Thank you, Bev—
And welcome to my blog where historical fiction and history hook up.
But semi-seriously: the purpose of this blog is to explore the issues of reading, learning, teaching, and writing history, and historical fiction (in its many guises).
My 30-odd years of experience in the first four areas led me to try my hand at the last one. The result is The Sixth Surrender, (Plume-Penguin, Aug. 2010), a “medieval historical.” As I expected (and not expected), the experience raises many of the same issues I encounter as a part-time instructor at a “community” college: the influence of popular culture, the nature of historical knowledge, the role of our American educational system, literacy, language, and all that good stuff involved in any creative act.
A few of my thoughts on the topic of reading and writing historicals will appear August 16, 2010 on The Author’s Desk at
So if you are an admirer of Clio, the Muse of History, please feel free to share your thoughts and encounters with her as readers and/or writers of the genre, and/or teachers of the subject–and that includes librarians. This is an informal discussion—but proper citations are welcome and encouraged.
Q.: Any thoughts on why going “medieval” is popular in the USA at the beginning of the 21th century? See Ken Follett and the recent Hollywooded Robin Hood.
Yes, medieval must be in these days. I’ve been enjoying Pillars of the Earth…and any Robin Hood is probably good for me…though perhaps because I think of him as an Anglo Saxon guerilla fighting the Normans…and the church, which operated as a kind of gang to take land from the AngloSaxons…at least, that’s my biased opinion.
LikeLike