News and Random Musings about Historical NovelsDo you prefer lopping off heads from horseback on the Mongolian steppes or delivering subtly devastating rejoinders over tea in a Victorian drawing room? Authors keep writing new novels to suit your taste, and I keep discovering new old ones. Mar 11, 2010, Review of the Viking adventure novel Sons of ThunderA new review of Sons of Thunder, a Viking adventure novel by Giles Kristian, has been posted. This is one of Annis's reviews, and it captures the novel's spirit of blood-lust and seafaring excitement. Sons of Thunder is the second in a planned trilogy. Although it has not yet been published in the U.S., copies of the U.K. publication are available from Powell's Books through their international warehouse. Mar 10, 2010, Interview with Savage Lands author Clare Clark
No, in fact on the whole I have a pretty robust attitude to liquids, especially the imbibable kinds! I think what interests me is the hostile environments people in the past have been required to inhabit and to attempt to civilise. The filthy Thames in The Great Stink was, like the swamps in Savage Lands, a symbol of the struggle of those people for survival, a difficulty that, in the main, we in the 21st century, do not have to deal with. Most of us in the West exist quite separately from our landscapes, our sewage piped away, our swamps drained. I am very drawn by the quiet courage and strength of past generations who were required to survive in situations of - to us - unendurable hardship.
Yes, absolutely, and I could never have written about it if I hadn't. I took steamer trips along the Mississippi, I hiked through miles of national parks, I walked around New Orleans with an eighteenth century map, tracing the paths of the first settlers. I was struck continuously by the unrelenting heat and humidity, the noisiness of the forests full of frogs and birds, by the extraordinary lushness, and I tried to imagine Elisabeth coming from Paris with all its chilly rules and social rigidity to this wild and untameable place.
Yes, the character of Auguste is based on a real-life boy, Saint-Michel, the son of a French harbourmaster, who was indeed left with the local tribes to learn their languages and act as a spy. There is very little information about Saint-Michel, as there is about most of the French history of Louisiana, but we know that, just like Auguste, he was sent to live with the Chickasaw tribe, having already learned the Houma language. He became the centre of a major diplomatic incident when, as a pretext for attacking their longstanding enemies, the Choctaws accused the Chickasaws of having burned him at the stake. Saint-Michel was eventually returned unharmed but it was this incident that provided the inspiration for the awful torture imposed on Auguste.
Mar 9, 2010, Review of Winston Graham's Ross Poldark; Portuguese blogA new review of Ross Poldark, the first novel in Winston Graham's family saga series set in a Cornish mining village, has been posted. Some readers may recall the BBC television production featured on Masterpiece Theatre back in the 1970s. The novels have all the atmosphere of the series but, as usual with novels, have more depth and texture because the story doesn't have to be compressed into the shorter format of film. Carla Ribeiro, one of the winners in our 2009 Thanksgiving Giveaway contest, has posted a review of the book she won, Philippa Gregory's The White Queen, on her blog. Carla is Portuguese, and for all of you readers out there who relish historical novels and speak Portuguese, her blog, As Leituras do Corvo, is for you! Mar 8, 2010, Review of HeresyA new review of Heresy, an historical thriller by S.J. Parris featuring Renaissance scientist Giordano Bruno as the sleuth, has been posted. Giordano Bruno was truly a man ahead of his time, and the parts of this novel that readers may find hardest to believe are firmly grounded in the historical record. Mar 2, 2010, Review of The Secret of the Glass by Donna Russo MorinA new review of The Secret of the Glass has been posted. It's about a young woman on the Venetian Island of Murano who is secretly learning the art of glassmaking, forbidden to women. Venice in the early seventeenth century under Doge Leonardo Donato makes a fascinating setting, and very few novels are set in this time and place. The Secret of the Glass was published March 1. Mar 1, 2010, Interview with The Scarlet Lion author Elizabeth Chadwick
As a modern mother I'd probably defy the king, but as a medieval mother, I don't honestly know. It would depend on my conditioning and the fact that I'd been raised to accept my husband's word as law. However strong a woman was back then, a man still had the final say. Refusal could bring down all sorts of repercussions on the individual and the family too. Around the time that Isabelle's sons were taken hostage, Maude de Braose received a similar demand from King John. She refused to hand over her son and went on the run. Eventually, both she and the young man were captured, flung in prison and starved to death. Maude's husband fled to France and the family lost everything. I believe Isabelle's maternal instinct would have been to fight for her sons tooth and nail, but I also believe she was held back both by William's point of view and knowing that if she did refuse, she would only increase the heat for the rest of the family.
As I've sometimes mentioned, I use psychic research and this was how Aoife came over when I used that resource I simply wrote her as I found her. Here's an abbreviated paragraph taken from that research, covering the time when William and Isabelle visited her in Ireland: "She's a whingy, peevy sort of person who wants to feel important. She wants to see her daughter because it's years since she's seen her and she wants things doing. She uses her husband (deceased) like a chip on her shoulder. 'If my husband was alive I'd have this and I'd have that and my daughter would still be here.' She's constantly stirring the pot. She's an interfering mother-in-law and tries to drive a wedge between William and Isabelle. William is above all this, but it's still damaging. She's trying to get a sphere of power in the family."
I have wondered that myself and I am afraid I don't know the answer - or if they did anything at all. If anyone out there does know, please tell me!
Feb 27, 2010, Review of Myself as WitnessAs companion reading for Elizabeth Chadwick's The Scarlet Lion (reviewed yesterday - see below), Annis recommends a novel about England's King John by James Goldman, who also wrote the play The Lion in Winter. See Annis's review of Myself as Witness for more information about a rare novel in which King John is the main character rather than a foil for other characters whose lives he complicates. Feb 26, 2010, Review of Elizabeth Chadwick's The Scarlet LionA new review of The Scarlet Lion by Elizabeth Chadwick has been posted. This stand-alone novel about the marriage of medieval knight William Marshal and Isabelle de Clare can also be read as a sequel to Chadwick's The Greatest Knight, since it covers the second half of Marshal's life. Chadwick is known for the historical authenticity of her fiction, and readers who want to know what life was really like for an aristocratic couple in the time of England's King John will especially appreciate this novel. Coming tomorrow: Annis's review of another King John novel Coming Monday: An interview with author Elizabeth Chadwick Feb 23, 2010, National Geographic article about Peru's mysterious Nasca lines
With more being discovered about the ancient Nasca, perhaps a few novelists will imagine their lives in fiction. Meanwhile, historical novels set in Peru are more likely to be about the Inca than the Nasca, including The Incas by Daniel Peters, about the Incan Empire before the coming of the conquistadors, and Incas: The Puma's Shadow by A.B. Daniel, the first in a series about an Inca woman during the time of the Spanish conquest. Annamaria Alfieri's 2009 novel City of Silver (see review) is a mystery set in the seventeenth-century Spanish-ruled silver mining city of Potosi, and Thornton Wilder's classic The Bridge of San Luis Rey is about the people who died when a bridge collapsed in 1714. Feb 21, 2010, Best Historical Novel Picks from 2009 by AnnisFrequent review contributor Annis has made a list of the best historical novels she read in 2009. It's a great list, full of novels both exciting and thoughtful. Annis and I have similar taste and enjoy many of the same novels, but what we read in the course of a particular year doesn't necessarily overlap much, so this is a completely different set of books than appears on my own best of 2009 list. Feb 20, 2010, Interview with Mary Fahnestock-ThomasGeorgette Heyer is no longer around to give interviews, but we're lucky enough to have Mary Fahnestock-Thomas visit the blog today instead. She's the editor of Georgette Heyer: A Critical Retrospective, a collection including some of Heyer's short stories; reviews going back to 1921 when her first novel, The Black Moth, appeared; obituaries, and articles about Heyer's work. Welcome, Mary!
I searched out this collection of material in gratitude to Heyer for repeatedly restoring my sense of humor while I finished up my Ph.D. I was fortunate to find someone on the Georgette Heyer listserve who wanted to publish it, and although copyright fees prevented us from including perhaps a third of the reviews I had found, my publisher made a careful and informed selection, and apparently the book has been useful and brought pleasure to many Heyer fans. It is still available through Amazon.com
I was in my mid-thirties and home with my parents for New Year's after many years of adventuring through life in the U.S. and abroad. It was not a particularly happy time, partly because push was coming to shove and I really had to finish my dissertation. My mother, who read widely in many fields but repeatedly returned to Georgette Heyer, had for years been suggesting that I try her, but my field was Literature and I wasn't a bit interested in romances. That New Year's Eve I headed for bed at about 10:30 in low spirits and just picked up The Nonesuch because it was there. I ended up staying up all night reading and laughing out loud, neither of which was at all common for me in those days.
It tends to be whichever one I am reading at the time, though I have a particular fondness for The Nonesuch as my first, The Reluctant Widow as the one I read while pacing the hospital corridors to hasten the arrival of my daughter 23 years ago, Friday's Child because it seems "complete to a shade," Cotillion because of Freddie Standen, Venetia for the relationship between the main characters and the Shakespeare quotes, and The Grand Sophy for, well, I suppose strength of character. Because character and conversation are more important to me than persuasiveness of plot, I also very much enjoy her mysteries; her four contemporary novels I think very interesting for character, especially considering how young Heyer was when she wrote them; her histories and more swashbuckling adventures I generally steer away from, but I do have them in my collection; and I remember The Black Moth in particular having a lovely flavor of The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Feb 19, 2010, Review of Georgette Heyer's The Black MothA new review of The Black Moth, Georgette Heyer's first novel, has been posted. It's a frothy, humorous romp that Heyer fans who want to see how it all began will not want to miss. Feb 17, 2010, Interview with Sally Hemings author Barbara Chase-Riboud
Contrary to popular legend, Brodie's 800-page psychological study had only a short chapter on Sally Hemings in which she merely raised the longstanding question of the Hemings relationship, posing the question but never asserting the relationship as fact. But the book was reviewed only on this aspect, and Brodie never recovered from the venom and accusations directed towards her. I believed the circumstantial and historical evidence in her book was sound and conducted my own ... more Feb 16, 2010, Author Interviews, New Walter Scott Prize for Historical FictionAuthor interviews from 2009 are now all on permanent pages which can be accessed via the Articles page. Interviews moved from the blog over the last few days are with Madison Smartt Bell, author of Devil's Dream; Eva Etzioni-Halevy, author of The Triumph of Deborah; Edward Rutherfurd, author of New York; India Edghill, author of Delilah, and Barbara Corrado Pope, author of Cezanne's Quarry. A new Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction has been announced. The new prize for historical novels first published in Great Britain is being made available through a grant from the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch. Their forebears were friends and relatives of Sir Walter Scott, whose historical novels written in the early nineteenth century are still being read and enjoyed today. A short list will be announced in March, and the winner of the prize for best historical novel of 2009 will be awarded in June 2010. Feb 15, 2010, Review of Savage Lands by Clare ClarkA new review of Savage Lands by Clare Clark has been posted. It takes place in the early 1700s, primarily in the struggling French colony that later became Mobile, Alabama, but was then part of the huge territory of Louisiana. Clark's vivid, lush prose is especially well suited to the steamy setting and her complex and passionate characters. Feb 9, 2010, Review of The Art and Craft of Writing Historical FictionA new review of The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction by James Alexander Thom has been posted. This long overdue guidebook on writing historical fiction is the first published in the U.S. since the internet revolutionized research methods. There are good and bad ways to use the internet, and Thom points out some of the pitfalls of relying on it too heavily. In addition to being valuable to aspiring historical novelists and published historical novelists who wish to improve their skills, it is likely to be enjoyed by readers who feel strongly about the factual underpinnings of the historical novels they read. Thom is passionate about historical novels, and his passion shows in this engaging guidebook. Feb 8, 2010, Review of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!A new review of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!, a book for young people about life in a medieval village, has been posted. Written (mostly in verse) by Laura Amy Schlitz and illustrated by Robert Byrd, its narrators range from about age 10 to 15. It won the 2008 Newbery Award. Feb 3, 2010, Interview with author J. Sydney Jones
In this novel two different resources came together:
Mahler famously wrote, "I am thrice homeless, as a native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world. Everywhere an intruder, never welcomed." He most definitely felt an outsider, but whether or not that affected his music is up for discussion. What did seem to affect his music was revealed during a "walking cure" he had with Freud in the summer of 1910. It came out during their in-depth discussion that Mahler, as a young boy, had witnessed his parents making love. Frightened and somewhat shocked, the youngster ran out onto the street, bumping into a hurdy-gurdy man grinding out a light and frolicsome melody. Freud felt that the literal collision of these two events deeply affected the composer's later work. Indeed, in Mahler's compositions one can make out the continual battle between deeply dramatic music interrupted at times with facile melodies.
Frau Blatschky, the cook of my protagonist in the Viennese Mystery series, provides a meat-and-potatoes variety of old Viennese and Austrian cooking. I think I should start putting her recipes in the books, as so many fans have asked for them. Basically, zwiebelrostbraten is thinly sliced sirloin sauteed and combined with onions that have been fried golden brown. A sauce is created with butter, brandy (optional) and mustard. And you must serve them with fried potatoes. Here are a couple of websites to help out: Austrian Recipes and The Passionate Cook.
Feb 2, 2010, Review of new mystery Requiem in Vienna by J. Sydney Jones; Writers' RetreatA new review of Requiem in Vienna by J. Sydney Jones has been posted. This is the second in a new series featuring a fictional lawyer in Vienna at the end of the nineteenth century. The first in the series, The Empty Mirror, revolved around Viennese artist Gustav Klimt and garnered critical acclaim. This one features composer Gustav Mahler. In a tragic computer accident, I lost the first review of Requiem in Vienna that I wrote a couple of months ago, so I had to read the novel twice. I enjoyed it just as much the second time. The characters are complex and interesting, and the story immersed me in turn-of-the-century Vienna. Last year, I had the good fortune of attending a writer's workshop led by Mary Morris, a wonderful writer of contemporary novels and a fabulous teacher for novelists of all sorts. She'll be leading another workshop March 3-6 in Mountain Lake, Florida (not far from Orlando). I'm going, and it would be a special treat to meet some of my website visitors there who are also budding historical novelists. Mary has a gift for teaching writers. Her bag of tricks includes exercises that add life, depth and meaning to her students' writing, while generating that extra spark of hope and enthusiasm that is sometimes needed to bring a writing project to fruition. The workshop is limited to 12 participants. For more information, email charlotte at charlotteterry.com (substitute the @ symbol for "at"). Coming tomorrow: an interview with author J. Sydney Jones Feb 1, 2010, Interview with "Fools' Guild" author Alan Gordon
When reading about the Middle Ages in Durant's The Age of Faith, I suddenly thought of having the fools have their own guild, making it part training, part secret society. Then, while researching the fifth book, I discovered that there were Fools' Guilds in Swabia, formed in each village to create the masks and revelry for Fasnacht, a pre-Christian drive-away-the-winter holiday that was a precursor to Mardi Gras.
There are few surviving examples of actual jokes, but based on what I've seen, yes. There was also a tradition in some areas of having the fools perform naked. I assume that was bawdy at the time, unlike now. Oh,
They would be as distressed at the lack of peace in the world as I am. But there would be many opportunities to make fun of things, and this newfangled internet to spread the word. They would probably end up working at The Onion.
Jan 27, 2010, Interview with author Lindsey Davis
Actually I always wanted to write about the Civil War but changed to the Romans years ago to try and woo publishers. So for me this was the book I had always wanted to write - and I really enjoyed doing it too. I am very much intrigued by the important ideas that were under debate, and for a novelist a period of conflict is rewarding to write about because it automatically throws up characters with different opinions and attitudes - plus there is a dramatic sequence of real events to frame your story.
Well, in some ways we do have physical scars - ruined castles and such that were never rebuilt. There are still many people who 'support' one side or the other; in fact, although it seems unbelievable, I had a slight problem with readers saying they were nervous about reading a book that might take the opposite point of view from theirs. Politically, the Civil War led eventually to democratic changes, from which I would say we still benefit. Self-determination certainly became a right for the body of the population from then on, and you wouldn't say that was a scar.
I see a direct line from the English Civil War to both the French and American Revolutions. ('We hold these truths to be self-evident' is a quotation from the English radicals.) An aspect I didn't have space to explore in what was anyway a very long book was the intricate relationship between England and the New World at the time. People hoping for a better life with freedom of conscience had gone from England to America - and many came back during the War to take part in the fight for freedom here. After the English Commonwealth failed and the monarchy was restored, many must have sought refuge from their disappointment in America, taking with them once again the idea that individuals should have a voice in their government and not just serve to be plundered via taxation!
Jan 26, 2010, New review of Rebels and TraitorsA new review of Rebels and Traitors, Lindsey's Davis's massive novel of the English Civil War has been posted. It's about a Royalist woman and a man who fights for Parliament. First published in the U.K. last year, it came out in a new U.S. edition this month. The publisher's description is a bit misleading, as this is really not a historical romance but a detailed study of the war from the perspective of the common people and the lesser nobility. Jan 25, 2010, New Listings on YA Renaissance PageNovels for young adults set in Renaissance Italy and elsewhere on the European Continent during the Renaissance have been added to the new YA Renaissance page. Several are about young people who get to know the Italian artist Leonardo Da Vinci. Others are about a boy who sails with Magellan's crew, the French queen Catherine de Medici and members of her court, and Jews during the Spanish Inquisition. Jan 21, 2010, Review of Sally HemingsA new review of Sally Hemings by Barbara Chase-Riboud has been posted. This 1979 novel, written before DNA evidence conclusively showed that a son of Thomas Jefferson's slave Sally Hemings was fathered by a man in the Jefferson family (most likely Thomas Jefferson himself), was reprinted in 2009 in a trade paperback edition from Chicago Review Press. It's a beautiful, unexpectedly subtle novel whose portrait of Thomas Jefferson is as complex and compassionate as its portrait of Sally Hemings. I loved it. Jan 10, 2010, Book Lovers of the Feline Persuasion
Dec 31, 2009, The Best Historical Novels I Read in 2009This was a great year for readers who love historical novels. For this year's list of the very best that I read, I wasn't able to limit myself to ten, but selected fifteen historical novels and five historical mysteries that I especially enjoyed. The list includes some literary novels adored by critics, some beautifully written novels that seem to have slipped through the cracks unnoticed, and some without a great deal of deeper meaning that are just for fun but deliver that fun by the truckload. Not all were published in 2009, but most appeared within the last few years, while a couple are recent reprint editions of novels that had gone out of print. I hope you'll enjoy some of them as much as I did. Best wishes for a very happy New Year. May your reading in 2010 be inspiring, fulfilling and pleasurable, and may your real-life experiences be the same! Nov 23, 2009, First map to use the name "America" featured in Smithsonian articleThe December issue of Smithsonian magazine includes a fascinating article by Toby Lester, "Putting America on the Map," about two German map-makers, Matthias Ringmann and Martin Waldseemuller, who in 1507 published the first map to show North and South America surrounded by water and labeled "America." If I'm not mistaken, no one has ever written a novel about Ringmann and Waldseemuller. There are several novels about Columbus and his voyages, though, beginning with Washington Irving's influential, if misleading, 1828 novel The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, which portrays Columbus as the man who convinced Europeans that the earth was not flat but round (educated Europeans already knew this). More recent Columbus fiction includes Adam Schell's 2009 comic novel Tomato Rhapsody, about an Italian tomato grower who sailed with Columbus, and Stephen Marlowe's also-humorous 1987 novel The Memoirs of Christopher Columbus. On a more somber note, Ridley Scott's 1992 movie 1492: Conquest of Paradise, starring Gerard Depardieu as Columbus, portrays the discovery of the New World as a tragedy. It's not too late to enter the Thanksgiving Book Giveaway contest. See the November 20 post below. Coming tomorrow: A review of Delilah by India Edghill
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Clare Clark, author of Savage Lands, a novel about the early French settlers of the Louisiana territory, is visiting the blog today. Welcome, Clare! It's great to have you here.
It's great to have Elizabeth Chadwick here to talk about her novel The Scarlet Lion, about William Marshal and his wife Isabelle de Clare during King John's reign. Welcome, Elizabeth!
The new March issue of National Geographic includes an article by Stephen S. Hall titled "
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It's great to have Barbara Chase-Riboud visiting the blog today to talk about her novel Sally Hemings (see 
It's a pleasure to have author J. Sydney Jones visiting the blog today to talk about his new mystery Requiem in Vienna, which features composer Gustav Mahler. Welcome, Syd!
Visiting the blog today is Alan Gordon, author of eight "Fools' Guild" mystery novels, including the latest, The Parisian Prodigal (see 
It's great to have Lindsey Davis visiting the blog to talk about her novel of the English Civil War, Rebels and Traitors. Welcome, Lindsey!
Author Susanne Alleyn sent me this photo of her friend's cat Frimousse guarding a galley of her novel 