What first attracted you to the period or periods you work in?
It’s not periods per se. I like to uncover nuggets of history that I can build on and weave into a modern-day setting. I have an insatiable appetite for trivia and love peering into the dark underbelly of formally taught history.
Can you tell us a little about how you research? Has the process changed over the years?
Once I have an idea it’s like a pebble. I follow the ripples out. It’s surprising how quite disparate events in history can actually collide. Recently there was a tie-up between Romanov treasures, the connection of the Vedic faith brought to India from the Urals and the betrayal of Stalin of his communist colleagues to the Czar’s secret police. Clearly AI, if used correctly, is a fabulous resource that has made obtaining information much quicker. Just don’t take everything it tells you as being 100% correct!
The common phrase is that history is written by the victors. Do you think this is true?
It’s a cliché from lazy people. Thucydides’ account of the Peloponnesian War is the version historians refer to, yet he lost. Confederate soldier Edward Pollard’s book, The Lost Cause, shaped for a generation how Americans remembered the Civil War. For me, as a writer of fiction, it’s the insight that matters. It’s what’s hinted at or left unsaid that I seize on.
Are there any writers or historians who helped shaped your career? Similarly, can you recommend three history books which budding historians should read?
It’s very ‘of the moment’, but Homer would be on my list. Also, it’s people and events that fascinate me, so I may well read three biographies of a historical figure. However, I would add Winston Churchill and Andy McNab!
If you could meet any figure from history, who would it be and why? Also, if you could witness any event throughout history, what would it be?
Cleopatra. As a woman who ensnared two legendary men yet wrote her own page in history, she must have been fascinating. The event would have been the asteroid that smashed into the sea at Chicxulub and ended the age of the dinosaurs.
If you could add any period or subject to the history curriculum, what would it be?
Rather than periods, it would be civilisations outside of the normal Greek, Roman and Egyptian: Aztec, Mayan and Inca in the Americas, the Han and Tang dynasties in China, and the Achaemenid and Sassanid empires in Persia.
If you could give a piece of advice to your younger self, either as a student or when you first started out as a writer, what would it be?
Experience is the best source of inspiration.
Can you tell us a little bit about the project you are currently working on?
I am completing The Dolos Legacy, my sixth book in the series about film producer Marcus Riley. As well as being set in Hollywood and the Presidio in San Francisco, a large part is set in Paraguay and its border with Brazil, the Alto Paraná. History of that region and the myths, mores and customs of the Guaraní play a big role in my thriller.
Mark Grenside is a London-born thriller writer and the author of Sunset Circus.
