Two writing experts will be sharing their insights on how to turn historical facts into fiction at a special event this week.
University of Worcester Lecturer in Creative Writing, Dr Ruth Stacey, and best-selling author Barbara Erskine will take part in a discussion titled Resilient Women on Wednesday, June 4 at 7pm at Worcester book shop Script Haven, as part of its ongoing Alchemy of Words festival.
“We’re talking about writing historical fiction,” said Dr Stacey. “We’re both working in historical archives, historical time periods, where we’re using our research to be able to deliver to the reader this kind of experience of the past that has a fidelity to that time period. But we both have to fictionalise and create fictional elements for parts of the archive we don’t know. People come to historical fiction with a sense of time travel, they want to go back into the past and your job is not to pull them out of it.”
Dr Stacey has recently released Feel Everything!, the imagined memoirs of the 20th century illustrator and tarot artist Pamela Colman Smith, which combines historical fiction and poetry.
Ms Erskine has recently published a new novel, The Story Spinner, and has many internationally best-selling novels, such as Lady of Hay.
Dr Stacey said when writing historical fiction, authors come across different challenges depending on the time period they are writing in.
Speaking about Pamela Colman Smith, Dr Stacey said: “Although there are some newspaper articles written about Pamela Colman Smith, there’s nothing written about what she felt and thought about things, so I have to do all that fictionalising. A historical fiction novelist or poet has to fill in the gaps really, but make sure the readers feel its believable, there’s no anachronisms that pull you out of the period.
“If you are reading primary research from the past, you are aware that when talking about the subject they might be biased. You have to read widely and make sure you have got a big lens on the documentation so you can make your own judgements from the evidence available.”
Dr Stacey said since the first wave of feminism, there has been a huge focus on novels attempting to reclaim women from the historical record, with numerous retellings of the lives of women like Henry’s VIII’s second wife Anne Boleyn or Queen Cleopatra, redressing the previous narratives. But, in more recent years, lesser-known women have become the focus. “I think that authors and poets are seeking out lesser-known people to research,” she said. “There’s plenty of people in the historical archives out there that are deserving of being brought to light.”
Tickets cost £20. For tickets visit the Script haven website: https://scripthaven.co.uk/product/jo-durrant-presents-resilient-women/