I - along with my fellow members of Crowvus - are very excited about our new release on 16th September. We fell in love with this story for a number of different reasons, and one of the key ones for me was the role of history. Of course, when you have a story about the governing and governance of time, there is going to be some element of the past, but the way in which Elizabeth McKay so casually and seamlessly interweaves the past with the present is both clever and effective. Finding our own place in time is not always easy, and neither is finding a place in our current time for the past. Discussing an historical fiction book recently over the weekend's breakfast, we were led into the confusing cycle of how fine the line is between pioneering characters and utterly unbelievable ones. The conversation actually began because of a discussion into our family tree and a look at how the role of registry offices allowed for a step away from the power of the church. In our increasingly ...
I - along with my fellow members of Crowvus - are very excited about our new release on 16th September. We fell in love with this story for a number of different reasons, and one of the key ones for me was the role of history. Of course, when you have a story about the governing and governance of time, there is going to be some element of the past, but the way in which Elizabeth McKay so casually and seamlessly interweaves the past with the present is both clever and effective.
Finding our own place in time is not always easy, and neither is finding a place in our current time for the past. Discussing an historical fiction book recently over the weekend's breakfast, we were led into the confusing cycle of how fine the line is between pioneering characters and utterly unbelievable ones. The conversation actually began because of a discussion into our family tree and a look at how the role of registry offices allowed for a step away from the power of the church. In our increasingly secular world, it is easy to forget just what a massive role religion played in the day to day lives of people who had to gain the acceptance of a religious establishment in order to maintain a place in society, right through to the relatively recent past. We have images of medieval heretics being burnt at the stake, but religious intolerance continued to have repercussions well into the Enlightenment.
Perhaps not 100% historically accurate,
but still a lot of fun.
Most historical fiction writers today research to such a great depth that they could easily become Mastermind experts on their own little portion of history, but there is an ongoing question over how much historical accuracy you have to adhere to whilst maintaining a balance with entertainment. Many authors now feel they need to write an Author's Note to declare all the places they deviated from the known facts, a step almost entirely caused by the way in which some readers appear to enjoy picking fault with the minutia of the story's accuracy. Do these readers deliberately choose their reading matter to pick fault with it?
Of course, the most important thing about an historical setting is that it feels believable. We can never get everything exactly as it was in the past, our minds do not belong there even if our imaginations do. If we can create the illusion of that period, then we've done our job right.
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