Well, this is the last #HistFicThursday blog before I launch Beneath A Darkening Sky at an event in Thurso on Monday 13th . Shame it couldn't be a Friday 13th, but we can't have everything! One thing is for certain: October is the spookiest month. And not just because we have Halloween. Halloween could be a day later and October would still be the spookiest month... Look at how the light retreats at this time of the year: up here, the seasons' turning drains away the daylight at a rate of 2.5hours over the course of this month! Up here, anyway. Our ancestors knew, a long time before they tracked time using clocks, that this month we now call October was a time to look back at what has been and ahead to how we will survive the winter. Is it any wonder then that, with generations of people looking back, October became a month for souls and spectres? People we have loved and lost come back to visit our hearts, imaginations - and, perhaps, our homes - as we recall autumns of ...
This Christmas holiday, we have found ourselves wandering around the house randomly singing snatches of songs from the genius that is Horrible Histories. This series of books-turned-TV-programmes is something which, until recently, I was never really interested in. I wasn't violently opposed to them, but I was exactly the wrong age for when they came out.
Since then, I've become something of a convert to the musical antics which were in the series and there hasn't been a day in the last month when I haven't woken up randomly singing a line from one of them!
My sister had and read all the books, even the special editions. And then - the best part of twenty years later! - another sister began to introduce us to some of the songs from the programme. Still less than 100% convinced, it was pointed out to me that there was a song for every period in history. This sounded like a throwing down of the gauntlet, but they did indeed manage to find me the song fitting for my current project.
Here it is:
The Borgia Family song certainly over-simplifies the slightly strange set-up which Pope Alexander VI had with his family, but it goes a long way towards introducing this topic to both a child and a newcomer (and, let's be honest, it is very irritating when people invade your personal space!). Although the Borgia family do eventually come into my book, I'm not quite there yet. Beyond what popular culture has put out there, particularly about Lucrezia, I didn't know much about them and I have to admit I found this song was exactly what I needed to whet my appetite and I leapt in with both feet to explore and research the intricacies and complicated relationships of this family.
Alexander VI's Coat of Arms
(Echando una mano)
This has provided a few problems of its own! Returning to normality and discovering that it was not in fact 1493 has been difficult. But I have had my deep love of both history and theology (the subjects of my degrees) rekindled by my research. The thing about authors living and breathing their work is that, as a historical fiction author, you always have to remind yourself that you have the gift of enabling time-travel without having all tricky parts of actually going back in time, but it comes at the expense of living life with a foot in the past as well as the present.
Still, love it or hate it, Horrible Histories certainly makes history accessible and it was enough to help my story to grow from a few vague ideas into a full-blown plot.
I aim to discuss one of these songs each month. Any requests, put them forward. Go on, historical fiction writers, try and find your Horrible Histories song - there's one for everyone!
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