Today my series on why novelists choose to write historical fiction continues with a guest post from David West. David caught the writing bug after being commissioned to write a non-fiction work. He studied creative writing but failed to find his protagonist, until he read a biography of Sir Francis Drake.
I fell into writing historical fiction entirely by accident. I had been commissioned by Gower Publishing to write a textbook on Project Sponsorship in 2009, and thoroughly enjoyed the writing process, and the thrill of books with my name on the cover. I was already an Open University addict so took their courses on Creative Writing and Advanced Creative Writing. I thought I’d like to write a crime novel. My wife Claire was a criminal barrister, so would be a great bank of stories and fact checker. However, I just couldn’t get a sense of my detective without it being a copycat Morse, Vera, Strike etc. So I set the whole idea aside.
I was reading George Malcolm Thomson’s biography of Sir Francis Drake, when I discovered that Walsingham had a spy feeding him detailed intelligence on the Spanish Armada, including how many ships they had, how they were armed, how many troops they carried, who their captains were, and what orders they had. The spy’s name was Sir Anthony Standen, and my mother’s maiden name was Standen.
I read everything I could about Sir Anthony, from his entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, reports held on him by Venetian diplomats in the British library, letters in the archive of the Duke of Tuscany, and The Golden Lads by Daphne du Maurier. He led the most incredible life. He is the only man I can think of to have been knighted by both Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I. But throughout my research I kept asking, why did he do that, and how did he do that? So I began to write my own version of his life story, sticking to the known facts, but seeking to explain the why and how. The Spy who Sank the Armada was born. I subsequently discovered on Ancestry that Sir Anthony was the elder brother of my 10th great-grandfather.
Having got to know Anthony rather well, I decided to write a series.
I have used his 001 skillset, and passed his knowledge onto his children, so that I can continue the series indefinitely. I am currently 49,000 words into The Favourite Murder, the fifth book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. It’s set in Paris around 1614. Sir Anthony knew Marie de Medici as a child, when he was working for her father (on Walsingham’s orders), and she later became mother of Louis XIII. Cardinal Richelieu is about to make his appearance in the book. Although I fell into historical fiction by accident, I’m so glad that I did.
Blog host Helena P. Schrader is an award-winning novelist and author of six non-fiction and twenty historical fiction books. Her current project in a three-part series about the Berlin Airlift.
The first two volumes of the Bridge to Tomorrow Trilogy are now available.
The first battle of the Cold War is about to begin....
Berlin 1948. In the ruins of
Hitler’s capital, former RAF officers, a woman pilot, and the victim of Russian
brutality form an air ambulance company. But the West is on a collision course
with Stalin’s aggression and Berlin is about to become a flashpoint. World War
Three is only a misstep away. Buy Now
Berlin is under siege. More than two million civilians must be supplied by air -- or surrender to Stalin's oppression.
USAF Captain J.B. Baronowsky and RAF Flight
Lieutenant Kit Moran once risked their lives to drop high explosives on Berlin.
They are about to deliver milk, flour and children’s shoes instead. Meanwhile,
two women pilots are flying an air ambulance that carries malnourished and
abandoned children to freedom in the West. Until General Winter deploys on the
side of Russia. Buy now!
Based on historical events, award-winning and best-selling novelist Helena P. Schrader delivers an insightful, exciting and moving tale about how former enemies became friends in the face of Russian aggression — and how close the Berlin Airlift came to failing.
Winning a war with Bread and Chocolate!
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