Toby Clements, author of the King Maker series – Research: the search for accuracy and a journey towards truth

As the author of four novels set during the Wars of the Roses, Toby has gained a reputation for meticulous and surprisingly hands-on research. His entirely uncontentious contention is that research is entirely vital for historical fiction, but not for the sake of accuracy alone. He contends that, the more research goes into a novel, the more unexpected, interesting and odd it can become, in part because the known facts impose a discipline – or rather an anti-discipline, since they usually disrupt conventional literary formula with their own messy rhythms – but also because what both writers and readers believe about the past is often off-beam, vague or generic. Truth really is stranger than fiction, and research into it, coupled with a commitment to stick to what’s unearthed, will often lead a writer in strange and unexpected directions. Toby will describe his own progression towards writing the King Maker series, which began with The Lady Bird Book of Warwick the King Maker and a day trip to Tewkesbury Abbey. “Such facts as I learned,” he says, “were like beacons in the night I knew my destination, but not how to get there, or what lay in the darkness between.” He’ll tell us what came after, and how his hazy, romantic view of plucky archers and knights in armour morphed into a tale of men and women being confounded by a buttonhole, what it might feel like to have a warm bath for the first time in your life, and even, God knows why, how a medieval surgeon might operate on an anal fistula.

Victoria MacKenzie, author of For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain – Recovering England’s earliest women writers
Victoria’s debut novel explores the lives of 14th century mystics Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich, both of whom claimed visions of Christ and shared their experiences in writing. Julian’s Revelations of Divine Love is the first known book in the English language by a woman, while The Book of Margery Kemp is the first known autobiography in English. Though they shared religious faith and visionary experiences, Margery and Julian were very different women. Margery was a merchant’s wife and mother of 14 children. She spoke of her visions frequently and in public, risking arrest and burning for heresy. Julian, by contrast, was an anchoress, who spent more than 30 years alone in a small room attached to the church of St Julian in Norwich. In conversation with Annie Garthwaite, Victoria will discuss why she was drawn to write about these women, how she tackled her research, and how she used the women’s own writing to recreate their voices on the page. She’ll talk about the creative challenges and opportunities posed by the source materials, and about the choices she made to blend research with fiction in order to create a world that, though 600 years old, feels vivid and compelling for 21st century readers.

Anne O’Brien, Sunday Times best-selling author – “To my right worshipful husband, John Paston. Be this delivered in haste” 
Anne’s most recent novels take their inspiration from the Paston Letters, the earliest and largest collection of documents detailing the life of a single family in 15th century England. The collection came to light in 1735 when, following the death of William Paston, earl of Yarmouth, it fell into the hands of a local historian. Thus began our intimate knowledge of the Paston family, from its peasant origins to the gentry. During the 15th century, the Paston menfolk used education and their facility at law to work for notable men at court. They wrote about the conflict of the Wars of the Roses, relationships between great magnates and their struggles for land and power. But for Anne, the jewels in the Paston crown are the 107 letters written by its matriarch, Margaret Paston, whose distinct and clear voice details the complex interests of a medieval family on the rise. Margaret’s letters deal with far more than shopping lists and childcare. They wrestle with bitter domestic quarrels, legal disputes, the much-contested ownership of Caister Castle, family scandals, disobedient daughters and obstinate sons; and, of course, the marriage alliances, some of which went disastrously wrong, others marvellously right. Anne describes Margaret and her family as “exuberant, confrontational and compelling.” She’ll talk to us about Margaret’s letters, the insights they provide to family and national experience, and how she used them as a jumping-off point for a pair of novels that bring the 15th century to fact-based fictional life.

Chair: Annie Garthwaite