The next author in the ‘Few of my
favourite things…’ 2015 HNSA Conference interview series is Isolde Martyn. She
will be appearing on a panel on how historical novelists weave history into
fiction: Tall Tales and True: How Story
Tellers Imagine History on 21
March 2015.
Isolde Martyn grew up in London. A visit to the Tower of
London as a child ignited a lifelong love of history and at fourteen she came
across mention of an anonymous woman spy in the Wars of the Roses and became
determined to one day write a novel about her. It took a while. She read
History Honours at the University of Exeter where she could specialise in the
Wars of the Roses. The Maiden and the
Unicorn, her debut novel about the woman spy, won ‘Best First Novel’ from
Romance Writers of America and the inaugural R*BY (Romantic Novel of the Year
Award) from Romance Writers of Australia. Booksellers never know quite where to
place her books as although love stories feature in most of her novels, the
sub-plots are political. Her recent novels Mistress
to the Crown and The Golden Widows
have centred on famous historical women and The
Devil in Ermine is about Richard III’s coup in 1483 narrated by his cousin,
Buckingham.
These are
a few of my favourite things….
Book as a child and as a teenager?
This is
asking a voracious bookworm! My favourite novel when I was ten years old was
Rosemary Sutcliffe’s The Queen Elizabeth
Story. I also remember borrowing
Geoffrey Trease’s Crown of Violet many times from the library.
Author/authors?
I still
have aged paperbacks of Mary Stewart, Georgette Heyer and Margaret Campbell
Barnes foxing on the bookcase. My guru was Dorothy Dunnett and it was a great
thrill to interview her when she visited
Sydney. Unfortunately I don’t think any of the Arts editors had ever
heard of her so I never got the article published to spread the word to those
who had yet to discover her fabulous writing.
Period of history?
I’ve written four books set during the Wars of the Roses and all but one have real life heroes and heroines. The great thing about any era when there is great upheaval is that it offers challenges and adventures for the main characters. That’s the reason I also like the French Revolution, too, and wrote Fleur-de-Lis. I wanted to examine where the revolution lost its way as well as depict life in Paris in 1793.
I’ve written four books set during the Wars of the Roses and all but one have real life heroes and heroines. The great thing about any era when there is great upheaval is that it offers challenges and adventures for the main characters. That’s the reason I also like the French Revolution, too, and wrote Fleur-de-Lis. I wanted to examine where the revolution lost its way as well as depict life in Paris in 1793.
Character in one of your own books?
Oh,
goodness, I fall in love with all my heroes. Maybe, Raoul, the republican
deputy in Fleur-de-Lis.
Scene you enjoyed writing?
Most of
the scenes between Richard, Duke of Gloucester and Henry, Duke of Buckingham,
in The Devil in Ermine. Bringing real
historic people to life on the page so as the reader feels a sense of truth and
authenticity can be challenging but so enjoyable.
Place to write?
We are talking about pulling
hen’s teeth here. I have a very cluttered study, not enough bookshelves and
always lack of time or inclination to cull the paper piles building up.
I knew one writer who gained
inspiration standing next to the washing machine, her Celtic cauldron! Doesn’t
do it for me! But we have lots of lovely bushwalks nearby and that’s when the
magic happens, when my mind’s at rest.
Step in the process of writing? E.g. researching, drafting, editing etc
Researching!
Standing on the battlements at Amboise or Richmond, Yorkshire. Walking on the
moors above Conistone or working how long it takes to get from the Jardin des
Tuilleries to the Marais in Paris without taking the metro. Burying myself in Morte d’Arthur and making a list of the
jargon used. Finding a list of the rebels’ horses and possessions brought in
after the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322 in the University of Sydney’s Fisher
Library.
Method of writing i.e. longhand or typing?
Aren’t we
lucky to have laptops! Oh, the finesse required to blob white across the typo
and when it had dried, turning the typewriter knob to align properly. Fat
chance!
I used to write the dialogue for scenes in
longhand and then gradually add tags, narrative etc but not anymore, wheee!
TV program /movie?
The three-part drama series The Hour from the BBC about the making
of a current affairs programme in Post-war England.
Comfort food?
It used to be custard.
Featured book:
THE GOLDEN WIDOWS
England 1461 Two young
women on opposing sides find their lives wrecked by battle
Kate
As
sister to Warwick the Kingmaker and cousin to the new young King Edward IV,
Kate Neville finds herself on the winning side but she has just lost her
father, her young husband and four other close kinsmen during the recent
battles. Now she is under pressure to
marry again. Kate’s brother wants to ensure her new husband will be someone he
can control, but the man he suggests has a reputation as a womaniser and Kate
wants a man who won’t betray her like her first husband did. She also feels that
as a mother, she should be the one to safeguard her baby daughter’s
inheritance. Can she thwart her brother’s plans for her?
Elysabeth
Forget
Anne Boleyn!
Elysabeth
Woodville is a beautiful young woman, much adored by her husband, Sir John
Grey. But when he is killed in battle on the losing side and named as a
traitor, his estate is seized by the Yorkists and Elysabeth finds herself
penniless and friendless. In her desperate struggle to restore her sons’
inheritance, she finds she must kneel before her enemy, the king who
impoverished her. And the rest is history!
Isolde
Martyn will be appearing in the following panel at the 2015 HNSA Conference:
21 March 11.15-12.15 pm Session Three
Tall
Tales and True: How Story Tellers Imagine History
How do
historical novelists weave history into fiction? What draws an author to choose
a particular era, and what research do they undertake to bring past times to
life? Jean Bedford talks with Isolde
Martyn, Johanna Nicholls, Juliet Marillier and Craig Cliff about these choices.
For more information on all our
panels, please visit our site for program details. And you can buy your tickets here.
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The first 30 ticketholders to purchase a ‘Standard’ Whole Conference Ticket will receive a free copy of either The Lace Balcony by Johanna Nicholls, The King’s Shadow by Barbara Gaskell Denvil or The Island House by Posie Graeme-Evans.
All ticket holders will receive a Momentum ebook bundle in celebration of Felicity Pulman’s launch of Unholy Murder.
The first 50 fully paid ticket holders will receive a copy of Sherryl Clark’s new book Do You Dare – Jimmy’s War in celebration of her launch.
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