Image Credits:-
Images created via Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Some images directly from Pixabay. My book cover image from Chapeltown Books.
Earlier this month, I had the great pleasure and privilege of presenting to an online history group a PowerPoint on Josephine Tey (author of The Daughter of Time) and Philippa Langley (co-author, with Michael Jones, of The Search for Richard III: The King’s Grave, and, more recently, The Princes in the Tower, where she is sole author).
I was looking at how two women, who could never meet (as Tey died about a decade before Langley was born), were united in their wish to make people think again about King Richard III. Tey did this with fiction. Langley has done with this with non-fiction.
I have a great love of history, something I inherited from my late mother. I have sometimes written historical flash pieces too, often taking a brief snapshot of a known history and telling it from the viewpoint of the leading character.
For example, in my Not Knowing (Tripping the Flash Fantastic), I have Elizabeth of York admitting, just before she marries Henry VII, she does not know what has happened to her brothers, renowned now as The Princes in the Tower, and the story shows her anguish and reconciling her need to “make the best of things” and prevent further outbreaks of war by her marriage.
All of that is reasonable supposition. Historical fiction does have the advantage over non-fiction here in that it can use reasonable supposition. Non-fiction has to stick to just the facts, please.
History – Fiction
The advantages of historical fiction include being able to invent characters (such as servants) and use them to bring a period of history to life for readers. Equally you can use known historical characters but you do have to get the facts right.
But by showing how history plays out in fictional form, I find it does bring it home more. You see more clearly why this personage did that. You perhaps appreciate the benefits of modern life more. Anyone fancy being a Gentleman of the Stool to Henry VIII? I rather thought not!
Get the details right for your story and you can bring that whole world to life for people who may or may not have read the facts here. I enjoyed Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel because I felt it successfully brought Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s chancellor, to life in a way that had not been done before.
Historical fiction can also present possibilities to readers where facts are difficult to obtain. The Daughter of Time makes a compelling case to clear Richard III of the murder of his nephews using a fictional device to do so and to share what historical facts are known but without overwhelming readers with blocks of information.
Another advantage of historical fiction, when well done, is it brings characters to life. The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Penman is a wonderful Richardian novel which shows Richard III’s life from childhood up to Bosworth. You “see” him interact with the other characters in his story (his wife, Anne Neville, the Earl of Warwick, his brothers, Edward IV and George, Duke of Clarence) in a way which seems realistic. You can’t get that from a non-fiction book.
History – Non-Fiction
I am a big fan of Ben Macintyre’s books. I loved his Operation Mincemeat and Agent ZigZag. I’m currently reading his Double Cross which is the true story of the D Day spies used to fool Hitler. Fascinating stuff and all of his books read like novels but are pure fact. The way the information is presented is important too.
Philippa Langley has used her Princes in the Tower to present what happened to them as England’s oldest cold case (and it is also our oldest missing persons case!). She lays out the theories as to what happened to those boys, challenges the traditional view (propagated by William Shakespeare who in turn based his play on flawed information – Langley proves this point), and produces “receipts” to back up her challenge.
The book is an easy read, well laid out, has a good pace to it (as you would expect to find in a novel), but the focus is on a pure telling of what she has found out supported by evidence. Interestingly much of her evidence comes from what would have been known as the Low Countries back in Richardian/Tudor times.
Henry VII couldn’t destroy evidence everywhere (we are talking about the man who had Titlus Regius, which offered the crown to Richard III by Parliament, repealed unread and tried to backdate his reign to the day before the battle of Bosworth. Why do that? So he could charge those fighting for Richard with treason and confiscate their estates. Sharp practice is nothing new. Parliament intervened here and I suspect that was partly out of self interest, but also those fighting were doing so in good faith for the man who had been their lawful monarch at the time).
So non-fiction generally (and historical non-fiction in particular) does not have to be dull but worthy. It can and should be a gripping read. History should be told in a way to make people want to find out more.
History in Film and Music
I love the themes from The Dambusters, Apollo 13, Schindler’s List and so many more. The music adds to the true stories being told. It reflects the mood of the film and its era. The advantage of film is it can literally show in a few shots what takes pages of description but I would hope a good film adaptation would encourage people to go and read the original books.
I have no time for Braveheart, which is known for its historical inaccuracies, though the music is great. History, in whatever form we share it, needs to be accurate. I had no time for the US film which tried to show it was Americans who broke the code for the Enigma machine in World War Two. I saw that as disrespectful to those who did break it, especially Alan Turing.
I first came across The Daughter of Time as an unabridged reading on Radio 4 Extra. It was backed with wonderfully appropriate music which added to the “feel” of the story. They used William Walton’s The Princes in the Tower. Hearing that book, with music adding to the ambience of it, made me rush out and get the print book and it is a regular re-read of mine.
Conclusion
There is no reason for history to be boring then. Whether you like fiction, non-fiction, or both, there are historical books out there for you.
Just sometimes developments turn up, such as Philippa Langley discovering the skeleton of Richard III, which led to a fascinating documentary and a book to come with it. So there is room for more history books based on new discoveries. Am sure there will be more from her too.
It is a question of working out which eras fascinate you, I think, and then seeing what is out there on the topic. There will be something!
Both the fiction and non-fiction history writers have to do plenty of research. One uses what they find out via a created story (so no big blocks of information dumped on a reader), while the other has the challenge of sharing what they’ve found out in such a way as to keep readers turning the pages.
Nobody said writing history was easy but when it is done well, it is a delight, regardless of whether it is fiction or not.
And now over to you. Do share in the comments box the history books you feel have been well done. Would be good to create a future reading list if possible!
Happy reading!
Related Posts:-
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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