A Historical Fiction Writer's Reading Week

by Deborah Swift

Like most writers I'm a prolific reader. This week I took a look at my reading pattern to see what I read, and how much I read, and whether this has changed over the last few years.

When I had my first book published in 2010 nearly all my reading was in paperback or hardback. At the Historical Novelists Conference in that same year, someone showed me the Kindle. Fascinated, yet also baffled, by this new technology I bought one. I still have the same ancient model and do most of my digital reading on that machine. I often use it when travelling on public transport or when on holiday, and I use it to carry some research books I can't do without.

Digital -- Kindle

This week on the Kindle I have been reading a historical novel recommended to me by a friend of a friend. The book had been self-published for a short while but failed to find an audience, and the author had withdrawn it from sale. What did I think? Would I read it and give an opinion? My heart sank. I get many of these requests and although the friend said it was a 'brilliant' book, I'd been burnt by this before and found myself spending precious reading time wading through a book that should be confined to a bottom drawer.

But joy of joys! This was a gem. Well-written; unusual history, set in a little-known time and location. I found myself burning with enthusiasm for the book and wondering how on earth I could get it better known. Then realising; I can't even get my own books better known, let alone someone else's. Still, I'm working on it, and can at least send word out to everyone I know. The Lacemaker by Sukey Hughes, if anyone out there is listening.

Also read on the Kindle this week, 'The Illumination of Ursula Flight' by Anna-Marie Crowhurst. I'm writing a book about Mary Knepp, an actress in Restoration London, and this book sounded worryingly close to what I was writing. Curious, and slightly aggrieved at someone poaching my territory (I know, that's ridiculous) I dived in. Phew. Not like my book at all, but great to see the world I was writing about through another writer's eyes. I constantly find myself veering between wanting to read things set in 'my own era' and being terrified of being influenced by them. And I am constantly humbled by other people's writing skills. A highly recommended read.

The other book I've been reading on Kindle this week is my own. I often send my own books to Kindle as then I can spot errors more easily, and read it as a digital reader might. The book sits differently on the page in kindle format. I'm aware that many readers have abandoned paper altogether and read on their phones, but I'm not one of them. And this is something people often forget, that reading your own work takes just as long as reading someone else's  -- that as well as writing the darned things, we have to actually read them too. If I become engrossed in my own book and forget to take notes, then that's a good sign. Historical fiction never seems to be short, does it? All three of these books amounted to over 1000 pages!

Digital -- The PC
I read a lot of research documents on the PC -- Gutenberg Library Texts, papers from various universities, and relevant passages from Google book searches. I can't pretend I don't use Wikipedia - it's excellent for getting a quick overview of what I need to know.  Last week I was reading Broken Boundaries; Women and Feminism in Restoration Drama from the University of Kentucky. I am a great Googler and search for relevant papers that might help my current novel - at the moment it's papers on Restoration Drama and The Fire of London; I'm researching these for the third in my trilogy about Pepys' Women.

Hardback
My research books are in hardback if I can get them. Here's the current pile of books I'm dipping in and out of.  Over the last few years in what I'm calling my 'Pepys Period' I've used them so much that most of them have been read cover to cover. Of course there are paperbacks in there too, but I hate research books on Kindle; they're just too difficult to bookmark or navigate, and real books are much easier to find on my desk. Also there's something very satisfying about research in solid form. I've read quite a few excerpts from these books in the past week whilst fact-checking my novel. I occasionally buy fiction in hardback, but only as a gift for someone else. My groaning shelves wouldn't support it! One of my most interesting research books this week was "And So To Bed" A Comedy by J B Fagan, a play first published in 1926 about Samuel Pepys and his wife, and featuring Charles II.  A very enjoyable light-hearted romp. My edition was from AbeBooks, who do out of print editions by post.

Paperback
I love Twitter and it has persuaded me to buy quite a few books, many by indie writers. Some authors I see frequently online are never in bookstores, and some authors I see frequently in bookstores have no online presence. I only have a few paperbacks by indie authors, because most I buy on Kindle. I still buy full-price paperback fiction from bookshops because I enjoy to browse there. The House Between Tides by Sarah Maine came from my local bookshop, Carnforth Books, and it attracted me because it's set in The Outer Hebrides in Scotland, a wild and nartural place, and the title appealed to me. It's a Victorian/present day dual narrative, and I'm nearly at the end of it, and really enjoying the atmosphere the writer creates. This has been my bedtime reading. I had never heard of the author, but I'm glad I took the risk as the book is gripping and well-written. The local bookshop does a good job of curating the stock so that there are big-name authors but also debut novelists on the shelves.

Coffee time reading
I love my Historical Novel Society Magazine and often read it cover to cover. Mine arrived a couple of days ago, and it helps to keep me in touch with the industry, with what other people are writing, and with what is 'hot' in historical fiction. I spotted a couple of books in there that will be on my reading list for the near future. I also get various other industry magazines such as The Society of Authors Magazine, and of course I read blog posts of authors who I know or have read, (like this blog) and articles from BBC History and Historia Magazines online.

Books and Time
When I added up my reading for this week, it seemed enormous. And this is a typical week. I read far more than I did before I was a writer, and I used to be a bookworm then. Whenever I'm not writing I seem to be reading, and now we are so wired up to our digital machines, I'm reading more or less constantly. The digital world has broadened my reading in one way, but also made some of my reading feel rushed. I try not to skim, but I'm aware that I often do, and that this doesn't give time and attention to the person who has devoted time to writing it. We are all drowning in content, but it is only really with a novel that I can savour the content and immerse myself in what I'm reading.

As a historical fiction writer I find I am actually spending far more time reading than actually writing. Reading used to be something where I had to set aside a quiet time and space and buy or borrow a physical book. Now I have several documents open on my PC all the time and can flip from one to the other. And it's delicious, to someone who loves reading, to have unlimited access to so much stuff -- and so much of it with free access. But I also feel its dangerous side, that it could become an addiction.

I remember complaining to my mother, 'I've nothing to read!' and having to save my pocket money for my next book. Those hard choices, are gone. Those spaces, where the mind is free of a book, are also precious. I'm learning to build those spaces in, to clear the palate.

How do you read? What do you read? Are you a Kindle fan or a paperback reader? How do you prioritise your reading time?

Do feel free to find me on Twitter @swiftstory or on my website www.deborahswift.com 

A conference! Australia and historical fiction, by Gillian Polack

My special event for September was the Historical Novel Society of Australasia’s conference. Every two years it happens and every two years it’s very special. I had to skip the evening events, because my life is just a bit fast-paced right now. Over coffee the following mornings I found out how splendid they were. The round table was particularly good, I heard, with people talking about diaspora and change. This set much of the conference up for how fiction and how history fed into the society we know. They’re not independent from our lives. 

Opening ceremony, HNSA, Photo courtesy HNSA

During my first masterclass, this approach came up a lot. We talked about silencing and about what responsibilities writers had and how to be ethical and still write the amazing fiction one dreams of. I seem to be teaching this a lot recently, which is good. 

I love it that so many writers care about living in a better world and don’t just say “This is my dream novel – I’m not interested in finding out how it affects others.” These days more and more writers are asking “How can I know what goes into my fiction. How do I understand what baggage I’m carrying and how do I make active choices to write responsibly?”

It wasn’t just my masterclasses. It was most of the panels I attended, and it was one of the academic sessions, and it was one of the subjects that many people chatted about during breaks and over drinks in the evening. Being a fiction writer has cultural consequences and so many writers are saying “I can write my best work and still be aware of those consequences.” This is one of the reasons I respect writers so very much. Not all writers. Some are still shuttered in a closed world. But so many of the ones I’m working with admit that fiction is an active part of creating culture and that we all have a part to play in the way the world works.

Over the weekend there was a lot of attention paid to developing good writing. Some people donned mail and helmets. Some checked out costume (and Rachel Nightingale wore one of the costumes, for she was the one doing the teaching). There were craft workshops and subject-matter workshops, and manuscript assessments. I brought in some of my teaching objects and we used them in my masterclasses and even in one panel. 

I delivered a paper, photo courtesy HNSA

Linking up the physical world with story is a complex business and it was fascinating to see how different writers reacted to different objects. A group of audience members for that panel were romance writers. When we sat round after the conference had finished and they said “We would’ve reacted differently.” I brought the items out again, and we explored them from a new angle and it was fascinating to see how each writer had perfectly useful approaches to transmuting an object into a part of a story: all of them were valid. For one writer a potsherd wasn’t useful at all, and for another it became a whole story.

What was really interesting was the number of non-writers attending panels that I’d mentally assumed were mainly for writers. Someone asked a question of my panel from the audience and prefaced it with “As a reader…” Australian readers love finding out how writers think and what techniques writers can use.

Discovering history over food, photo courtesy HNSA

We’re living in a difficult historical moment. This kind of thought and questioning give me hope. This conference was very good for my sense of what the future might be if everyone keeps the levels of inquiry and questioning this high. What’s particularly important to me is that novelists and their readers (both!) are taking on this understanding that history is not static. That we interpret the past all the time. That not all interpretations are equally safe for all of us. The interpretation we each choose matters.

This is where organisations like the HNSA make a difference. 

They’re publishing most of the academic papers in November or December, by the way, so you’ll be able to explore some of the topics for yourselves. All the best of the discussion was ad hoc, so my recommendation is that you have a dinner party. I would say that, for I’m back into historical food. Pity my friends…

Planning a Programme: how a conference organiser shares history - by Gillian Polack

I’m fascinated to find out different ways in which we learn about history, especially through fiction. One important way is through public events. If we go to a talk or attend a workshop or have coffee with someone at a conference we learn something quite different to what we might find out if we explore in libraries by ourselves. This is because the learning in conferences is influenced by the programme. 

This month I thought it would be a very good thing to talk to someone who is in charge of the programme for a major conference and find out more about the history presented and the contexts that conference presents from her view. It’s not just what she does – it’s how she designs that programme and what her thoughts are about it.

Elisabeth Storrs is responsible for the programme for the Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA) Conference. She loves history., That should go without saying, given what she does. She programmes the HNSA Conference from a position of knowledge and of that love, which is why I asked her if she’d answer some questions. She’s also an author (the Tales of Ancient Rome Saga) and has done a great deal over the years to support other writers. She used to be the Deputy Chair of the NSW Writers’ Centre and is the co-founder of the HNSA. All of this explains why she does programming for the HNSA and why it works out so very well. 

One more thing you need to know about before we look at how Elisabeth approaches her work is what the HNSA conference is about and why it’s important to understand it. Conventions and conferences are a key link between readers and writers. They create communities of interest. The HNSA’s community includes readers of historical fiction, historians and other scholars, writers of historical fiction, and a range of people who work in publishing. At the very least, a conference can create a bond between their subject and those who love it through their approach to it. When the programming is done right, which it was last HNSA Conference as I reported here (which is why this interview, this year) new things happen to a genre. 

Elisabeth doesn’t open the doors to history when the plans a conference, she does the carpentry so that the rest of us on the programme can open doors into our way of seeing things. When there are enough doors and enough people going through them, the whole atmosphere changes. Her vision provides the direction and our writing and research the content. Events of all kinds do this. They help shape the history we read and the way we think about the past.

Let’s get a bit of an insight into how she lays that groundwork.

Elisabeth Storrs

1.      How do you choose your presenters and the role they play at the conference? Are there any people you feel are particularly necessary? Who are they? What do they bring?

How do I choose presenters? The HNSA 2017 Melbourne Conference in September features over 60 speakers. It’s a challenging juggling act! 

There were various goals the HNSA wanted to achieve when designing the programme. Firstly, we wanted to explore a theme that would resonate with both readers and writers in terms of Australasian history; secondly, we sought to elicit ‘personal histories’ from award winning authors for the purpose of inspiring and informing a general audience; and finally, we believed it was important to provide insight and instruction to writers into the craft of writing and researching historical fiction. Overlaid onto this was a desire to provide diversity in the conference line-up by including authors from a variety of backgrounds, particularly indigenous speakers. Fortunately, the success of the inaugural conference in 2015 placed us in a happy position to extend the programme to run two concurrent streams in 2017 to achieve this vision.

With our aims sorted, I was then charged with the task of deciding who our speakers would be.  Our conference theme is Identity: Origins and Diaspora as HNSA believes historical fiction plays an important role in interrogating how national identities have been forged by past struggles, injustices, sacrifice, survival, and clash of cultures. It was essential to secure the appearance of speakers who represented a range of perspectives to reflect this. Our round table discussion at the opening reception on 9th September features Arnold Zable, Hanifa Deen, Ngahuia te Awekotuku and Gary Crew who will discuss the role of the historical novelist in exploring first encounters in Australasian colonial pasts, the migrant experience underlying multicultural identity, and whether an author’s origins are relevant to the story telling.

The first stream of the Saturday programme will continue to highlight the theme with the keynote address from Lesley and Tammy Williams, authors of Not Just Black and White, followed by panels that will discuss the challenges faced in portraying the meeting of First Peoples with Europeans, and how historical novelists can breathe life into immigrant tales of prejudice, hardship, homesickness and adaptation. I chose authors who had produced books that directly addressed one or more aspects of the conference theme such as Nicole Alexander, Maxine Alterio and Kim Kelly. 

The remainder of the first stream concentrates on introducing readers and writers to the personal histories of high profile authors such as our special guest, Kerry Greenwood, as well as conversations with Kate Forsyth, Sophie Masson, Deborah Challinor and Lucy Treloar. Insights into the secrets of ‘the long haul’ of producing multiple books or series will be provided by Juliet Marillier, Libby Hathorn and Anne Gracie. 

The second stream required further difficult decision making. I chose to separate the sessions into three areas: research and technique, sub-genres, and trends in publishing. I matched authors to the topics using criteria such as prominent standing, favourable reviews, recommendations from HNSA patrons and committee members, and choosing some members from our HNSA Facebook group . Again, I hoped to achieve diversity in the panels. And my aim was to present authors who wrote across a range of eras and cultures while also including self-published writers with proven reputations. I was pleased to include a greater representation of New Zealand authors than in our 2015 conference. 

The result is a wonderful array of panels including popular novelists Sulari Gentill and Robert Gott discussing how they’ve successfully created sleuths constrained by the detective methods of their era.  I also thought it would be interesting to examine the difference between an historical romance and a love story. For this I chose Isolde Martyn whose work has been classified as both, and Lisa Chaplin who has gained a reputation as a romance writer (as Melissa James) but who now writes ‘straight historical fiction.’ The chance to dispel the assumption that writing fiction for Children and Young Adults is easy will be explored via experienced authors Pamela Rushby, Gabrielle Wang and Alan Tucker. I am particularly pleased that Kate Mildenhall and Melissa Ashley will be participating in a panel discussing ‘The Modern Voice in Historical Fiction’ given it is essential for an historical novelist to balance the readability of a novel for a modern audience with a commitment to authenticity. 

Without effectively adapting research, history merely becomes a backdrop rather than an integral part of plot, place and character. There will be two panels discussing this: one on how to transmute research into compelling fiction which includes translator Stephanie Smee whom I thought would bring a fresh perspective to this topic, and the other debating the perennial issue of balancing authenticity against accuracy with Pamela Hart (Freeman) who has moved from predominately writing CYA to concentrating on adult historical fiction. I have included Tim Griffiths on the panel to discuss how he grappled with wrapping his imagination around the challenges of depicting the true story of the famous photographer Frank Hurley. 

2.      What sorts of limitations are there on your choices? Is there anything you would have loved to do but that was impossible?

Limitations? Those imposed by lack of funds! HNSA believes authors should be rewarded for their appearance at writing events. As such we compensate our presenters but unfortunately we are not in a position to offer travelling and accommodation expenses. There were many authors (over 20) who were unable to accept our invitation because they lived interstate or overseas. 

HNSA’s next goal is to offer more to its authors at our 2019 biennial conference. This will ensure we achieve even more variety. And I have to extend a huge thank you to all our current speakers for their generous spirit and support, especially those who are prepared to wing their way across the Ditch or Australia for love of the genre.

3.      This is the second HNSA conference. How did the experience of the first feed into what you’re doing now?

The 2015 HNSA conference in Sydney was a huge learning curve. By analysing feedback from our surveys, we were able to identify favourite panels and features. Hands down winners were the interviews, our ‘In Bed with History’ session, and our First Pages Pitch Contest where aspiring writers pitch their ‘first page’ anonymously to industry experts (Alison Green, (Pantera Press) Mandy Brett (Text), Sophie Masson (Eagle Books) who then provide a critique of chosen submissions to the general audience. We are once again employing Rachel Nightingale as an actor to read the excerpts. Hearing words spoken aloud definitely accentuates what grabs the attention of readers, publishers and agents from the very first paragraph. 

Our 2015 ‘Tudorphilia’ panel was also very popular. In 2017, I decided to look at the appeal of World War fiction as I believe this is the current ‘flavour of the month’ among publishers and readers. Analysing why should involve an entertaining discussion between Paddy Richardson, Elise McCune, Julian Leatherdale and Justin Sheedy. And, of course, the weekend finishes once again with ‘Outside Your Comfort Zone – Writing Sex and Violence’ with less bashful authors Kate Forsyth, Luke Devenish and Anna Campbell.

4.      How does the programme meet the needs of writers and of readers?

I wanted to avoid the conference being geared solely to writers.  After all, readers are absolutely vital. This is why I developed a general stream concentrating on ‘In Conversation’ interviews as I believe both writers and readers enjoy learning how successful authors approach their craft and the steps on their publishing journey. However, our 2015 surveys revealed that the majority of attendees were aspiring writers. The second stream caters to those who wish to improve their craft and gain direction. And even the most experienced writers can learn new techniques by listening to different approaches so I hope the programme will be of interest to writers at all stages of their careers.

In addition, the conference aims to provide more advanced support than the panel discussions. HNSA has developed smaller one hour ‘super sessions’ where participants can gain tuition from established authors on a range of topics. In this way, people can learn how to use tools such as Trove (Rachel Franks) and Scrivener (Kelly Gardiner) or methods of developing a novel from family history (Eleanor Limprecht.) Lisa Chaplin offers a guide to successful pitching while Hazel Edwards provides practical advice about ‘The Business of Writing’. Attendees will benefit from high calibre authors such as Sulari Gentill, Anne Gracie, Isolde Martyn and Sherryl Clark in writing for specific genres. And a fantastic opportunity is available to a small number of registrants to attend master classes with Gillian Polack [me! Editor’s note – it was better for Elisabeth to talk about me in the third person than to tell me what I was doing, when I know what I’m doing and it’s readers who don’t know] on ‘Making History Come to Life through Research and Writing’. This involves her pre-reading 10,000 words of a manuscript so she can then provide in-depth feedback and practical writing exercises. Additionally, industry expert, Irina Dunn, will provide 1:1 manuscript assessments.

Our extended academic programme is open to all. These panels provide an excellent chance to listen to papers that deal with complex consideration of topics such as ‘Bio-fiction: Can you Defame the Dead?’ convened by Kelly Gardiner and Catherine Padmore, or ‘The Lie of History’ featuring Christopher Raja and Wendy J Dunn. We are also delighted to introduce the inaugural HNSA Short Story Contest with a prize of $500.

5.      Can you explain specific approaches to history that you’d like the people attending the conference to experience and how you shaped the programme to reach this goal (if you did) or why you didn’t (if you didn’t)?

Apart from our ‘Identity’ theme that examines Australasian history, I made a conscious decision not to highlight any one era in individual panels other than those considered as trends. Instead, the sessions feature authors who may write across a range of periods whether they are medievalists (Robyn Cadwallader, Prue Batten), a fan of the 1920’s jazz age (Natasha Lester), an ancient world lover (Wendy Orr), or a devotee of C19th mystery (Greg Pyers). By not separating history into silos, I believe the audience can better compare and contrast the inspiration, strategies and expertise of historical novelists to interpret and convey the past.

Thanks, Gillian, for giving me the opportunity to tell you a little about the HNSA 2017 conference. Creating the programme has been a challenge and a pleasure. I hope all who attend will find something which appeals to them. More details are available on the HNSA website  together with the complete speakers’ list  including our wonderful chairs and academic panellists.

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Interview with Kate Forsyth - Gillian Polack

Today's guest is Australian author Kate Forsyth. Gillian Polack took the opportunity to ask her some questions that she's wanted to ask for quite a while.

I met Australian author Kate Forsyth back in 1999. There are a couple of questions I want to ask her. They’ve been lurking, all this time.

Normally, when I interview someone, I have a pile of linked questions and I weave through them more or less elegantly. In your case, Kate, I just want to know everything, instantly, and I’ve given up on elegance. I had to rewrite the questions, in fact, so they weren’t all “Tell me now!”

Kate, to get us started, would you tell us about yourself and your fiction?

I've always known I wanted to be a writer. Even as a small child, I was always writing poems and stories and telling people it was what I wanted to do when I grew up. I wrote my first novel when I was only seven, and have never had a day since when I wasn't writing something (even if its only my diary that I've kept since I was twelve). I am passionately interested in history and folklore and fairy tales, and they weave their way into all of my work, whether I am writing poems or essays or novels. My first poem was published (in the school magazine) when I was eleven and my first novel was published when I was thirty (it was the first in a heroic fantasy series set in a magical world very much like seventeenth century Scotland). I am now the proud author of thirty-six books ranging from picture books to poetry to epic historical sagas for adults. My best-known book is BITTER GREENS, which is a retelling of Rapunzel in a Renaissance Venice setting, interwoven with the dramatic true life story of the woman who first wrote the tale, the 17th century French noblewoman Charlotte-Rose de la Force who had been banished to a convent after a series of scandalous affairs. The book won the American Library Association Award for Best Historical Novel of 2015, and has also just been voted one of Australia's Best 101 Books. I then wrote THE WILD GIRL, which tells the story of the forbidden romance between Wilhelm Grimm and Dortchen Wild, the young woman who told him many of the world's most favourite fairy tales, against the heart-rending backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. It was voted the Most Memorable Love Story of the year by Australian readers, a wonderful endorsement! It is just about to come out in the US and is already getting some wonderful reviews.

I've also just finished writing a five-book fantasy adventure series for children called THE IMPOSSIBLE QUEST, and am in the final stages of another historical novel for adults called THE BEAST'S GARDEN, which is a retelling of the Grimms' Beauty & the Beast, set in Nazi Germany. So you can see I really do spend most of my time writing!

I’m fascinated by your fascination with fairy tales. Bitter Greens and The Wild Girl instantly come to mind when I think of this, but your work has had an element of fairy and folk since your very first novel, hasn’t it?


Yes, indeed. My early fantasy books all have a strong element of fairy tale and folklore woven through them, from motifs of cursed towers overgrown with roses to girls who change into owls or wolves. And DANCING ON KNIVES (which is the first novel I wrote as an adult but was not published until a few years later) draws upon The Little Mermaid fairy tale even though it has a contemporary Australian setting.

It all began, I think, because I spent a lot of time in hospital as a child after being savaged by a dog when I was just two years old. There was not much to do in hospital in those days except read, and so I read a great deal. I think I was particularly drawn to tales of magic, adventure and escape because my own life was so constrained by illness and the fear of illness. My mother gave me a beautiful red leather-bound copy of Grimms' Fairy tales when I was about seven, and I read the book so many times it fell to pieces. Those wonderful, frightening stories wove themselves into my imagination and have continued to fascinate me ever since.



My greatest interest is that you don’t simply take the tales and re-tell, you find their cultural and historical contexts and weave them into the tales. Would you tell us more about your relationship with fairy tales and folk tales?

I love fairy tale retellings. Growing up I devoured the work of writers such as Eleanor Farjeon, Nicholas Stuart Gray and - a little later, Robin McKinley - who wrote what I call 'pure' retellings - ones set in a fairy-tale-like setting with plots that closely follow the best-known variant of a tale, which is usually the Grimm Brothers'. Such 'pure' retellings have become very popular and we have seen work by such writers as Gail Carson Levine, Shannon Hale, Jessica Day George, and Edith Pattou, who have all written fairy tale fantasies for a young adult market. Then we began to see such fairy-tale-inspired fiction for adult readers, by writers like Juliet Marillier and Margo Lanagan and Jane Yolen, who have taken old stories and reworked them in marvellously new and innovative ways. And I loved their work as well.

I have also always loved historical fiction - its my favourite genre of all. Growing up, I read Rosemary Sutcliff and Geoffrey Trease and Leon Garfield, and now I read as much historical fiction and non-fiction as I can. I think it was because I loved history so much that I first got the idea of re-writing 'Rapunzel' as a historical novel, rather than as a fantasy. Or perhaps it was because I come from an academic family (my father was a scientist and my mother studied psychology & anthropology) and so I was raised to question everything and to dig deeper, to look for facts rather than hearsay. And because I am an oral storyteller as well as an author, I was always going to be interested in who told the tale. All of these obsessions - history, psychology, folklore, storytelling - led me to want to know as much as I could about the background of the tale and the tale's tellers. I ended up doing my doctorate on 'Rapunzel' - since I was doing so much research I thought I might as well use it! - and along the way discovered the extraordinary life of an all-but-forgotten 17th century fairy tale teller. Bringing Charlotte-Rose de la Force's story to life meant trying to understand the milieu in which she lived, and so I was also researching the life and times of her cousin, Louis XIV, the Sun King, and the world of the royal court at Versailles.

In all, it took me seven years to research and write BITTER GREENS and to finish my doctorate. And my later fairy-tale-inspired-historical novels, THE WILD GIRL and the upcoming THE BEAST'S GARDEN, both arose out of discoveries I made during those years of research.

THE WILD GIRL in particular was a challenge, because very little was known about Dortchen Wild, who told a quarter of all the tales collected by the Grimm brothers and published in their first edition of fairy tales. Like so many women of her time, she left very little behind her in the way of letters, diaries, stories and other writings, and I had to use the stories she told Wilhelm as a template for her inner life. It was a truly fascinating process!


Now, of course, you’ve done a doctorate on fairy tales. How does it fit with your earlier work? Has it changed your writing and the tales you want to tell?

As we discussed earlier, I have always been interested in fairy tales and folklore, and so undertaking a doctorate in that area has only fed my obsession. During the time I was doing my doctorate, I also studied oral storytelling and am now an accredited master storyteller with the Australian Guild of Storytellers. So these two interests of mine have continued to lead me deeper onto the dark, tangled woods of fairy tale studies. I cannot tell you if it has changed my writing, though I can see a difference in style to the books I wrote in my 20s and the ones I am now writing in my 40s. I think that is a natural growth and progression.

For the moment, I am bubbling over with ideas for new books that combine historical fiction with fairy tale retellings in new and innovative ways. One that I am just beginning to play with is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty set amongst the love affairs and scandals of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. I am coming to the UK in June to run a writing retreat in the Cotswolds and plan to spend my spare time gazing at paintings and prowling around At and Crafts houses. It's very exciting!



You also have an interest in history. Is it the pull of a period or place? Is it an interest in research and the past? Is it the need to delve into the background of the story and to ground it in something our culture knows? Why history? Which history? Whose history?

It's all these things! And yet, each book is a little different too. Setting is very important to me, and so I am drawn to certain times and places, such as Renaissance Venice or Paris and Versailles in the time of the Sun King, which were the settings of BITTER GREENS. Yet I was not at all interested in the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations during the Napoleonic Wars ... it was the untold love story Wilhelm Grimm and Dortchen Wild that drew me to that time and place and I had to do a great deal of research before I could even begin to understand it and bring it to life in THE WILD GIRL. I was always deeply fascinated by the Second World War, and in stories of heroism and resistance during that dark time, and had always wanted to set a book then. Somehow my subconscious mind put that wish together with the desire to retell Beauty and the Beast, and came up with something truly surprising and unexpected.

I am also very interested in art and poetry and music and so these things work their way into my fiction. The Venetian artist Titian was a key character in BITTER GREENS. In THE WILD GIRL, I grew very interested in the German Romantic poet Novalis and also listened to a great deal of Beethoven. And I've always loved the Pre-Raphaelites and their art, and so this new book is born out of a desire to know more about them ... and also to rescue the all-but-forgotten Victorian fairy tale teller, Mary de Morgan, who was a shadowy figure on the edge of their bright circle,

Many of my books are about untold stories ... and forgotten women ... and the redemptive power of storytelling in its many different forms. Why I am drawn to telling these stories? I don't know. Mystery is at the heart of all creation. I suspect it has something to do with a fear of being forgotten myself ... which is in itself a fear of death. I just know that these stories come to possess me, and that I cannot rest until I have brought them to life, in the most beautiful and meaningful way that I can.



Speaking of history, would you tell us something about your work as the patron of the Historical Novel Society of Australasia?


It would be my pleasure. About twenty years ago, when I was a young woman who desperately wanted to be a writer, it was hard to find the kind of books I wanted to read. I felt very alone in my passionate love for historical fiction, and would search the bookshop shelves for anything I could find that had a historical or quasi-historical setting. Some years later, I wrote my first historical novel (THE GYPSY CROWN, a children's adventure story about two Romany children during the final weeks of Oliver Cromwell's life.) I heard that there was a Historical Novel Society, which published magazines of book reviews and held an annual conference somewhere in the world. I was tremendously excited and joined up straightaway. I poured over their magazines and highlighted books I wanted to read, then hunted them down over the internet. When my novel THE PUZZLE RING was published (a children's time travel story about a twelve year old girl who goes back in time to the days of Mary, Queen of Scots), I used my a good portion of my US advance to go to my first-ever HNS conference in Chicago. It was so wonderful! I made so many friends and I learnt so much. If I could, I would go every year - but its hard for me to be away from my little family too often and it can be very expensive. I wished that we could have a conference here in Australia. Other Australian writers and readers wished the same thing. And a few stalwart souls did something about it (Chris Foley, Elisabeth Storrs, Wendy Jean Dunn, Diane Murray, and Greg Johnstone) and put together an absolutely brilliant weekend event in late March. My job as patron was to spread the word as best I could, make a rather alarming amount of speeches, and turn up and smile. Which I was very happy to do. It was a resounding success, and the next conference is already being planned for Melbourne in 2017. Any English historical fiction who have ever dreamed of visiting Australia may want to plan about it (A Tip: Australian readers are big book buyers!)




Kate Forsyth wrote her first novel at seven, and is now the award-winning & internationally bestselling author of 36 books. Recently voted one of Australia's Favourite 20 Novelists, Kate has a doctorate in fairy tale studies and is an accredited master storyteller. Her adult books include The Wild Girl, the story of the forbidden romance behind the Grimm Brothers’ famous fairy tales, and Bitter Greens, called ‘the best fairy tale retelling since Angela Carter’. It won the 2015 ALA Prize for Best Historical Fiction and came in at No 27 in Dymocks 2015 list of Australia’s Top 101 Books. Kate’s children’s novels include The Impossible Quest, The Puzzle Ring and award-winning The Gypsy Crown. Kate is a direct descendant of Charlotte Waring Atkinson, the author of the first book for children ever published in Australia Read more at www.kateforsyth.com.au