tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post7052158688249797796..comments2024-03-23T12:38:46.260+00:00Comments on The History Girls: Fiction as an Historical Source - by Eleanor UpdaleMary Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06241989732624913706noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-89410031813465566402012-11-18T19:51:51.805+00:002012-11-18T19:51:51.805+00:00Hi Eleanor, thanks for this interesting article, i...Hi Eleanor, thanks for this interesting article, it chimed with what I'd been thinking about fiction as a historical resource (though I come at it from a different angle). If you're interested, I comment on your article <a href="http://www.philipispdr.co.uk/blogs/history/2012/11/18/fiction-from-history-and-historical-fiction/" rel="nofollow">here</a>!Philiphttp://www.philipispdr.co.uk/blog/historynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-46242761696932367412011-11-29T13:03:17.725+00:002011-11-29T13:03:17.725+00:00Just in case any other Streatfeild fans don't ...Just in case any other Streatfeild fans don't know it, this is a link to a really splendid site, all about her and her work<br /><br />http://www.whitegauntlet.com.au/noelstreatfeild/Emma Darwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15187679025319051708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-2275302589315780262011-11-28T19:26:03.911+00:002011-11-28T19:26:03.911+00:00I adored CURTAIN UP, maybe even more than Ballet S...I adored CURTAIN UP, maybe even more than Ballet Shoes, though it's a less perfect novel, I think. But Sorrel, Mark, Holly, and their cousins are such wonderful characters. I do agree about the lack of 'obvious' detail - though the thing about the absence of air-raids is that there weren't any, isn't it? I think maybe this was between the Blitz and the V1s and V2s. Oh, I do adore the picture of Hannah, wobbling onto the escalator.<br /><br />My parents always told me that in wartime, life went on, and I think that point is made by the book - though of course the framework of the whole action is the fact that the father is missing, believed killed. I always cry when I read that bit. I got hold of a second-hand hardback, so I have the book in the house.<br /><br />I'm writing a novel set in the near future right now, and I do enjoy being able to put in things like smartphones and other bits of technology, just because it makes such a change. But you do realise, don't you, that you've made a powerful point for writing about the present, rather than historical fiction?Leslie Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15105465949970430998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-6035029421286982932011-11-26T22:12:41.908+00:002011-11-26T22:12:41.908+00:00This is great, Ellie - thank you. I use paintings ...This is great, Ellie - thank you. I use paintings in the same way (writing about Renaissance Italy, there aren't any contemporary novels) - they often provide tiny domestic details you don't get from anything else. <br /><br />It makes you think though, doesn't it, about how few contemporary novels have people taking photos on their phones, uploading their videos to YouTube or Facebook, drinking Red Bull, doing their driving theory test, getting their nose pierced.... the ordinary often isn't mentioned.Stroppy Authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16560035800075465845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-72420907785343276112011-11-26T15:21:16.239+00:002011-11-26T15:21:16.239+00:00A very illuminating and useful post, Eleanor. You...A very illuminating and useful post, Eleanor. Your point about the absence of a later age's cliches in Noel Streatfield's post-war fiction is such a good one. And I do wonder what our time's equivalent of dried egg will be...Linda B-Ahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01599899073420595717noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-28235768884689250502011-11-26T12:07:59.974+00:002011-11-26T12:07:59.974+00:00Lovely post, Ellie - it's fascinating that som...Lovely post, Ellie - it's fascinating that sometimes the unspoken assumptions in books can provide the truest 'period detail'- the things everyone took for granted. Love the point about the Underground escalators.Katherine Langrishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-29066469818314452502011-11-25T18:28:20.764+00:002011-11-25T18:28:20.764+00:00Meant to say - I do SO agree that often the insigh...Meant to say - I do SO agree that often the insights are into what they DON'T specially mention. <br /><br />I dipped into a Ngaio Marsh recently, which was published in the mid-50s. There are about three mentions of specifically just-post-War stuff: a ration book, the fact that several people know how to do resucitation for gassed cases, and how another person never got used to dead bodies, not even in the War. And that's it. Everything else could be pretty much any time from the 1930s to 1975. No shell-shock, no memories of the Blitz or evacuation, no dried egg, no Austerity.<br /><br />And it occurred to me that, as you say, Eleanor, most of us might not have the nerve to be so minimal with what to us is historical background - to make the post-War-ishness of 1955 to be so little a part of the experience of that novel. <br /><br />Partly perhaps that's because the non-fiction pleasures of history are part of what readers enjoy about historical fiction, so they want plenty of it to enjoy. <br /><br />I strive for the same effect in my fiction: my gold standard for period detail is that there's as much (and as little) as there'd be in a novel about our world, and/or as little someone writing a novel back in that period would put in. But sometimes you do have to explain more - if only covertly, by context, and character-in-action.Emma Darwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15187679025319051708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-78652369164040791982011-11-25T17:43:09.765+00:002011-11-25T17:43:09.765+00:00I love this post! Partly just because I love Strea...I love this post! Partly just because I love Streatfeild. But it also makes the point that came up in the comments on my post on Tuesday, about what a good source contemporary fiction is for our historical fiction.Emma Darwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15187679025319051708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-72789530059219835652011-11-25T12:54:41.785+00:002011-11-25T12:54:41.785+00:00Thanks for writing this interesting post. As a WW...Thanks for writing this interesting post. As a WW II researcher, I can't express the thrill of finding and handling original objects of this period.<br /><br />And I completely agree with you regarding fiction - there is so much there, it is just wonderful.<br /><br />Streatfeild's book The Children of Primrose Lane was my first introduction to Anderson Shelters. I loved it.Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15988251415347075888noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-78965683823141286882011-11-25T11:37:43.162+00:002011-11-25T11:37:43.162+00:00I agree about the research stage of writing - it i...I agree about the research stage of writing - it is so exciting and full of a million 'possibilities'.<br /><br />Some great examples of contemporary historical fiction here - and I also love the idea of 'mining' an era for the truth via its fiction.Essie Foxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04611324005960689918noreply@blogger.com