Gabriele's meme
Gabriele's started a very appropriate meme, which I think I can fill in:Five historical novels you blame for writing historical fiction
1. Same as Gabriele: Rosemary Sutcliff. Obviously, Sutcliff's Dark Age novels are a particular bane/inspiration :-)
2. Henry Treece: when I recently re-read his Eagles have flown children's novel, I was amazed to realise how influential he has been ...
3. Mary Stewart: her Merlin novels are moderately inspirational. It was good for me to see that a novel about this era did not need to be dominated by King Arthur
4. Fay Sampson: Whereas the previous three authors/novels were read by me at an impressionable age, it was Fay Sampson that started off the writing bug again with her Flight of the Sparrow. Lean and utterly focussed, it reminded me how powerful fiction can be at communicating across history.
5. Mary Gentle: Another more recent inspiration. Her Ash: a secret history has a wonderful visceral style which I admire immensely. Not a 'straight' historical, but gritty and true to human behaviour.
posted by Alex Bordessa @ Monday, August 21, 2006
2 Comments:
You're right about the importance of an impressionable age - that's probably one reason Rosemary Sutcliff is so often quoted as an inspiration. Thanks for the recommendation of Mary Gentle's Ash.
If you read Ash, get some sort of wrist support or book rest first as the darn thing is big and heavy :-) Or get the US volumes instead.
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