A shamefaced return, and interview with Victoria Lamb

Hello, and a very belated New Year! As you may have guessed, I did that extremely annoying that bloggers sometimes do and stopped posting due to burnout. Basically, I wasn't completely happy with my job, and writing after a long commute became a little like homework.

Things have changed a little since then though. Since the date of my last post (October), I have left my old job, started a new one, and moved to a completely new area. I'm now working as an editor for the finance section of a graduate careers advice website, and do a lot more writing. They say that writing as much as possible is like turning over soil and making the imagination more ripe - this can only be a good thing, I guess! I've still been reading a lot of YA, of course, so hopefully I will have some new reviews up for you soon. I won't be posting as often in case I overdo it again - it's all about the love, not views, haha!

Back while I was still blogging regularly, I sent an email to Victoria Lamb asking her to answer some questions. I actually thought I'd already written about her two current books, Witchstruck and Witchfall, but I must have been waiting until the interview was ready to publish, oops! I'll re-read them and have them up ASAP, but rest assured I loved them, and they're well worth a read, especially if you love supernatural/YA/history stories with a bit of romance mixed in!

Having captured much of the public’s imagination, the lives of most people with even a simple connection to the Tudor court are fairly well documented. Who has been the most intriguing person for you, as a writer, to develop a character from? 

Probably Elizabeth, who is known as the 'Lady Elizabeth' in these books, as her title of Royal Highness was stripped from her as a young child following her mother's execution. To have been born into the ruling family and yet be treated as an outcast, a second-class royal, even considered illegitimate because of arguments over how Henry VIII had married her mother while his first wife was still alive - the Pope, of course, famously refused to grant him a divorce, so Henry founded his own Church of England and granted it to himself! All of that must have made Elizabeth a very complex and difficult person to know. So trying to depict her character truthfully in these novels, and not hide negative points about her (as queen, Elizabeth was known for pinching and slapping her ladies-in-waiting when they displeased her, and even locking them up in the Tower of London!) was both fun and problematic. I can understand why she had a difficult temperament, but many readers have found my portrayal of her less than sympathetic. I rather like the fact that they've been challenged by it, as films tend to depict Elizabeth as very regal and fair-minded, but what we actually know from history paints a less complimentary picture of the real Elizabeth.

It seemed to me, having gone over the subject of the witch trials briefly at university, that the character of Marcus Dent was based on Matthew Hopkins, the real life Witchfinder General. I love how you humanised his obsession for catching witches (rather than just simply being a psycho!). When writing the character of a person such as Dent, does it all come from your imagination, or do you base certain traits on the research you’ve done on the historical figure they’re based on? 

Nearly everything, where it's not based on historical fact, comes from my imagination. I didn't actually start researching Hopkins and his kind until after I had written most of Witchstruck. In fact, the original plan behind Dent's character was far more complex than it came out, following editorial changes, and I regret that. I can't spill the beans too much, but Dent was almost a rival for Meg's affections in the early drafts of Witchstruck, and that slightly dangerous relationship was glossed over as revisions happened and the book was shortened. If I had to do it again, I would dig my heels in and fight to keep my original plan. So Marcus is not as complex a character as I originally envisaged him to be, but I hope some of what happens in book three will counteract that.

Is Meg Lytton completely fictitious, or is she based on one of Elizabeth’s servants? 

Completely fictitious!

From the cover of the books, Meg looks gorgeous, obviously. How much influence do you have over your books’ front covers, and if so, what do you think is the most important thing about it? 

Almost no influence at all. And much of that is about marketing and getting the readership right, so to interfere might be dangerous. Probably if I hated something I would make a fuss and try to get it changed, but in fact, I am not a designer and covers don't matter much to me as a reader, so I stick to what I'm good at - the writing - and leave art work and marketing to the experts.

If you weren’t writing about the Tudor/Jacobean periods, what do you think your books would be based on? Is there another era you’re fascinated by, or would you be writing something like sci-fi? 

My first novels were contemporary, and I would like to return to that - though probably under another name! I do enjoy fantasy fiction, and love to watch sci-fi films and television shows, so I haven't ruled out writing that. My first rough attempts at novel-writing as a teen were all fantasy.

Astrologer John Dee features in the stories as someone who can tell the future from the stars. If you went back in time and he offered to read your stars, what would you want to know about? 

As a double Scorpio, 'how can I improve myself?' would be my first question. Though of course I have some training myself as an astrologer - I hold a Certificate from the Faculty of Astrological Studies in London - and often study my own transits to get a fix on general trends in my life. Astrology is enormously complex though. Many people don't realise that and think there are absolute answers to everything. And in Dee's time many astrologers thought there were absolute answers; it was more like a science then, and taken very seriously by those in power. But reading a horoscope is more like planning a novel: you may know roughly what's ahead, but can't pinpoint exactly how things will happen or how your characters will react to changing circumstances. So astrology today is about working to your strengths and improving your weaknesses, not about whether you'll marry or have kids or whatever.

If you had a ‘voice of power’ like Meg’s, who would you use it on and what would you want from them? 

My kids, probably. "Tidy your room!" would be my first command. And occasionally, "Please be quiet!", which seems to have limited success in my normal voice. Or "Fetch me snacks!". That would be a good one.

I read on this blog post that you love translating Latin for fun. What’s the best phrase you’ve come across (and its meaning)? 

'In saecula saeculorum' is a satisfying one to say, it just sounds fabulous on the tongue. It basically means 'forever and ever' and is religious - it's often tagged on the end of prayers, for instance - and I'm not at all religious, despite having a would-be priest for a hero in my books. But the neat repetition with variation of this phrase is wonderful. It's like music. I do love Latin, yes.

So... 5 children. Phew, I’m tired just thinking about it! What do their ages range between, and do you have any favourite stories you loved to read to them? 

My eldest is 26, and has a three year old son, so yes, I'm a grandma now. And my youngest is just nine years old and still at primary school. In between I have twin boys of 11, and another daughter of nearly 23. I also have a step-daughter who's in her late teens. So that's 6 kids really. And a bit, LOL. I don't read to them now, but when they were younger I read poetry to them mostly. My mother taught me nursery rhymes and poems as a young child, and that really helped me develop an ear for language. My husband, who is rather more patient, used to read to them from Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series at bedtime. We all love fantasy and sci-fi fiction in this house.

As you told me on Twitter, Witchrise, the next Tudor Witch book, is out in mid-2014. Can you tell us what to expect? Personally, I’m trying to think of a way around Alejandro’s priestly vow of celibacy, haha!

Ah, but Alejandro's order of priests allows him to marry! (This is actually true, it's a medieval order of priests that still exists today.) As to the rest of the story, Marcus Dent of course is still at large and there's a major showdown beween him and Meg. The final battle, perhaps. But things may not turn out precisely the way a reader might expect ...

Thanks for the interview, Victoria! Sorry it's so late...! Witchrise will be released on 31st July.

Newes From the Dead, by Mary Hooper

Newes From the Dead, by Mary Hooper
Published by Totally Random Books
Amazon.co.uk/Amazon.com

In 1650 Anne Green, a young servant girl, gave birth prematurely to an illegitimate child. Sadly the baby died and poor Anne was falsely accused of infanticide. In front of a large crowd she was hanged and then carried to the College of Physicians to be dissected for medical science. But as Anne's corpse lay on the table and the doctors assembled, a strange rattle was heard in her throat. Could she still be alive?

First off, sorry for the lateness of this post - I meant to do it for last week, but haven't been too well, and writing was the last thing on my mind! The history post will be published tomorrow as I've been thinking that the posts get a little too long both with a review and history!

I stumbled across the blurb of this book while looking at the Totally Random Books website. It's really intriguing and, as I read around, I could see that the book is based on a true story. That was it, I had to buy it! It didn't disappoint, and I read it in a day.

While this is a YA book, it's worth pointing out that it deals with some really adult themes, which is something to consider if you're thinking of letting a teenager read it. I'll outline the main points in the next paragraph, so if you don't want any spoilers at all, skip this bit. The chapters flick between the events that led up to Anne's hanging, and what happens while she's laid on the dissecting table, apparently dead. Her downfall comes when the master's grandson promises her the world in exchange for him getting his end away, shall we say. As tends to happen, she becomes pregnant, which she manages to keep a secret until she miscarries. She has the 'audacity' to tell people who the father was, so never receives a fair trial, and is sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of her child. Her sentence is carried out, but she regains consciousness while on the dissecting table. However, she's unable to move a muscle, even to scream.

Anne is a nice girl with a promising, if humble, future, and I liked her. Even while I was willing her not to trust the father of her child, I could understand why she did what she did, and I felt really sorry for her as she lost a lot. The events of both storylines were fascinating, and in the dissection chapters I was constantly willing the doctors to notice what was going on. Although I knew they wouldn't cut into her and it was a little drawn out, some parts got quite tense, which I liked.

Being a sucker for history, I really liked the way everything was portrayed. Mary Hooper, the author, made me realise how important it was in how you were perceived in those times - if you think gossip can be bad now, it was a million times worse in 1650, when holding someone's hand, even for an innocent reason, can potentially start a deadly rumour. I thought the book brought across everything that would have happened at the time really accurately and realistically. I know the author had true events to go on, but Anne's life before her hanging was all imagined. There's a note from Hooper at the end that specifies what records say about what happened to Anne Green after her hanging, which is also really interesting. I'll definitely be checking out more of Hooper's books!

Mudlark, by John Sedden

A little while ago, my interest was piqued while visiting my grandparents in Portsmouth. I was experiencing Sunday train delays at their finest, so they took me for a walk to see the newish statue commemorating the mudlarks on The Hard. My grandpa, the most avid history-lover I’ve ever met, started going into the backstory of the mudlarks from when he was a policeman in the 1950s/60s.

I’ll go into more detail after my review. My interest in mudlarks having been caught, I stumbled upon the following book on Amazon:

Mudlark, by John Sedden
Published by Puffin
Amazon.co.uk/Amazon.com

Portsmouth 1914. Reg and Jimmy are mudlarks. They dive for coins in the thick mud of the harbour. But one day Reg finds a skull – and it changes everything. It starts a murder hunt that lands them both in serious trouble with the police. They’ve always done everything together – and now they’re facing death.

Although mudlarks were also found in London, diving for pennies in the Thames mudbanks, this book is set in Portsmouth, so I was really enthusiastic to read this, hoping I’d know where the characters were larking about. Going to stay with my grandparents every half term means I know the area fairly well. Sure enough, most of the time I knew where the characters were, which added to my enjoyment of the book. In general, though, Sedden describes the scenes well enough that anyone could pick the book up and become immersed in the landscape of the book.

Jimmy and Reg, the first-person protagonist and his best friend, were really realistic too – there were things like Reg having a stutter, the number of dead-arms the boys give each other (!) and the sense of guilt Jimmy feels when he realises he’s in the wrong, which made the boys really 3D, relatable characters.

I loved that the book brought to life a picture of not only mudlarking, but the start of the First World War and everyday people’s reactions to it. The twists that take place in the book can’t be guessed from the blurb, and I found myself surprised a lot of the time. The solution to the mystery had to be explained to me just as much as it did to Jimmy and Reg, which is rare, as I can usually guess what’s coming from at least a couple of pages before. PLUS, the solution was historically accurate. Double tick!

I’ve since lent this book to a workmate’s 11-year-old son, so I’ll update if I hear an opinion from him. I reckon this book will appeal to boys (and probably girls too!) around 11-14, especially those with a love of history. Mind you, once I get the book back I’ll be sending it to my grandpa, who I’m sure will love it. It’s his old stomping ground, after all, although he’s never been as nasty as the policemen in the book!

* * * * * * * * * *

This book has given me a new idea. I’m a complete history geek, so I was thinking maybe once a month I’d do what I’ve done today – review a historical fiction (or possibly nonfiction – such as The Diary of Anne Frank) book, and then go a little deeper into the history behind it. I love researching these things, and if it’s something others would want to read, that’d be great!

Feedback would be greatly appreciated – please let me know what you think, and whether you’d read something like this! I was thinking the first weekend of every month, and calling it Weekend Walkthrough :-).

Inscription reads:

The nearby statue commemorates the generations of Portsea children who enjoyed mudlarking here - entertaining travellers by retrieving coins they threw into the mud below the bridge to the harbour station and Gosport Ferry. Boys and girls would scramble to find the money tossed down, sometimes diving into the mud, performing handstands or dipping their heads in it. Many Portsea families lived in poverty, so the small change was welcomed. Usually, what the children did not spend on sweets or pie and chips was given to mum to help out the family finances.

Most parents disapproved of their children's activities, while the police regarded mudlarking as begging and tried to stop it. Mudlarking supplemented other ways of earning a few shillings, such as carrying passengers' bags or finding drivers parking spaces. The building of the new bus terminus in 1976-7 put an end to mudlarking.

Also inscribed is a list of names of previous mudlarks. This statue reminded me a little of Archie and Lillie, two mudlark characters in the book.

Mudlarks

The definition of a mudlark is given by the Oxford dictionary as “a person who scavenges in river mud for objects of value. Historical: a scruffy or dirty child who spent most of the time on the street.” As the book is set in Portsmouth, I’ll keep to the Portsmouth mudlarks, although it appears that the term was widely used in London too, for those getting what they could from the Thames. Those living in London can still go mudlarking if they want to – it’s now for historical artefacts rather than spare change, but the link here gives details of dates that groups will meet up to go together.

 Margaret Foster is a Portsmouth councillor who campaigned for the erection of the statue in Portsmouth. She wrote a book, called The Mudlarkers, and for it, interviewed several former mudlarks. According to them, soldiers would empty their pockets to throw to them. “At the time they just thought their luck was in but now appreciate the significance of men giving away the last of their money before going off to war.”

While some have said that mudlarks could come from wealthier backgrounds, the general consensus is that mudlarks didn’t have much money. Reading Mudlark, it became obvious to me just how poor Jimmy and his mother were when I read that her ambition was to save enough money to buy Jimmy a pair of boots.

Plus, did you know that the Pompey accent isn’t far off from Cockney? People’s stories from online have people remembering mudlarks saying things like: “Bung us a bob matlow [Give me a shilling, sailor]”, and “Dip me ‘ead for a sparsy [possibly a sixpence]”.

Lastly, it seems fitting to mention a mudlark quote in Margaret Foster’s book again: “It wasn’t just the mudlarking. We’d chop up firewood and sell bundles of that, and jump on the side of people’s cars and take them to a parking space. We’d get a shilling for that.

“From the age of about five, we knew how to put a loaf of bread on the table. But we were quite happy to work. They were hard times but not one of the people I spoke to said they didn’t enjoy themselves.

“It couldn’t happen again. Not with health and safety and there isn’t that same kind of poverty. But we were safe children and happy children.” 

Old money

Helpfully, Sedden includes a brief explanation of old money so the readers know what the mudlarks are referring to - see the picture. I was going to try and put old money in context but it appears to be impossible, so if you're interested, this page gives a brilliant explanation of everything.

To conclude my little mudlarking history lesson (tee hee!), I thought I'd mention my grandpa again. I've already mentioned that he was a policeman in the 1950s and 60s, and that he and my grandma brought my attention to the mudlarks. Poppa told me that he was always reluctant to head over to The Hard whenever he was told to move the mudlarks along (as they were considered beggars) - they were only trying to make a living, after all. This picture here is him in his police uniform - I love it!

UPDATE: I sent my grandpa his own copy of the book, and he finished it in a day, saying it was delightfully over the top. My grandma is currently reading it. So there we go - a book for all ages!

Changeling, by Philippa Gregory

Changeling, by Philippa Gregory
Published by Simon and Schuster
Amazon.co.uk/Amazon.com

The first book in the thrilling YA sequence, Order of Darkness.

The year is 1453, and all signs point to it being the end of the world. Accused of heresy and expelled from his monastery, handsome seventeen-year-old, Luca Vero, is recruited by a mysterious stranger to record the end of times across Europe. Commanded by sealed orders, Luca is sent to map the fears of Christendom, and travel to the very frontier of good and evil. Seventeen-year-old Isolde, a Lady Abbess, is trapped in a nunnery to prevent her claiming her rich inheritance. As the nuns in her care are driven mad by strange visions, walking in their sleep, and showing bleeding wounds, Luca is sent to investigate and all the evidence points to Isolde's criminal guilt. Outside in the yard they are building a pyre to burn her for witchcraft. Forced to face the greatest fears of the dark ages - black magic, werewolves, madness - Luca and Isolde embark on a search for truth, their own destinies, and even love as they take the unknown ways to the real historical figure who defends the boundaries of Christendom and holds the secrets of the Order of Darkness.

I knew I had to read this book after this review alerted me to Philippa Gregory's foray into YA literature. I'm definitely a fan of her writing, having read a couple of her books, the most impressive, in my opinion, being The Other Boleyn Girl. I am a complete history geek, and had really high hopes, as I'm usually kept transfixed.

For the most part, I enjoyed it. I liked the mysteries that seemed difficult to explain, and the sense of injustice felt at Isolde's plight (a very plausible situation, back then) kept me interested throughout the book at what would become of her. It was also good when various characters (and not just Luca) were able to shed some light on the piece of the puzzle - it made it seem a little more realistic. I really liked the character of Freize, and how he reacts around pretty much everyone!

However, there was some sort of sparkle missing, especially given my expectations of the author. I couldn't put my finger on what it was this morning, when I finished the book, but I think I've got the gist now. This may be my natural cynicism, but it seemed as though Luca and Isolde were both a little too perfect - they're both great looking and have sexual chemistry, which, given that it's supposed to be staying relatively historically accurate, doesn't seem entirely appropriate, unless in later books they manage to resist each other.

Then, there are some moments that are only half-arsedly explained. (SPOILERS!) Firstly, it is suggested that Freize did not, as he said, release them from the dungeon, but no reason is given for this. Then, the werewolf is given as a little boy lost years before. All well and good, but can a wild child really be mistaken for an animal? I must admit, it stretched my imagination a little far!

Despite my criticism though, it wasn't a bad book, and I probably would read the other books in the series. The Changeling aspect was barely touched upon, which is odd considering it's the title of the book! The plot was good, and if the character development gets a little better, I will probably be rating them higher than this one!