Accuracy in Historical Fiction
The article that caught my attention in this month’s Red Herrings, the bulletin of the Crime Writers’ Association, is by Bryan J Mason. He was on a historical fiction panel at CrimeFest this year and was asked about the level of accuracy needed to depict the past. He...
Tutankhamun and Legacy
Claire has just been watching Coco again. The story revolves around the belief that you don’t finally die until the last person alive forgets you. We visited the Tutankhamun exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London in 2020. I think it was there that I read that the...
Royal Golf
I have written about golf before. I have played golf, occasionally winning a prize here and there, since I was about five years old. I gave it up soon after leaving university, and took the game up again when I retired. Many golf clubs have royal in their name: Royal...
Screen Writing
The Open University advanced creative writing course aims to develop the student’s dramatic technique, individual style, and voice. It explores dramatic writing: writing for the stage, screen, and radio, and how the techniques employed can enhance our writing. My big...
Preparations for Dartmouth Book Festival
I’m looking forward to the Dartmouth Book Festival in September, and making preparations for it. Browser Books have invited me to be on the historical fiction panel at the Flavel. I was asked to come up with a name for my talk. I came up with “Falling into Historical...
D-Day +1
I have posted before about my father’s service in WWII. Yesterday was, of course, D-Day, perhaps the most critical day of the war. My father had fought in North Africa and Italy before landing at Arromanches on D-Day +1. Dad’s battle honours include the Normandy...
C.J. Sansom
I always open the envelope with great excitement when I know that the latest edition of Red Herrings (the CWA newsletter) drops though the letterbox. Excitement turned to sadness when the cover revealed that the great C.J. Sansom had died. He was my model author. He...
Fate
On 29th May 1648 King Charles I of England was caught trying to saw through the bars of his prison cell in Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight. How might events have changed if he had not been caught? Fate decreed that he was. In the timeline of The Favourite...
Shaken not Stirred
How does James Bond like his martini? My recollection is that his preference is a vodka martini, shaken not stirred. But how much of that recollection is from the books, from the films, or from the popular conceptions surrounding both? I’ve recently reread Casino...
Accuracy in Historical Fiction
The article that caught my attention in this month’s Red Herrings, the bulletin of the Crime Writers’ Association, is by Bryan J Mason. He was on a historical fiction panel at CrimeFest this year and was asked about the level of accuracy needed to depict the past. He...
Tutankhamun and Legacy
Claire has just been watching Coco again. The story revolves around the belief that you don’t finally die until the last person alive forgets you. We visited the Tutankhamun exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London in 2020. I think it was there that I read that the...
Royal Golf
I have written about golf before. I have played golf, occasionally winning a prize here and there, since I was about five years old. I gave it up soon after leaving university, and took the game up again when I retired. Many golf clubs have royal in their name: Royal...
Screen Writing
The Open University advanced creative writing course aims to develop the student’s dramatic technique, individual style, and voice. It explores dramatic writing: writing for the stage, screen, and radio, and how the techniques employed can enhance our writing. My big...
Preparations for Dartmouth Book Festival
I’m looking forward to the Dartmouth Book Festival in September, and making preparations for it. Browser Books have invited me to be on the historical fiction panel at the Flavel. I was asked to come up with a name for my talk. I came up with “Falling into Historical...
D-Day +1
I have posted before about my father’s service in WWII. Yesterday was, of course, D-Day, perhaps the most critical day of the war. My father had fought in North Africa and Italy before landing at Arromanches on D-Day +1. Dad’s battle honours include the Normandy...
C.J. Sansom
I always open the envelope with great excitement when I know that the latest edition of Red Herrings (the CWA newsletter) drops though the letterbox. Excitement turned to sadness when the cover revealed that the great C.J. Sansom had died. He was my model author. He...
Fate
On 29th May 1648 King Charles I of England was caught trying to saw through the bars of his prison cell in Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight. How might events have changed if he had not been caught? Fate decreed that he was. In the timeline of The Favourite...
Shaken not Stirred
How does James Bond like his martini? My recollection is that his preference is a vodka martini, shaken not stirred. But how much of that recollection is from the books, from the films, or from the popular conceptions surrounding both? I’ve recently reread Casino...