THOUGHTS FROM A DEVONSHIRE FARMHOUSE
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My theme this month is: HISTORY
Most of my author friends write historical novels of one sort or another, from ‘straight’ history to timeslip, alternative, historical romance, historical mystery, historical fantasy... The common theme being that the time, place and characters are all set in the past. Even my cosy mystery Jan Christopher series is, technically, 'history' as they are set in the 1970s.
The only thing that alarms me about history is that it is generally agreed that ‘history’ starts at least 50-70 years ago. And with me having my 72nd birthday next month in April... yes well, the less mentioned about 'historical' the better. I do not think of myself as ‘historical’...
I remember my daughter coming home from school one afternoon – she was about seven – and asking me: “Mummy, did you know any cavemen?”
Er, no, I’m not that old.
I hated history at school during my teenage years. It wasn’t a very good school anyway, and the history mistress ‘taught’ us by droning from a textbook. I can only remember one small smattering of information. She was reading to us about the Spinning Jenny. I now have a rough idea (without going to Wikipedia) of what that was, but at the time my interest was caught because I immediately thought of donkeys. (A ‘Jenny’ is a female donkey.) And I’ve always loved donkeys.
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| a spinning jenny |
We had our dear WonkyDonk for a few years, sadly no longer with us. I did love him, he was such a character.
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| WonkyDonk |
I only found the delight of history when I re-discovered the books by Rosemary Sutcliff as an adult (thanks to working in the local library) and then coming across The Hollow Hills and The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart.
Our English teacher at school read us Ms Sutcliff’s The Queen Elizabeth Story (I reckon it must have been at the end of term.) I enjoyed it, and remember thinking ‘Where is Samarkand?' when it was mentioned. But I far, far more enjoyed The Eagle of the Ninth, Frontier Wolf and Mark of the Horse Lord. (I still cry when I re-read that last one. It also happens to be one of the first books I read that had a male character who was obviously gay (although at 17 I was naïve enough not to know what ‘gay’ meant.)
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| My letter from Rosemary Sutcliff note the dolphin signature |
Mary Stewart’s books woke me up to the history behind the myth of King Arthur. She placed her tales in the 5th/6th Century post-Roman Britain, which made far more sense to me. I devoured all I could about Roman Britain, (again, working in a library helped!) and started writing my own novel about King Arthur ... skip ahead from the early 1970s to 1993 and a week after my 40th birthday when The Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy was accepted for publication ... the rest, as the saying goes, is history.
I wrote the next book, Harold The King because I’d become interested in Anglo-Saxon history while writing the Trilogy – and King Harold II was somewhat easier to research being a) he actually existed b) part of his early life was spent in or near Waltham Abbey, the next town along from where I used to live pre-moving to Devon.
It’s funny though, chatting with other authors I realised that so many of us (not just writers – readers as well!) have our own favourite eras, and the opposite, the periods we hate.
I can’t stand the Victorian period. No idea why. I know why I loathe the Normans (see Harold the King!), I’m mildly interested in Eleanor of Aquitaine, have no interest in the Wars of the Roses (apart from Sharon Penman’s Sword at Sunset) I’d have probably supported The King during the English Civil War as I’m anti-Cromwell... although having said that I love M. J. Logue’s Uncivil War series (firmly on the Parliamentarian side) or to balance that – Cryssa Bazos' wonderful English Civil War series.
As for the Tudors ... no thank you. Elizabeth I is interesting from a historical point of view, but otherwise, also no thanks. No idea why my daughter particularly likes her though. She didn’t get the ‘vibe’ from me.
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| Queen Elizabeth I |
The worrying thing is that the previous Tony Blair government were not interested in The Past and history in schools and in historical fiction, fell out of fashion. Fortunately, novels re-blossomed, thank goodness, with a brief sojourn into historical movies made by Hollywood and as TV dramas. Well, let’s re-phrase that: movies and TV dramas set in an historical period. Some are very good: Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe, for instance and Wolf Hall (on TV, I’m afraid I didn’t get on with the books.) But Braveheart ...? Oh dear. And as for filming Anne Boleyn as a black woman. Oh come on...!
That also is where history is essential. Bad, uncomfortable things happened in history. The Norman Conquest (OK, I’m deeply biased). Slavery, India, WWI and WWII, what’s happening now and the disgraceful situation Trump and his crawling cronies are leading us into with his friendship for Russia and lack of support for Ukraine, (along with the disgraceful lies) is more than alarming. Frankly, a lot of us here in Europe are scared.
History. 1939. Chamberlain, our UK Prime Minister had positive talks with Hitler. He came back to England announcing all was well. Hitler had given his promise. There would not be a war.
Well, look how that turned out.
Because we were not there, and even written 'facts' cannot be trusted, we cannot always know the truth of history. Propaganda and fake news is nothing new (the Normans were pretty good at it,) and to be honest The British Empire era government mostly consisted of racist, sexist, misogynists. (Still do, sadly) and much of history, worldwide, is uncomfortable to talk about, BUT we cannot change the past, nor should we try to. What was done is done. What we – all of us – should do is learn from the mistakes made and not repeat them. Racism, sexism. misogyny - it all needs to go. I really don't care what colour, gender or whatever my friends and readers are, what I do care about is that they are decent, caring people who decently and genuinely care for other people. All other people.
How we get through what, worryingly, seems to be dark stormy days ahead, though is beyond me. Follow the truth, I suppose and shun the spouted nonsense? (And just yesterday on TV we saw what real, disgraceful, blatant bullying looks like.)
History should mean something to everyone, I don't just mean regarding visiting museums or reading good historical fiction, or maybe tracing your family tree, but think on this: we are ALL a part of history because of where we've come from. The past is OUR past. All of us had an ancestor alive when those 'cavemen' were building Stonehenge, or the Pyramids, or when Harold was fighting William seven miles from Hastings, or Matilda was squabbling with Stephen, or Henry VIII wanted Anne instead of Katherine of Aragon or... fill in your own preferences. Our ancestors were alive during those turbulent times - because if they weren't, well, we wouldn't be here, you wouldn't be reading this or I wouldn't be writing it.
The shame is, most of us do not know who these people of the past were, where they were or what they were like... Ah, but that's where fiction comes in very handy.
Stay safe.
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| News From Home |
On the Book News front:
Ghost Encounters has now been published as an e-book and in paperback. It's cheaper on Amazon but you should be able to order it from any good bookstore.
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FOUR AUTHORS TO FOLLOW
by clicking 'follow' on Amazon you will be updated
when new books are released - so a good idea!
M J Logue: writes English Civil War
Tony Riches: writes Tudor period
Cathie Dunn: writes early Norman
Jayne Davis: writes Regency Romance
Goodbye until next month
lege feliciter (read happily)
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Found you on Blue sky. Following.
ReplyDeleteThank you
DeleteGreat to read this, Helen, expressing clearly my and everyone I know’s views on bully boy T and his attitude to Ukraine, Greenland, Panama Canal etc. It is sobering to think of the power he wields. Take care, M
ReplyDeleteThank you
Delete(posted on behalf of R. Marsden)
ReplyDeleteHello Helen,
I read your blog post and enjoyed it so much I tried to leave a comment, but I got an error message so couldn’t leave one. This was the comment I’d have left if I’d been allowed to...
I also didn't get on with Wolf Hall (the book), and because of that, I didn't watch the TV series! You've made me wish I had watched it…
And I also loved Rosemary Sutcliff's Roman Britain stories and King Arthur stories, all of which I read as a schoolboy. They were in my school library too. Did you ever read G.A. Henty or Showell Styles? Reading was my passion, and authors like these brought history to life.
Children read much less now, which is such a shame. For me, it probably helped that I was hopelessly in love with my history teacher, a wonderful woman called Miss Scourse. It was unusual to have any female staff at my school, and Miss Scourse was young, pretty and very inspiring in the classroom. You are so lucky to have a hand-written letter from Ms Sutcliff.
Thanks for this article – not only enjoyable, but brought back memories of much-loved books!
From Helen - thanks Rory, no idea why Blogger is sometimes so picky. :-(
Enjoyable - as always! And I learned something new, that a female donkey is a jenny!
ReplyDeleteInteresting, intriguing and informative as always, Helen. I, too, am struggling with the bully south of the border. His idea to make Canada his 51st state has not been well received here and has brought out a lot of pro Canada sentiment all across this lovely country. O Canada!
ReplyDeleteKeep sharing your thoughts with all of us. So inspiring!
Elaine Cougler, working on writing book #9!
Harold the King - Best Book Ever!
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