tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post91506718149077279..comments2024-03-23T12:38:46.260+00:00Comments on The History Girls: Fact and Fiction by Katherine WebbMary Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06241989732624913706noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-60576834219676215222016-05-24T11:46:06.362+01:002016-05-24T11:46:06.362+01:00This is terribly interesting, Katherine. I've ...This is terribly interesting, Katherine. I've moved from writing realistic fiction to writing historical fiction with a streak of total fantasy - time travel. In my Bedlam Trilogy, which will be published as one volume next year, I started with fictional characters and then became interested in writing about real people: the artists Richard Dadd and John Martin and several others. I read everything I could about them, as much research as I would have done if I had been writing biography, and then imagined the gaps. The time travel entered the story because, having tried to decide what I thought about them, I started to wonder what they would think of us in the 21st century. It seems to me you can put absolutely anything into a novel.Miranda Millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08847761353240720080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-69271212307488699692016-05-19T10:13:58.637+01:002016-05-19T10:13:58.637+01:00I love the idea of a scale of plausibility, Elizab...I love the idea of a scale of plausibility, Elizabeth! Yes - so few watertight 'facts' out there - everything so dependant on who was watching, and why, and why they chose to record it, especially true the further back in time you go, I imagine. But I even found this with my latest, set in the 1950s - in accounts of the Jebel War by different British officers who were there, their attitudes, and descriptions of events and the people involved, were very varied.Katherinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07031215564445403747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-32821711821884807842016-05-19T09:18:58.630+01:002016-05-19T09:18:58.630+01:00Sue, you're right on that! Researching Eleano...Sue, you're right on that! Researching Eleanor of Aquitaine via her biographers was definitely proof of that one for me. I found her described by historians as having been a blonde, a brunette and a red-head with blue eyes, green eyes and 'flashing black eyes.' Thing is there is not one single description of Eleanor in existence. While I can forgive this in fiction without a second glance, finding it in supposed non fiction works is a bit more of a problem. Histories are written with a slant toward current pet theories and attitudes in society too. Again with the Angevin bunch, Amy Kelly, wrote the whole Courts of Love theory which has now been thoroughly debunked as never having happened but was swallowed hook line and sinker from the 1950's until the present day. Richard the Lionheart being gay. This theory was taken up post war, based on misunderstanding of the Medieval mindset. Now revised, but Joe Public hasn't cottoned on yet and by the time that happens, the theory might have been revised again.<br />I do write about real people in fiction. My main rule is to research in depth and for each of their actions to ask 'On a scale of 1-10 could this have happened? Could they have said this?' If the answer is between an 8 and a 10 then I'll work with it. Lower than that and I'll find a way round that doesn't distort history. Marrying the history and the story is a fun part of the challenge. Elizabeth Chadwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16911841862257909703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-73968219350487883472016-05-19T08:53:51.173+01:002016-05-19T08:53:51.173+01:00It is a tricky business. Even writing about 'f...It is a tricky business. Even writing about 'facts' is tricky; I've often found that when you dig a little, you find there's not much evidence for something you may hitherto have thought to be an incontrovertible fact.Sue Purkisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09084528571944803477noreply@blogger.com