The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
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Historical fiction is a great introduction to history. Can you recommend any historians to our readers to learn more about your period? My favourite general historians of the English Civil War are Diane Purkiss and Michael Braddick. John Adamson’s The Noble Revolt is...
In many ways I came to writing historical novels late in my literary career; strangely so, for I have always been fascinated by history. The first book I ever wanted to never end was Carola Oman’s Robin Hood the Prince of Outlaws. A little later, a childhood accident...
Antonia Senior talks to Elizabeth Fremantle about her novel The Tyrant’s Shadow. The Tyrant’s Shadow follows on from the events of your previous novel Treason’s Daughter, was it always your intention to write more than one book with these characters? I had intended to...
A friend of mine has a glorious tradition. She still reads with her near-teenage son every night. To my absolute joy, she is currently reading Mary Renault with him, in an attempt to introduce him to complex, layered prose. I bow to no-one in my veneration of Mary...
The poet eases his tongue into her mouth. He probes. She lets him. He pulls back, and she can see his eyes, watery and squid-ink dark. She closes hers, and presses her lips together into a thin line. 'How strange,' she hears him say. 'How strange you are.' He puts his...
The modern city of Istanbul has been known by many names. Constantinople, Miklagard, the New Rome, the Queen of Cities, the Great City, Byzantium. But by any name, it has been the setting for many a great novel (and some not so great ones). I suppose when it comes to...
What prompted you to choose the period that you wrote your first book in? In my case, I was following the old strategy of ‘write what you know’. I’d been researching and teaching this period for years and it seemed fertile ground for trying fiction. Once I knew I...
What prompted you to chose the period you wrote your first book in? In fact, the seed was a lecture I attended back in 2009 about an 8th century English missionary called Winfred. (He was later renamed Saint Boniface and is sometimes known as the Apostle to the...
What first attracted you to the period or periods you work in? My interest is in the Middle Ages, particularly the Twelfth Century. I think what first attracted me, in my school days, was sheer weirdness of the period: bizarre beliefs, arcane knowledge, alchemy,...
