded mansion. Sarah Pendergast was whispering in her husband's ear now, with a smirk on her face. She probably thought Hellfire was not to be taken seriously. More than likely, both of them were covert Freethinkers as well as Whigs. The vicar went on with his sermon, certain that he had chosen the right vocation. Stern warnings were needed sometimes, not just guidance and he had the strength of character to deliver them If that made him unpopular, so be it.
Nevertheless, the vicar was quite relieved when the service was over. On the short walk back to the vicarage he allowed his thoughts to dwell on other matters. Some
of those specimens he'd been given a couple of days ago were fascinating. One in particular might be a real find; dramatic enough to win him acclaim in the community of Naturalists. Pride was a sin of course, but there was no harm in a quiet satisfaction when painstaking work bore fruit.
Found under a stone in the backyard of a Stepney alehouse, that student had said. Well, it was the sort of place that all students seemed to frequent these days. But it was an extremely interesting beetle.
His sister met him at the door. "You look done in, Leonard. You've given one of your specials, haven't you?" she accused him. Her husband was also a parson, but he didn't believe in ruining his digestion by going on about Hell and Brimstone.
"Not many of them could meet my eye," the vicar replied grimly. "Sometimes I think I am living in a den of iniquity."
"Well, don't let it spoil your dinner. I've done you roast beef, just as you like it. When I come over again, I'll have to have a word with that housekeeper who cooks for you now. You've got thinner. Anyway," she continued as she ushered him into the hall, "this was a neglected parish before you came. I think you've done wonders, not least with the School."
Leonard was glad to be reminded of that. He was the first priest for ages to show any interest in the village • school, which had fallen into a sad state of disrepair.
"Still not enough though," he replied. " And Pendergast seems intent on undermining my efforts to add a new schoolroom."
"You won't let him though, will you, Dear?" She· knew that nobody could be more determined than Leonard, when he put his mind to it.
The vicar took his time in classifying the Stepney Beetle. After many hours in his study poring over his microscope, patiently comparing the specimen with his vast collection of insects and consulting his numerous reference tomes, he was sure.
"Lytta vesicatoria, no doubt about it," he said smugly to his brother-in-law, John, who had just finished examining the beetle.
John was a fellow clergyman, but he was also a University Professor and he had wide scientific interests , including Entomology.
"The Blister Beetle," he said, with something like awe. "In Stepney!"
"Well, I've only the word of that student for that. You know him better than I do I think." Leonard spoke casually, but he could hardly wait for John's answer.
"He wouldn't mislead you about anything to do with beetles. He's too serious about it."
"Good. Then I shall write an article on this Blister without delay."
"Well worth it. But perhaps you shouldn't reveal the exact location of his discovery. That Stepney tavern might combine its present business with something worse."
"If you are referring," the vicar replied icily, "to the aphrodisiac properties of pulverised Blister Beetles, it demeans you."
"That's the clergyman in you speaking, Leonard . As scientists we have to face facts."
"The main fact here is that it will be the first Blister found in England. I think that the article will be worthy of the most prestigious of scientific journals. Probably "
"With the discoverer as co-author, I presume." John interrupted, his eyes twinkling.
"I'll have to think about that," Leonard answered starchily. "An unknown student can't expect to leap to fame just because he happened to lift a stone during a drunken brawl."
John laughed. "I've seen him a little tipsy at my wine parties, I'll admit. But drunk or not in that tavern yard, he knew he'd found something interesting. And he won't be a student much longer. He should have his M.A. soon."
"Which hardly qualifies him as an Entomologist. And neither will his holy orders, assuming he takes them."
The Reverend Leonard sniffed contemptuously, completely unconscious of any irony. "However, his discovery will be acknowledged."
Leonard hadn't decided yet. He might offer the fellow co-authorship , but only if it was made absolutely clear who was the senior author. Everyone accepted that in the stem world of Science, as in Business, there was little room for Christian sentiment. After all, even a callow youth like that student was a potential rival.
There were other rivals, however. Beetling was a popular pursuit and navvies had opportunities denied to country parsons and University professors and students. So when James Michael O'Flaherty, better known to his associates as "Big Mick", leaned on his shovel while he mopped the honest sweat from his brow, his eyes were not still. They were scanning the hordes of ants, beetles and other insects his labours had disturbed. His muttered , "Begorra !" signalled the beginning of a sequence of events which led to the presentation of a hurriedly prepared scientific paper at a meeting of the Oxford Natural History Society - the trench Big Mick had been digging happened to be at Woodstock - and the publication of a more comprehensive article on the discovery in the Transactions of that society the following month
The news, including the occupation of the discoverer of the Woodstock Blister , spread fast in the Beetling fraternity. John did his best to hide his amusement , making a genuine effort for once to console his brotherin-law.
"It's wretched luck, Leonard ," he said. "But at least yours will be only the second Blister to be discovered in England "
They both knew though , that in Beetling, only firsts counted
Leonard had to summon up all his Christian fortitude in the face of this disappointment. Grumpily he passed the unwelcome news on to the student who had given
him the Stepney Beetle, when the young man visited him at the vicarage. To Leonard's amazement the young man did not seem at all put out.
"Ah well, it's like huntin' and fishin' -and gamin' as well of course - you win some, you lose some," said the student, breezily
This was not the sort of response Leonard expected from a serious Beetler.
The fellow's eyes looked bleary Too much cramming for his examinations? Or had he been carousing all night at the gaming tables? Leonard had heard the rumours about him, although he had not yet been hauled in by the University Proctor. A combination of luck and agility could account for that. Leonard eyed his companion. He was certainly tall enough to make light work of scaling the college walls after curfew.
These thoughts, surprisingly, made Leonard feel better. Let the young fellow have his fling, but frivolity and Beetling did not mix. He did not encourage the student to prolong his visit.
"If you come across any other interesting specimens, I shall be pleased to identify them for you," he announced regally, as they parted "Good luck in your examinations."
"Thanks. At least, I shan't be up against any Irish navvies in them."
Leonard managed a smile , but he was thinking , how could John believe that this fellow was serious about anything? Certainly he was not a person who could ever be considered as a co-author , whatever discoveries he might stumble on
A few months later, there was something much more important on his mind - a heaven-sent opportunity to forge ahead of all Beetlers, serious or otherwise. But he agonised over it. Heaven-sent, he thought bitterly. The Lord was testing him! Ifhe took that very special post of Naturalist that John had offered him , it meant abandoning his parishioners , temporarily at least. What devilment would some of them get up to ? That curate just wasn't up to the job.
And then there's the School, he thought sadly. He had William Pendergast almost isolated on the Parish Council now. He would have to give in soon and agree there must be a new wing added to the School , not just one more room. Generations of pupils would benefit. That also wa s the Lord's work , like his cherished vocation in life - caring for his flock , not just when it suited him , but all the time That had to have priority.
"I do understand , Leonard ," John said , when his brother-in-law told him he could not take the post. John was more serious than usual , knowing how much the decision had cost the vicar. He already knew what he wanted now , but it had to be handled carefully John sighed. "They will still want me to recommend somebody though and I'd prefer to have your support. Entomology will be as important as Botany in this and you are much better known in that field than I arri . Any ideas ? " A little flattery at this point was required
"Not that Irish navvy , " said Leonard, with one of his rare flashes of humour
"Of course not! "John was genuinely shocked. "It can't be anyone with the slightest connection with Oxford." His Regius professorship was in that other place.
Over an hour later they were still discussing it, although the maid, who had taken them tea and toasted muffins, put it differently. "At it 'ammer n' tongs, the two reverends are," she told Cook.
"All the people you've suggested for the post are little better than dilettantes," Leonard was saying now, not realizing that was part of John's plan. "No good for such demanding work. It needs someone who has a systematic approach as well as experience." He sniffed, knowing how well that described himself.
"And above average powers of observation, don't you think?" asked John.
"Of course. That is essential," Leonard replied haughtily, not seeing the trap.
"As exhibited by the discoverer of the Stepney Beetle?" John's smile was wicked. He knew perfectly well where Leonard laid all the blame for what he regarded as a fiasco.
"You can't be serious!" Leonard spluttered." A callow youth like him! He's no experience at all in the scientific world."
"Youth and enthusiasm can sometimes outweigh experience."
Leonard began to think that John was indeed serious. "The idea is preposterous," he said scornfully, "and even if it weren't, you told me the fellow is supposed to be studying for the Church now." The vicar shuddered at that thought, although he knew that the Church was quite efficient in hiding its incompetents in places where they could do the least harm. Somewhere deep in darkest Africa might be a good choice in this case.
John smiled. "That was mainly his father's idea and I rather think that both of them could be persuaded that the loss to the Church could be Science's gain. God moves in a mysterious way."
Leonard snorted. It was almost heretical for John to say that about such a frivolous fellow. He could see that it was up to him to dispose of this nonsense.
The argument went on for hours and when the vicar did make his lonely way home, he was not in a cheerful mood. He had never known John to be so stubborn. Worse even than Pendergast over the school and there hadn't been time to use the wearing-down tactics that were certainly going to defeat William. John had insisted the matter was urgent. Somehow, in the end, he had allowed John to use his name to support the application of a fellow with a "You win some, you lose some" attitude to Entomology for a post just made for himself. Leonard shook his head in bemusement.
Not surprisingly, his brother-in-law was in a good humour at having won Leonard's support, however grudging. In fact he was humming pleasurably as he sat at his desk and wrote to his former student, saying he was pleased to be able to recommend him for the post of Naturalist in H.M.S. Beagle and urging him to accept it. After John had addressed the letter, he picked up his pen
again, deciding it was only courteous to add M.A. after the name of Charles Darwin Esq.
The Reverend John Stevens Henslow could not have foreseen the full consequences of that letter. One of them rebounded quite severely, five years later, not on himself, but on Leonard. He lost his housekeeper.
"She simply walked out," Leonard complained to his sister, when she came over to cook him a much-needed hot meal.
"I can't say I blame her," she replied. "The smell is still all over the vicarage."
"I'm sure Darwin did it for devilment," Leonard wailed. "And his gall! He's asked me to study them!"
The vicar was not a happy man. The huge consignment of fish from the Beagle that had landed on his doorstep might include some interesting specimens, like the insects he'd once received from the same donor, but dead beetles have a definite advantage over dead fish.
"Ifl had taken that post instead of him," he moaned, "those fish would have been pickled properly."
"I'm sure they would Dear, but you would have got sea-sick. Remember that time on Windermere in that rowing-boat?"
"Darwin was sick for days in the Beagle, John told me." Leonard brightened a little.
"Well, I'm sorry for him then. I thought Mr Darwin was a nice young man. But are you going to study those fish? It would make a change from creepy-crawlies."
"Hmm. Study his half-pickled fish for him, while he no doubt, is lounging around in that Stepney alehouse again." This remark was lost on his sister, but always practical, she now asked, "Then what are you going to do with them? You can't eat a great cartload of fish yourself Enough to feed the multitude. Come to think of it, the Poor would be glad of them."
The idea had some attraction to the vicar. He had already thrown out the rank bad fish; this was an ideal way of ridding himself of the rest - with an easy conscience. Darwin's frustration would be small compared to his own over the Stepney Beetle. And if that dilettante was no longer planning to enter the Church, he would have been the instrument of at least one act of Christian charity.
"Aren't you going to eat your apple pie?" his sister was asking him now. I went to the trouble of making you custard for it, because I know you always like that." Leonard shook his head, shoving his almost untasted dessert well away from him in disgust. The custard had been a mistake. It stank of Charles Darwin's fish.
In the end though, in spite of these tribulations, Leonard's scientific aspirations were not to be denied this time. Urged on by John, who pointed out that publication of his findings was a foregone conclusion and it would bring great credit to him as a Naturalist, Leonard began to study the better-preserved fish in his usual meticulous fashion. He refused to rush the work in response to Darwin's letters, which varied between almost abject pleading to thinly veiled threats that the business might have be taken elsewhere. Time went by, but he was
rewarded by a fascinating discovery. The fish from the Galapagos were all new species.
When John's prediction came true, it was gratifying to say the least, to see his name in the company of the distinguished scientists who contributed to "The Zoology of the Voyage ofH.M.S Beagle" . Unfortunately, his Christian fortitude was tested once again, when it became clear that the powers-that-be in the scientific community, gave all the credit for this massive, scholarly treatise to its editor, C. Darwin.
So, Gentle Reader, to adopt the style of those days, that was the nearest the two rival Beetlers came to being coauthors. Looking at it another way, the Reverend Leonard Jenyns, vicar of the Cambridgeshire village of Swaffham Bulbeck during Darwin's undergraduate days, played a small part in the development of an earth-shaking theory that was unlikely to meet with his approval.
But something else would.
Close by St. Mary's Church, his church one and a half centuries ago, there still stands a school. And Leonard Jenyns is still remembered for all he did for it.
Historical Note
The Reverend Leonard Jenyns, vicar of Swafjham Bulbeckfrom 1828 to 1849, did exchange specimens of beetles with the undergraduate, Charles Darwin, who clearly believed he had the worst of the deal with the parson "of evil repute in the beetling fraternity". Later, the vicar turned down the chance to keep Captain Fitzroy company and serve as Naturalist on the Beagle. Quite likely, if this had not happened, it would have been Wallace's Theory of Evolution that would have changed the world, although somehow it doesn't have quite the right ring to it.
At the end of the voyage a large number of inadequately pickled fish did indeed arrive at Jenyns's door and from what his brother-in-law, the Reverend John Stevens Hens/ow, told Darwin, we can be sure that the vicar's well-known sarcasm was given full vent. However, Jenyns probably put aside for a while some of his pastoral duties and his valuable work for the village school, because his studies of the better preserved fish were included in The Zoology of the Voyage of HMS. Beagle, (Smith, Elder, 1840-42), which Darwin edited.
More information about Darwin's relationship with Jenyns (but not about the Stepney Beetle!) can be found in the excellent biography of Darwin by Desmond and Moore (Darwin, Michael Joseph , 1991).
The Historical Novel Society preserits
This year the Historical Novel Society is introducing an international short-fiction competition open to all writers in the Historical genre.
The competition is intended to encourage the development of the Short History genre and to enable the publication of new writers of historical fiction in the shortstory format.
The Historical Short-Fiction Prize competition is very straightforward:
Entries are invited for original short stories on an historical theme. Each one will be read and assessed by a panel of judges, and the top 10 stories will appear in the Short Histories Anthology to be published by Fish Publishing in September 2005.
The author of the story adjudged to be the best from all the entries received will be awarded a prize of£ 1,000 and their entry will appear as the title piece to the Anthology. All other authors whose stories feature in the 2005 Anthology will receive an award of £250.
Competition Summary
Opening date 5 November 2004
Closing date: 30 March 2005
Judges: To be appointed
First Prize £1,000 to the winner plus publication as the title piece of the 2005 Short Histories Anthology.
At least nine runners up will also be selected to appear in the Anthology and each will receive an award of £250 plus five free copies of the Anthology.
All winning authors will be invited to the launch of the 2005 Short Histories Anthology.
This will take place during the Cambridge History Festival 2005 at Queens College , Cambridge.
The Rules
- No entry form is needed
- The Prize is open to writers of any nationality writing in English.
- There is no restriction on period or style but the theme must be historical.
- Maximum 6 ,000 words
- The winning stories must be available for the anthology and, therefore, must not have been published previously
- Copyright remains with the author.
- Notification of receipt of entry will normally be by email.
- The judges' verdict is final.
- No correspondence will be entered into once work has been submitted.
- Stories cannot be altered or changed after they have been entered.
The Historical Short Fiction Prize 2005 - Entry Fees
The cost of an On-line entry is fixed in Euro and the translation into your local currency will be done automatically by your credit card company according to the current exchange rate. The cost of Postal entry will be at a fixed rate in Euro, Pounds Sterling and US Dollars.
On-Line Entries
On-line entries will only be accepted if entered through our website. Please do not send stories as email attachments.
On-Line Entry Fee (in Euro) Per Entry 27.50 Critique 45.00 2005 Anthology (Inc. P&P Delivered September 2005) 12.50
Postal Entries
Stories entered by post must be submitted with a min. 12pt font, 1.5 spacing and printed on one side of the paper only. PLEASE DO NOT PUT YOUR NAME ON THE STORY TITLE PAGE INCLUDE ALL CONTACT DETAILS ON A SEPARATE SHEET.
Include e-mail address where possible. Stories will not be returned unless they are being critiqued. Include a cheque, made payable to 'HNS Competitions', in your local currency to cover the cost of all your requirements. Postal Entry Fee (in £) Per Entry £22 .50 Critique £30.00
Postal Entry Fee (in ) Per Entry 30.00 Critique 45.00
Postal Entry Fee (in US$) Per Entry $35.00 Critique $60.00
Postal entries should be sent to: Historical ovel Society PO BOX 63, EXETER EX68WX.
If receipt of entry, notification of results, or response to any other enquiry is required other than by email, then send a Stamped Self-Addressed Envelope if posting from within the UK, or International Reply Coupons if writing from any other country.
Slitherine Prize
Slitherine (www.slitherine.co.uk) are the designers of a stunning series of historical computer games. Legion, Chariots of War, The Spartan, and now Gates of Troy allow gamers to take the place of history's greatest generals.
See if you can answer the questions below. Two winners will receive a copy of Gates of Troy for PC.
Please send answers to Richard Leehistnovel@aol.com, or by post to Marine Cottage, The Strand, Starcross, Devon, EX6 8NY.
Deadline: Feb 1st 2005.
I) Who was Briseis in Homer's Iliad? What relationship does she have to the main protagonists in the recent film Troy?
2) How many Spartans survived the Battle of Thermopylae? How many survived in Steven Pressfield's version, The Gates of Fire?
3) How did the Emperor Commodus die? How does he die in the film Gladiator.
4) Which Ramses is part of the Moses story? Which French author recently wrote a series of best-selling novels about him?
5) How many years did the Emperor Titus reign (rounded to the nearest whole number)? Which children's historical series takes place during his reign?
Tie-breaker:
What did Julius Caesar say was the reason that he invaded Britain? What do you think the real reason was? (30 words maximum!)
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