A bit about my writing
Since you have found your way to this page, I'm guessing that you are somewhat interested in what I write and why I do so. I hope you find my musings on both of interest!
What I write
Perhaps it would be inevitable that a woman who spent her entire childhood surrounded by the neolithic mounds and stone circles of Wiltshire in the UK would develop a fascination with prehistory and archaeology. That fascination led me in many different directions, but a love of the Bronze Age civilisations of the Eastern Mediterranean grew particularly strong. Over time it developed into a fascination with the archaeological and historical reality behind the myths with which we are familiar.
It was thus this era that drew my when I began writing, specifically the tale of the fall of Troy. The Western world may feel that it knows this story very well through the writings of Homer, but most of the cultures and events that lie behind his tales are obscure to most non-historians. Thus my debut novel, The Wilusiad, was born as an attempt to bridge this gap.
Let me make something clear before we go further. I do not write historical fiction. Both The Wilusiad and my second novel, The Ka of Ruby Chapman include living gods, magic, mummies and the occasional time travelling archaeologist as integral parts of the plot. Whilst drawing on the cultural values and historical realities of ancient cultures (as far as we can understand them) I also try to make sure that my fantastic elements and magic systems draw from the religious beliefs and magical practices current within the cultures I’m writing about. I guess my aim is to produce a work that is as authentically true to what we know of these ancient cultures as possible.
History is Nothing to be Scared of!
One of the issues I often get asked about is the balance between historical accuracy and storytelling. I must admit I find this framing a little confusing, partly I suspect because there is so much to the historical record that I find it hard to see it as a serious obstacle to storytelling at all!
I suppose what people are generally worried about is the fear that historical reality might cut a beloved story off at the knees. The Wilusiad for example is the story of the fall of the city known as Troy VI in the archaeological record and is most likely the city described by Homer. However, although we know a lot about this city and the surrounding cultures, that knowledge is not completely supportive of the mythological narrative.
Whilst I can see the point, to me that is one of the great joys of historical writing. The record frequently fails to say what you expect it to say, but what it says instead is often at least as interesting as any myth, whilst also being refreshingly unfamiliar. In the case of the story of Troy, which was the starting point for the Wilusiad, the history and archaeology might provide very mixed evidence regarding the traditional story, but it contains vistas that Homer’s epics never mentioned.
Rather than the judgement of Paris or Achilles's heel, we discover centuries of conflict, client cities stuck between two empires, not to mention an entire Empire whose existence Homer doesn’t mention at all. Even the surrounding culture of bronze age Anatolia contains fascinating aspects that are nowhere to be found in epic poems told very much from the Greek perspective 500 years and one dark age later. Surely there is room in the creative spotlight for all of this alongside the traditional narrative?