Historical Novel Society Conference, York UK April 2008

I attended the Historical Novel Society Conference at the National Railway Museum in York on 12^th April and found myself I for an interesting and diverse day. The main thing I learned was how hard these authors work. Even the ones who have been writing for twenty years put as much research and dedication into their work as the new authors.  

Does it ever get easier or do they constantly strive to write the best book they can?

Andrew Martin, author of such titles as Necropolis Railway, The Blackpool Highflyer and The Lost Luggage Porter, gave a spirited talk about his fascination for the English railway world in Edwardian times which he uses as a basis for his writing. He’s especially fascinated with terms of original speech from that time. His father used to be quite high up in the railways in York and as a boy, he traveled first class anywhere he wanted. He said he used to occupy an empty carriage and when an outraged businessman came in to shout, ‘Are you aware young man, this is a First Class compartment?’ The he would summon the guard and try and have Andrew evicted.  He didn’t say so, but judging by the look on his face I suspect this was a deliberate ploy and gave Andrew hours of fun.

As someone who misses that slam-clunk of the corridor train door, I empathise with his nostalgia for lost times in an institution where pride in your work was a pre-requisite. Anyone who had asked a modern railway official – they don’t call them guards any more – about a train time and is told, ‘I dunno love, look at the board’ will know what I mean.

Susannah Dunn, Author of, ‘The Sixth Wife’, a story of Katherine Parr, gave a fascinating talk about why she doesn’t consider herself an historical fiction novelist. She said 'The best part of writing about historical events, is if you aren't good at plots, they are written for you'. She explained her reasons for writing it in completely contemporary idiom. Most because we don’t really know how they spoke in the 16^th Century, so it wouldn’t be completely accurate and the emotions would be more easily understood in modern language.

Lynne Patrick, of Crème de la Crime who publishes detective stories from all eras, talked about the origins of the company and choosing submissions. With their small staff, it seems that if they fall in love with the story, it gets published. They brought some very impressive samples of their work with them, all their titles, no matter what era, have a black, white and red theme which looks very impressive in a display. I’ll have to look out for them.

In a workshop on writing about women in history, Jude Morgan gave us an insight into a man writing Regency novels, at the suggestion of his publisher. I was fortunate enough to win a copy of his, ‘An Accomplished Woman’, in a draw and finished it last night. It was a delightfully sweet romance in true Regency tradition. His language, sense of irony and humour is exquisite and two of his secondary characters, Mrs Penelope Vawser and Mrs Allardyce were triumphs. I couldn’t wait for their appearances in the narrative as I so enjoyed their outrageous dialogue. 

Elizabeth Chadwick ended the day on an unusual note and gave a demonstration on her use of Akashic Record method for historical research. This involves the use of a spiritual medium to ‘plug into’ the vibrations created by past events to describe scenes from history for her. In this case it is Alison King, a close friend of the novelist. The demonstration described a birth of an Earl in approximately 1209’ The psychic put herself into a trance and says, ‘Right, I’m there now’ and describes the room, the woman in labour, the contractions. Then the author tells her to go forward and view when the Earl first sees his baby and off she goes again and describes his reaction.

I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but it was no less fascinating for my skepticism, and wouldn’t I simply love to do that? Read Alison King’s Blog at http://ontheakashicrecord.blogspot.com/ which explains how she came to begin. It makes interesting reading.

The day finished with a very lively dinner at the York, Georgian Assembly Rooms. Very appropriate with its impressive proportions and massive columns, we hardly noticed it had been turned into a pizza restaurant.  Most of us could imagine the cream of York society gracing the hall in Regency times to see and be seen. All in all an enjoyable and informative occasion. I wish I could attend the North American one next year.