Getting Historical Fiction Right

I have no formal training as a historian although I have a great love of history – social history in particularly.  To write a historical novel, a great deal of research must be done, of course, and some weeks ago, while I was researching the Victorian period for my next book, it crossed my mind that there might be better ways of searching for precious details of life in 1850.  Wasn’t I just rummaging as one rummages through boxes in an attic?  Surely real historians managed to research in a more organised way?  This fact here.  That one there.  Filing.  Collating.

Quite by chance, I heard about a one day course at the University of London called How to Get the History Right in Your Historical Fiction – a Workshop for Authors.  What a treat.  And as luck would have it, the date of the course fitted right in the middle of a promotional tour in London for my latest book Road to London .  The timing was perfect.

Senate House

Senate House was the venue - a rather magnificent white building around the corner from the British Museum.  Inside, it suffered from the Rabbit Warren Syndrome but, luckily, the course tutor had stuck arrows on the walls at crucial points and we soon found our way to a small lecture room on the third floor where twenty writers were to spend the rest of the day.

 

Simon and willing writers

The morning session was taken by the course organiser, Simon Trafford, an academic who made us all feel welcome and took us through the essential tools and techniques of researching.  He talked about access to resources on paper through University Libraries where access and borrowing rights can be expensive.  However, we all pricked up our ears when he explained how access could be made by taking up much cheaper membership of scholarly societies.

Online access to resources is a great time-saver for authors – particularly those who live outside of London. The majority of local libraries offer free access to the Oxford Reference Collection Online at home to all ticket-holders and free access to many scholarly resources is available through library membership.

Historians traditionally prefer to view original written primary sources but with the rise of digital storage, surrogates have come into their own in printed editions, microfilm and electronic editions.  Projects such as Early English Books Online, Old Bailey Online or Historic Hansard Online make them infinitely more accessible.

1790 Parlour - one of the room settings in Geffrye Museum

Our afternoon session began with a fascinating lecture by Eleanor John, Head of Collections and Exhibitions at the Geffrye Museum of the Home where collections of furniture, objects and paintings are set in a series of period rooms from 1600 to the present day.    Eleanor explained how researching wills and inventories of household contents can give a vivid impression of how people lived in a certain period in history.  Unfortunately, small, everyday items with little monetary value were rarely recorded.   A visit to this museum is a must for any author writing about a domestic situation.

 www.geffrye-museum.org.uk

Elizabeth Chadwick, author of the The Time of Singing and many other novels, was our last speaker and showed us how she researched her historical novels set in the mediaeval period.  She recommended belonging to a re-enactment group where that’s possible and relevant.  She belongs to a mediaeval group, dresses up in costume and generally had a great deal of fun while learning a  good deal about the period.  She showed us an ‘authentic’ mediaeval cooking pot which she has used at home (by way of research) and found it to be not only non-stick but of such a good design that it is possible to lift it off the heat without getting your fingers burned – something you probably couldn’t find out from secondary sources!

Valuable chatting

The one day course was invaluable.  It demonstrated how to access many wonderful resources and provided an opportunity to meet with other writers and discuss the challenges of our profession.  We were all hoping to make researching more thorough in order to write historical fiction with a sense of authenticity.  

A splendid day!

Make your Loved One a Codpiece? by Barbara Mitchelhill

I decided months ago to make Tudor costumes to use in school events when I talk about Road to London.   I began with a girl’s outfit which was a delight to make. My female character, Alice, was a serving wench and wore several layers including a red petticoat.  I loved the petticoat - especially the fact that it was thought to have health giving properties.

In February, I started making the clothes for the main protagonist, Thomas, who was a scholar at the King's New School in Stratford-upon-Avon.  

Making the shirt and the doublet was straightforward enough but when I can to the hose (trousers) it was a different matter.  With the pattern I had from Tudor Tailor, there was a choice of two - The Venetian hose or the rather racy fitted hose with a codpiece.  Mmmm.  I wan't so sure I wanted to make a codpiece.  In fact, I was surprised to find myself repulsed at the thought of making (and stuffing) one.  I knew it was just another part of his outfit after all.  But repulsed I was.  

As it turned out,  I need not have worried.   I discovered that codpieces, which were at their height (no pun intended) during of Henry VIII's reign, rapidly declined in the reign of Elizabeth who tended to keep a tight control on what people wore.  As Road to London is set in Elizabeth’s reign, I felt that, in order to be historically accurate, my boy would wear the nice baggy Venetian hose.  Thank goodness.  Now I wouldn’t have to make that padded thing tied onto the front.

But the codpiece was not a Tudor invention.  Examples from the ancient world have been recovered by archaeologists in Crete and cutting guides for Renaissance tailors have also been discovered.

It seems that the codpiece developed out of necessity.  In the 14^th century, men’s hose were simply two separate legs tied together at the waist.  This left a gap over the genitals which were covered by the linen shirt worn beneath.  When fashion changed and the hemline of the cote or doublet rose, they revealed thinly covered genitalia.  So, for the sake of modesty, something had to be done and a triangle of cloth was placed over the offending gap.

Once Henry VIII came to the throne, the codpiece became an art form.  It was exaggerated to amazing proportions. It was often stuffed with a padding called bombast – a word now used to mean pompous and pretentious. It was puffed and boned and slashed and sometimes heavily ornamented.  It became so large that it was often used to conceal a weapon or to hide jewels. (Hence a man’s genitalia being known as ‘the family jewels’.)  Armour at this time followed the fashion and metal codpieces were added to the best full harnesses.

I put it to you:  is 2012 the time to revive this article of clothing?  Should we think of embroidering a codpiece as a birthday gift for our loved ones?  Could it be in denim for the casual look? Or tweed for the grouse shoot? Or maybe a velvet one for those intimate dinner parties?  I’ll leave it up to you to decide.

Check out the video trailer for Road to London  HERE 

William Shakespeare - Workaholic and Businessman by Barbara Mitchelhill

Whilst I was writing Road to London, I had to view William Shakespeare through the eyes of Thomas Munmore, my thirteen year old protagonist. Thomas lived in Stratford-upon-Avon at the height of Shakespeare’s success and would have regarded this local hero as a superstar in the way that today’s teenagers would fawn over their pop idols or their football stars.  Thomas must have heard the common gossip about the younger William who was probably regarded as a Jack-the-Lad, marrying in haste to a woman eight year’s older and gaining a reputation as a poacher.  Tittle tattle said that he had been caught poaching and had fled Stratford to become an actor in London – a daring thing to do when actors were seen as little more that rogues and vagabonds.

William Shakespeare

Thomas must have found that very exciting particularly when he had made such a success of his life.  Only five years after leaving his home town, he had written sonnets so popular they would have topped Waterston’s Best Sellers’ List and his plays were performed for the Queen Elizabeth herself – the equivalent of winning an Oscar.  Like many of Manchester United goal scorers, Shakespeare bought himself a large house – the second finest in Stratford with five splendid gables and ten fireplaces (the equivalent of central heating).  With this amount of wealth on display, what boy wouldn’t want to follow in his hero’s footsteps?

A sketch of New Place, Stratford-upon-Avon.

But William Shakespeare’s wealth did not come from his plays.  None were published in his lifetime and royalties and performance rights had not been invented. He would have been commissioned to write plays for a flat fee of around £6 for both the Lord Chamberlain’s Men and the Admiral’s Men, two of the most successful acting troupes.  He wrote in the way that Alan Ayckbourn writes plays today for the group of actors in his theatre in Scarborough.

 

But Shakepeare’s talent was not only for acting and writing.  He was also a shareholder in the theatre and I couldn’t resist putting my favourite story about Shakespeare’s financial exploits into Road to London. 

Richard Burbage

Soon after he arrived in London around 1592, he joined the Lord Chamberlain’s Men and became an actor-shareholder.  The troupe performed at London’s first theatre – named The Theatre - which had been built by James Burbage (the father of the actor, Richard Burbage, who was one of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men).  But the land on which The Theatre was built was leased from Giles Allen and when the lease ran out, the men quarrelled and Giles Allen refused to renew it.  This meant that the Lord Chamberlain’s Men had to move to temporary accommodation at the nearby Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch.  Two years later, James Burbage died having failed to resolve the problem of the lease thus leaving the Theatre in Allen’s hands.  Now The Lord Chamberlain’s Men were in danger of becoming homeless.

Richard Burbage discussed the matter with the five actor-shareholders which included William Shakespeare and they all agreed to provide 10% of the buildings costs for a share of the profits.  They set about looking for land to rent and, in December 1598, found an inexpensive plot south of the river in Southark and signed the thirty-one year lease.  They also decided that, as James Burbage had built The Theatre, they had the right to dismantle it and use the materials to build the new one.

The frozen River Thames

The weather was bitterly cold that winter and a great snowstorm blanketed the city just after Christmas.  But the shareholders had to move quickly before Giles Allen returned from the country where he was visiting his family.  Together with a number of workmen, the shareholders gathered in Shoreditch and began work on dismantling The Theatre.  A crowd of onlookers soon gathered and friends of Giles Allen arrived to protest and they attempted to stop them but supporters of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men were determined that they should continue.

The Globe Theatre, Bankside.

Each piece of the timber frame from The Theatre was marked and transported to the site.  Some say they were taken across the frozen Thames on wagons but this is unlikely, given the weight of the timbers.  They were reassembled on Bankside to build the theatre that was to be named The Globe.  But even with the timbers in place, the cost of building would be considerable.  Buying tiles for the roof was out of the question and so the cheaper option of thatch had to be used.  This was a mistake in view of the fact that the thatch caught fire in 1613 and the Globe was burned to the ground.

Shakespeare’s initial investment of £70 was a large sum in 1599, but the yield would be great
 – about £100 per annum.

How the Tudors Dressed by Barbara Mitchelhill

From the writer’s point of view, the historical novel, is like an iceberg with only the smallest part on show to the public. First comes the research, which can take months or even years. Next comes plotting and planning before the writing itself - and all this is the tip of the iceberg. But if our iceberg isn’t about to sink without trace, it needs more underpinning by getting it noticed. In other words, promotion.

My next book, Road to London, set in the Tudor period, isn’t published until April 5^th but plans have been afoot since September as to how to promote it. After talking to Harriet Castor about the stunning Tudor dress she wears for the promotion of VIII, I had the idea of making two children’s outfits as might be worn by the two main characters in the story. One would be for Thomas, a scholar from Stratford-upon-Avon, and one for Alice, a serving wench from London. I wanted children at school events to be able to try them on and discover how different these clothes were from their own. For one thing, the outfits would be made of either linen or wool – no cotton or easy wash synthetics. A company called The Tudor Tailor was very helpful, full of advice and supplied patterns for each of the costumes.

I drove up to Stoke-on-Trent to a shop called Abakhan, which is an Aladdin’s cave of fabric at great prices and not long after, I got out my sewing machine (which I confess I hadn’t used for ages) and began to make Alice’s outfit.

This is the linen smock Alice would wear during the day and she would almost certainly sleep in, too. No nipping down to M&S or Dorothy P’s to buy a nice nighty. The smock was made of linen so that it could be washed from time to time – but I can only guess that it wouldn’t happen as often as we would like in 2012. Please note that she would not wear knickers. The advantage of this was that it was easier to ‘got to the loo’ if she was out in the fields. The disadvantage was that rape was very much easier.

On top of the smock, Alice would wear a red flannel petticoat, firstly for warmth as Tudor houses, in spite of their open fires, could be bitterly cold. But the Tudors also believed that red worn close to the skin would promote good health. When Henry VIII’s body began to fail, red flannel underwear was made for him and, interestingly, Elizabeth I was wrapped in red flannel when she had smallpox.

Alice’s woollen kirtle with attached bodice would be worn on top of the petticoat and was unlikely to be washed often but dirt and mud would be brushed off. The kirtle I made for Alice has a bodice attached with ties of ribbon at the front. I think the ribbon would be bought at a fair or from a tinker passing by and might well have been given to her as a birthday present. Ribbons or laces were a very practical way of fastening the bodice as it could be loosened or tightened to fit. I could have made buttons. These would be made with a circle of cloth, gathered up tightly, then stitched with back-stitch to cover the cloth. Then, of course, you would have to make a button hole. All terribly time-consuming – so I took the easy way out and added ribbons.

Now Alice is ready for work in the tavern. Her apron is made of linen and is not gathered at the top as is a modern apron but is perfectly smooth. Her cap is simply a square of linen tied round her head to keep her hair out of the way.

With just a month to go, I must get on with the boy’s outfit. Not quite so multi layered as Alice’s – just a smock, doublet and hose. I’m pleased with the results on a limited budget. The two outfits came in at around £80 – unless you pay me for my time, of course!

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Did the Tudors do it? Cross dressing and all that

Barbara Mitchelhill

OK Caroline Lawrence, so I admit it. I have thought about cross dressing. Not for me, of course. There’s hardly a need as I’m rarely out of trousers. I just thought how much easier it would be if my girl characters could dress in boys' clothes. Stepping back in time, boys had so much more fun, didn’t they?

In my first historical novel, Run Rabbit Run which is set in 1942, I steered clear of cross dressing. I wasn’t tempted. But I had to keep reminding myself that my lead character, Lizzie Butterworth, wouldn’t be cavorting around in jeans and trainers, she would be wearing a skirt and sensible shoes. And I had to remember that during the bitterly cold winter, she wouldn’t have nice woolly tights to keep her nether regions warm. Chapped knees, for sure. And when that north wind blew… Oh dear.

My next historical novel was different. Road to London

(out in April 2012) is a rollicking adventure set in the Tudor period when girls wore bodices and kirtles and petticoats. How inhibiting! How grubby! Your hem would drag in the muddy streets unless you grabbed hold of it and lifted it clear. Luckily there was a solution for my heroin, Alice. (Yes! Here comes the cross dressing!) After a traumatic episode involving a particularly nasty apothecary who hacked off her hair, Alice ran away dressed as a boy and joined her friend, Thomas, in Shakespeare’s acting troupe at the Curtain.

This was a risky thing to do as girls and women were banned from acting and if she was found out, the punishment would be severe indeed. But Alice, being a game girl, tucked her sprouting bosom under a doublet, and learned to behave like a boy. In fact, she soon found that she was rather good at spitting and using her fists and oh, how much easier it was to run without the encumbrance of a skirt! When she had to sleep in a room with the other apprentice actors, there was no danger of her revealing her true identity. In contrast to TV’s sexy sagas, the Tudors were not likely to remove all their clothes before going to bed but slept in their under wear, and so Alice’s secret was protected. I did question how she would cope if the boys had a peeing competition as boys like to do. But I skipped over that one.

I obviously liked the idea of cross dressing because I went on to write a double cross dressing scene. Yes, really. Is this a record, Caroline Lawrence? In Road to London I have Alice pretending to be a boy, pretending to be a girl when she plays the part of Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing.

It’s all good fun. We girls really do have the best of it.