At work
My workplace!
Research material
Fort at Portobelo
Interior of Fort
A good read now…
Before the Storm by Judith Lennox: a superbly crafted family saga that follows the search for love and identity across several generations through relationships tested by the unearthing of grim secrets and the devastating effects of war.
Links
Society of Authors Historical Novel Society Romantic Novelists Association Drake Exploration Society Jonathan PeggLiterary Agency Journey Latin America John Todd Jr Migration Safaris Bilal Ghafoor Verulam Writers Circle Red Wave
Communications Ltd Dave Weaver Kevin Bennett Ian Cundell Space Captain Smith Jonathan Pinnock Sandra Norval Kate Allan Meena Wells Steve Barley Susan K Franklin Julie Mayhew Mark Clementson Mandy Knight Oscar Windsor-Smith Artscape Caroline Duffield Obstacle Productions Rosy Thornton Willesden Herald Vulpes Libris
Influences
I grew up with the books of James Clavell and John le Carré, George MacDonald Fraser and Robert Graves. And I've also loved books by John Steinbeck and Gore Vidal, Louis de Bernières and Sebastian Faulks, Bernard Cornwell and Philippa Gregory, Rose Tremain and Margaret Atwood, Charles Frazier and Stef Penney, and I'm only touching on a few of those wonderful authors who have written at least one novel that might be described as 'historical'. My reading is multifarious and eclectic. I strive to make my own writing accessible and inclusive, without ever becoming insipid and banal.
Sources
For any historical novel to be effective the research must be huge, but most important for me, much more so than academic studies and textbooks, are the first-hand accounts. These I will consult again and again.
For To the Ends of the World my main sources have been the Elizabethan accounts in 'Sir Francis Drake Revived' by Drake's preacher Philip Nichols, which was edited by Drake himself, and those compiled in Richard Hakluyt's 'Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques & Discoveries of the English Nation', particularly the depositions of the page Miles Philips, and the gunner Job Hortop, together with John Hawkins' own account of his 1567-8 voyage. In addition (and for a balanced view!) I've also made good use of the Spanish first-hand accounts compiled and edited by Irene Wright.
Read what was written at the time, and the world as it was begins to come alive…
"…This realm is at the present moment so terrified, and the spirits of all so disturbed, that we know not in what words to emphasize to your majesty the solicitude we make in this dispatch…"
(From a plea sent by the Council of Panama to King Philip II of Spain, February 24th 1573, following Drake's attacks on Nombre de Dios and Venta de Chagres.)
Then you are there afresh…
…It was a release to channel tension into powering fast across the bay, unlocking cramp, making for the low silvery buildings below the quiet black hills, and hear only the steady slap of the sweeps hitting the sea, then drawing through with a sloosh, driving the boats over the rip, tholes grinding as the oars turned. There was no talk. The helmsman called the stroke to grunts and hoarse breathing, the focus in the union of body and mind, pull and push, each man intent on working his oar in the race to reach the harbour before the guns came to life…
(From To The Ends of the World)
