It's true that the title of this blog does not look like anything to do with historical fiction, but the equilibrium between wildlife and humanity was not always so precarious as it is now. Finding the balance which existed at the time you're writing can be a very useful tool to setting a believable background for your writing. So here are a few mammal considerations... Wild mammals were everywhere - they still are, in fact! Whether you're writing about the middle of a city or the middle of nowhere, it should be a given that these animals will influence life. As well as the obvious and frequently maligned rats and mice, other mammals have cohabited our cities with us. Foxes have always had a partially urban existence, and the building of cities on waterways also often lead to otters and (depending on how far inland they were) seals being resident. Mankind knew how to find wild mammals - there is a continuous development in the scientific study of our wild mammals and this...
If you want to know how someone sees the world, give them a pencil. Right from an early age, we have a love of drawing. It's true that sometimes children's drawings can be a bit peculiar, but they are exactly how they view the world around them and there is something rather special about that. A few years ago, we bought a job-lot of books and bits-and-bobs at our local auction. There were some rather lovely things amongst them and, since they only cost a couple of pounds, they were better than bargainous! In them was a collector copy of a biography of the sculptor Alfred Gilbert, who famously created the statue of Eros in Picadilly Circus. As part of the book, there is a hand drawn sketch of one of his designs. It is somehow both messy and precise, giving an idea of how he worked through his ideas until the reached the desired conclusion. But this was not the greatest treasure in the collection - at least not for us! Buried in amongst the rest of the published and printed book...