'Help! What am I?' by Karen Maitland

 Recently I tried to move some savings to an account with a fractionally higher rate of interest than my existing one. Although the amount involved would not have kept an international money-launderer in champagne for a day, I found myself having to answer a catalogue of questions. Tedious, but fine until we came to the question – What’s your occupation?

‘Writer,’ I answered.

‘Sorry that’s not coming up on the computer,’ the young man said. ‘It’s suggesting underwriter.’

 ‘A slightly different occupation,’ I told him. ‘Try author or novelist.’

 ‘Sorry the computer doesn’t recognise either of those as occupations.’

 ‘It’s obviously been talking to some of my relatives,’ I said.

 ‘What about journalist?’ he suggested.

 I considered the label. I do delve into the scandals, crimes, murders and wars in the past, if not the present, so you could call my work investigative journalism. But then I remembered a friend who was turned down for travel insurance because he’d given his occupation as journalist. Presumably they were afraid that if they ever refused his claim for a broken ankle on the grounds he’d failed to declare that in 1978 he was treated for a verruca, he might write a damning article about them in the nationals. Better not to use journalist then.

 ‘What sort of novels do you write?’ my interrogator asked.

 ‘Historical thrillers.’

‘We could put you down as an historian.’

 We could, but last year I attended a talk given to a local history group by a guide working in one of the stately homes. I fell into conversation with the lady sitting next to me, who was raving ecstatically about her favourite historical crime novelist, saying how thoroughly he researched the books, what detailed knowledge he had about local history and how she’d learnt more history from his novels than from any non-fiction book. Later that evening, she mentioned the group needed more speakers.

‘Why don’t you invite that novelist,’ I asked. ‘He’s an excellent speaker.’

She looked scandalised. ‘But this is a serious history group. We don’t invite novelists to speak.

I know that most History Groups don't take that view. I have given talks at a number of different history groups round the country and am booked to give more in 2014. And many history festivals now include a mixture of fiction and non-fiction writers, but sadly that lady's view of historical fiction writers is still prevalent among some readers - if history is presented in the form of fiction, it can't be 'serious'.

 Having gained a doctorate in a different subject, I can say from experience that most historical fiction writers, have carried out enough original historical research for their novels to have more than earned a PhD in history. Of course, I know that writing medical romances doesn’t qualify the author to be a nurse and writing crime novels doesn’t make the author a forensic scientist. And I also know that academic historians do far more than simply research facts. But I am fascinated that while many people say they read historical fiction to learn about history, if that same information is presented in a non-fiction book, the author is regarded as an historian, whereas the fiction writer isn’t. The exception is those authors who write novels based on the lives of royalty or the famous. Why is that?

 'Better not put historian,’ I said glumly.

 ‘So what do you actually do when you’re writing?’ my interrogator asked.

 ‘I sit in an office at home – actually it’s a large cupboard – and type on a laptop.’

 ‘Ah,’ the young man said with relief, ‘then we can put you down as clerical. The computer likes that one.’

 I was sorely tempted to ask if I was now clerical, should I be wearing a dogcollar, but I had a horrible feeling that would then set that wretched computer off on another round of questions about whether I was a bloodhound or a sheepdog. So I quietly I slunk back to my cupboard and started typing again. I know my place.

Next time I'll just keep the money in a piggybank.

The Historical Detective

by Caroline Lawrence

Why do we like Detective fiction so much?

My husband Richard thinks it’s because the genre is interactive. We are presented with clues and if the author plays fair we can solve the crime along with the detective.

Lots of other people I talked to echoed his idea. The told me they liked Detective Fiction because you try to figure it out. You want to guess who did it first. Some people said they were disappointed if they did, others said they were disappointed if they didn’t!

Bookseller Ben in Norwich says it’s the most moral of the genres. The detective is a Truth Seeker who often metes out his own brand of justice in a world that seems wildly unfair.

A Scottish Twitter friend said, “Pure and simple, folk are nosy and love nowt more than rooting round in other folks business.”

Some people are attracted by horrible crimes and by seeing the depths of depravity humans can plumb. This is not simply ghoulishness. It is the human way of warning one another. We don’t have instinct to teach us, as animals do. We have stories, told around a campfire or on a Kindle.

Many people like the world of the detective. Detective stories are always set in a very specific place and time. Think of the Late Victorian London of Sherlock Holmes or the 1930’s Los Angeles of Philip Marlowe. And the detective often goes up and down the social strata. Through his eyes we see the whole world.

Quite a few people came up with an answer that surprised me. They liked the structure, order and logic of a Detective Story.

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: The detective and the historian have similar jobs, reconstructing a past event by means of physical objects (clues/artefacts) and first-hand reports (eye-witnesses/primary sources). Sometime the detective re-enacts the events around the crime. The historian likes re-enactment events, too.

Not everybody identifies with a superhero or even an action hero. Anybody who tries to figure out how the world works is a ‘detective’. The word itself is a compound Latin word that means uncover de (preposition meaning down from or any reversal) + tegere (cover) = detegere (uncover). We’re always trying to uncover things and see how they work underneath.

So in a way, we are all detectives.

That might be one reason the detective is so popular. The detective doesn’t have to be a super brain like Sherlock Holmes. She can be a little old lady like Miss Marple or a high school student like Nancy Drew. The detective can be a gang of kids, like the Hardy Boys or the Famous Five. The detective can be you. The detective can be me.

Flavia, Nubia, Caroline, Jonathan, Lupus

In July 1999 I got the idea of writing a story for kids set Pompeii. My concept was Nancy Drew in Roman times.

Most writers of fiction choose a version of themselves to be the hero. My hero, Flavia Gemina, is me as I would like to have been in Roman times: blonde, blue-eyed and rich. Flavia is a Truth-seeker. She is the one who drives the stories because she wants to solve the mystery. Like Flavia, historians are Truth-seekers.

Flavia’s best friend is Nubia, her gentle ex-slave-girl. Nubia is intuitive. Sometimes a detective needs intuition more than brains. That’s where Nubia helps Flavia. Like any good sidekick, her gifts complement the hero’s. Like Nubia historians need to understand human nature and go with their intuition sometimes.

Jonathan is practical and inventive. He creates some of the gadgets a detective needs. He is also the Voice of Reason and holds Flavia back from making impulsive decisions. Like Jonathan, historians have to piece together broken objects and reconstruct how things work.

The fourth member of Flavia’s gang is Lupus, a half-wild beggar boy who can’t speak. He is the wild one, but good at following people and spying on them. That’s one of the appeals of detective fiction. We all like spying and eavesdropping on people, to see how others live. “Pure and simple, folk are nosy and love nowt more than rooting round in other folks business.” The historian loves peering into people’s offices, bedrooms even bathrooms.

Lupus is also good at disguising himself. 

Civil War re-enactors in Virginia City, Nevada

This is another aspect that appeals to us. The possibility of ‘being someone else’ for a few hours. I think that’s why there are so many historical re-enactors. You can be a Civil War soldier or a Roman doctor for a weekend. (And of course that’s why we like reading books. Author Claire Tomalin recently said “Through fiction we can actually live all these other lives…”) Many of the best historians dress up in period costume. They disguise themselves in the past.

Of course, the historian will never be able to exactly re-construct the past in the way a detective can figure out whodunit, but it is worth the effort. And it’s huge fun.

Back to why do we like detective fiction so much. My friend Graham Marks, an English author of Young Adult fiction, says it’s because detective fiction makes sense of the world. And that’s what human beings want most, to make sense of a seemingly random world. To contradict the musician Sting, history can teach us something.

This is one of the reasons historical novels and detective stories are so satisfying. The genres go together. The heroes go together.

The history part teaches us about the past. They mystery part teaches us about people. And sometimes vice versa!

We are all detectives, trying to solve the mystery of how to live in the world. Stories help us do that. Especially history mystery stories.