10 Reasons Why I Love British History

My first novel, GILT, will be published in the UK and Commonwealth on the 28th of February, and I'm celebrating this week with my love of Britain and British history.  And on Thursday, I'll be hosting a little blog party and giveaway (including chances to win the British paperback of GILT and an ARC of TARNISH!)

But today, I have to tell you why I'm such a history geek (though the reasons are countless, I've managed to nail down a few...)

10.  Blackadder.  History and quirky, irreverent British humor all rolled up into a sneering anti-hero, written by some of the funniest writers working today (Richard Curtis of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Rowan Atkinson, Ben Elton) and Britain’s best comedic actors (Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, and the fabulous Tony Robinson of Time Team).  I have a cunning plan to write a book starring Elizabeth I, just so I can have her say, “Who’s Queen?”

9.  Errol Flynn.  I know he’s Australian.  But my first introduction to history was through Robin Hood and Captain Blood and for years I expected history to be populated by handsome rogues. 

8.  Castles.  Crenellated walls, stone towers, clammy dungeons.  From motte and bailey structures of Norman England to the pretty, showy palaces of the Tudors.  I especially love the ruins—like Corfe Castle, destroyed by Parliament during the English Civil War.  There’s real history in those walls, my friends.

7.  British television costume dramas.  Pride and Prejudice, Downton Abbey, Vanity Fair, Call the Midwife…I could to on and on and on.  But that will have to be a blog post of its own.

6.  Archaeology.  After seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark as a kid, I wanted to be an archaeologist (but ended up studying cultural anthropology instead).  I totally dig Time Team.  And the recent discovery of Richard III’s bones in a Leicester car park?  Made.  My.  Year.

5.  Costumes.  I spent part of my college career studying costume design for the theater.  I love those flat Renaissance bodices, 1920’s dropped-waist dresses, the elegant lines of Edwardian fashions (think Mary in Downton Abbey), Marie Antoinette’s hair, Joan of Arc’s armor…

4.  Shakespeare.  Richard III is my favorite history play, though old Will put a lot of fiction into his historical fiction.

3.  Murder and mayhem.  Why does this entice us so?  The Gunpowder Plot.  The execution of Anne Boleyn and all of the men accused of treason with her.  The Blitz.  I think it’s because in the midst of all the violence and injustice, we see who we really are and what side we’d take.

2.  Romance.  Not necessarily in the Romeo and Juliet, boy-meets-girl sense, though I love that, too.  But in the chivalry of King Arthur, the beauty and humanism of the Renaissance, the way Windsor Castle looks from the far end of the Great Park.  Blake’s vision of romance.

1.  Characters.  Kings and queens and commoners.  Matilda, Henry V, Francis Drake, T. E. Lawrence, Emmeline Pankhurst, Oliver Cromwell, and, of course, Anne Boleyn.  Fascinating people who lived in fascinating times.  I love to find the story in history, and story is all about the characters.

Why I Love Britain and the British - Part 3

History.

You knew it was coming, didn't you?  I love English history.  The Saxons and the Romans.  William the Conquerer and Harold. (side note, my first love of English history came from French class, learning about the Bayeux Tapestry (la tapisserie de Bayeux).  Old Harold with the arrow through his eye at the battle of Hastings.  Great stuff.)  The Anarchy of Matilda (or Maud) and Stephen.  King John. Richard II. 

Recently, I've been out touring centuries of English history.  My writing at the moment is all about the Tudors, but I love to get out and explore the rest of the history, too.  I visited a Roman villa, its mosaic floor almost entirely intact in some rooms.  I wandered the air museum at Tangmere and learned about the Battle of Britain.  In the same day.

I went for a two-hour walk through fields and along a canal and ended up at an ancient, crumbling octagonal tower in the middle of almost nowhere.  Odiham Castle, from which King John rode in a snit to set his stamp to the Magna Carta.

But the best part of my journey this trip was to visit Bosworth battlefield.  This is where Richard III lost his crown - the last English king to die in battle - and Henry Tudor picked it up.  The beginning of the Tudor dynasty.  And the end of one of the most maligned figures in history.  The history here is palpable.  The striations on the canon shot discovered in the field.  The belt buckles and clips found after centuries.  And a white boar badge, silver and gilded, worn by one of Richard's loyal followers and lost to the earth that August day in 1485.  I'm not ashamed to say that tears came to my eyes seeing that little piece of ancient metal. 

I love being able to visualize the history.  To strain to hear the sounds of canon fire or smell the smoke in a close castle room.  To look out a window and sweep away the tarmacked streets and cars and see only the rolling hills beyond.  This is why I love to write history, because I can indulge my imagination.

Please join me tomorrow on another little historical trip -- Nicole About Town is kicking off the Tudor Tuesdays blog tour with a post about Catherine of Aragon and an excerpt from GILT.  Please drop by!

On Being a History Geek

I am constantly awed by the life that I lead.  That I can combine two of my loves -- writing and history -- and create something that others want to read.  And I am so looking forward to hearing from readers and what (if anything) they find inspirational within the pages.

I've had many people ask me about the amount of research that goes into writing historical fiction for young adults.  And if it's hard.  Or tedious.

It's a lot of research.  And sometimes it is tedious.  But I love discovering little nuggets of information that can enliven and enrich my writing.  I love sticking tiny hints into the book that no one but another lover of Tudor history would find.  And I love reading more and discovering new things -- even if it turns out to mean that I haven't got everything absolutely accurate in the book.  Because history isn't a static thing -- someone is always coming up with new information or an interesting new theory.

Here are somethings I'm excited about today:

Claire Ridgway at The Anne Boleyn Files has published a book gleaned from her blog posts over the years.  Claire has an incredible work ethic and an attention to detail that I can only marvel at.  She's on a blog tour at the moment, and the first stop is an interview on the Tudor Tutor in which Claire divulges some delicious information on Thomas Boleyn.  Want to include this in a novel one day...

I'm going on a research trip to England again this year and can't wait to visit all the places I have planned.  The most exciting has little to do with Henry or his wives, but I've been wanting to go there for years.  Years!  Bosworth Field is the location of the battle where Richard III lost his throne (and his life) and launched the Tudor reign.  I am a devoted Ricardian and may not be able to stop myself from shouting "A horse!  A horse!  My kingdom for a horse!"

What excites you about history?

RIP Catherine Howard

On Friday, I wrote about Catherine Howard's trip to the Tower of London.  She was executed on February 13.

One of the things that most fascinates me about Catherine is that she requested the executioner's block to be brought to her room the night before.  She wanted to practice with it, and make sure she got it right.  The girl who didn't really act like a queen when she was alive wanted to look like a queen at her death.

There's something very poignant about this, and I think it's a beautiful glimpse into her character.  It is something, perhaps, that many of us would not be able to do.  It shows courage as well as a little vanity.

Catherine's body was buried in an unmarked grave in the chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower grounds.

This Day in History -- Catherine Howard

Four hundred seventy years ago today, young Catherine Howard was taken to the Tower of London.  She was no longer queen, as her titles and possessions had been stripped by an Act of Attainder earlier in the month.  She was just a girl, convicted of treason, taken to the Tower to die.  We don't know exactly how old she was, because her birthdate was never recorded.  She was somewhere between seventeen and twenty-two.

The stories say that Catherine was moved from Syon to the Tower by a barge that "shot the waters" that rushed under London Bridge.  When she saw the water gate (now called Traitors' Gate), she began to cry, and had to be hauled from the boat and into her lodgings.

Catherine wasn't the first queen in English history to enter the Tower through Traitors' Gate.  And she wasn't the last.

Before I started writing GILT -- back when this novel was just an idea -- I wandered alone through the Tower to get a sense of it.  To try to see it as it might have looked in 1542.  The Tower is probably as crowded now as it was then -- only these days with people carrying cell phones and long-lens cameras, and speaking languages from all over the planet.  But I don't think it's as forbidding.  Today, the Tower feels like history.  Back then, it must have felt like obliteration.

Traitors' Gate brought this side history home for me.  The sharp points at the bottom of the portcullis.  The slick stairs leading up from the river.  No wonder Catherine cried.

This Week in History -- Thomas Culpepper and Francis Dereham

This was a bad week for Catherine Howard.  Like, the worst.  Imagine your worst week and multiply it by a thousand.

As you know, my first novel, GILT, tells the story of Catherine from the point of view of her best friend.  My goal is to be as historically accurate as possible, placing people and events as they actually were, but lacing these events through a story with a more contemporary feel -- the story of the friendship between Kitty Tylney and Cat Howard.

The White Tower in the Tower of London

But I'll run through some of the facts here on the blog over the course of the year.  On the 1st of December, 1541, two of Catherine Howard's lovers were put on trial and found guilty of high treason.

Seriously.  Can you imagine how impossible it would seem for an ex-boyfriend to be tried and convicted of treason?  As a teenager, when you fell in love, did you stop and think, "Wait, maybe I shouldn't do this in case I marry the king one day?"  No.  Neither did Catherine Howard nor Francis Dereham.  Unfortunately for them.

But Thomas Culpepper was a different story.  Catherine started the affair with him after she married the king.  And adultery was a very bad thing for a woman (though not for a man.  Especially the king.  Double standard, anyone?)  Adultery with the queen could *ahem* adulterate the royal line, placing a non-royal on the throne, which was even worse.  Treason.

So on December 1st, Catherine heard that her bedfellows were going to die.  And I wonder if she knew then that she might follow.

On December 10, the men were executed on Tower Hill.  Culpepper was beheaded -- his sentence commuted by a generous king.  Dereham was not so lucky.

Not a good week, all in all.  I certainly hope yours is better.