In the past I have bemoaned the erosion of fact from historical fiction and period dramas, as seen in books, television, and cinema. This has led to me being accused of being pedantic. I have always enjoyed history. It was one of my favourite subjects at school. I am well aware that today we do not have all of the facts concerning most historical events, people, and cultures. It is rather obvious that the further we go back in time the more certain that this becomes. That is why I think that those facts that we do know should be preserved and used to inform our understanding. Curiously, the recent trend in popular media to erode these facts seems aimed at the late eighteenth and the nineteenth century, periods in which our knowledge is far more complete. Indeed, there is copious amount of material for writers to use, and perhaps that is what I find irksome about the current trend. It seems to me that writers are wilfully ignoring these facts in order to make something that better fits a modern social agenda than actually reflects what life was really like back then.
I recently received a comment from the historian Robert Bluestein concerning my novel, The War Wolf. He praised me for my attention to detail, even though I had little to go on in the way of primary resources. I am only an amateur in comparison to Robert Bluestein, I cannot translate original documents from languages like Norse, Old English, or even Latin. I relied on the work of people like him to furnish me with the necessary detail to enhance my historical novels. From the very beginning, I wanted to represent the Saxon world as vibrant, positive, and energetic. I worked hard to achieve a degree of authenticity that would be an integral part of the fabric of the story. It actually took me three years to write The War Wolf, simply because of the research. If I had the apparent approach of today’s writers it would probably have taken me three months!
Historical fiction used to be a demanding genre. Readers would generally know something concerning the historical periods they were reading about and, consequently, they were quick to criticise authors who displayed any kind of ignorance. As a writer, I saw that as a challenge. Perhaps that is why I am both mystified and saddened that historical fiction is being subverted today in order to misrepresent the past as something it most certainly was not, particularly in terms of race and gender equality.
I am not dissuaded, however. Robert Bluestein is very complimentary about my work. Any positive criticism is welcomed, of course, but when it comes from a professional historian, and someone who is an expert in a period that I have chosen to write about, then I value it even more highly. While other writers might choose to take the easy option, for whatever reason they may have, I will not. I will remain the kind of author who does do the research for his books and will attempt to achieve a degree of artistic integrity in my work. Yes, it is the harder choice, but it is also far more satisfying as a result. I think that my Sorrow Song Trilogy books are all the better for my putting in the work and comments from readers like Robert Bluestein are justification enough.
Peter C Whitaker 