Historical fiction

Historical fiction

Historical fiction has made a huge comeback in recent years, dominating the bestseller lists and winning big prizes like the Booker and Pulitzer. As a genre its breadth is enormous, ranging from the classic ‘bodice ripper’ through saga epics to serious ‘biographies’ Saturday Join award winning author C.C. Humphreys – who has written them all – as he considers what’s out there and the special challenges of writing in the genre. Among the topics tackled will be: how to research and how to use the telling detail. ‘Voice’ and the balance between the authentic and the readable. Psychology, ancient and modern and how to balance the two. Dialogue: how ‘ye olde’ should you go? The importance of place – and how to listen for the echoes in the ruins. With plenty of exercises to liberate your quill, (er, keyboard!) Chris will examine how to both fictionalize real characters and realize fictional ones.

Speakers