Charlie Smithers: Adventures Downunder (The Charlie Smithers Collection Book 3) - a review by Diana Milne

Flashman never experienced anything like this, not even remotely!

Whether it’s because of his gift of the ‘sight,’ inherited from his dour old Hebridean mum, or simply a sorely battered noggin (a result of his master’s appalling aim)the Australias hold one of Charlie Smithers’ most intriguing adventures to date.
Pirates, great white sharks, mermaids, scorching deserts, cannibals and a small army of sadistic bushrangers are only part of the story. A mysterious gunslinging sheila with emerald green eyes, and a shocking vocabulary, is another adventure all on its own.

And throughout the tale there is the innocuous message from a ghost from Charlie’s past: “You must learn to forgive…”

Charlie Smithers, or should I say C W Lovatt? has done it again, bringing us the best adventure yet in the series about this remarkable and lovable character. Following a raid by pirates and a serious wound from the ever helpful, but sadly unskilled marksman, Lord Brampton, Smithers finds himself washed up and stranded in a place that he later knows to be Australia. The story follows his rescue and travels with a foul mouthed and enigmatic woman, who he comes to respect and love, and is held together by a tune that haunts him throughout the narrative.

Written in a friendly first person, the book grabs hold of its readers and lures them from page to page, tugging at the edges of the consciousness whilst one is not reading, urging one to go back. Lovatt’s skilled narrative and exceptional story telling ensure that no reader gets away without this book becoming a part of themselves. It is, to me, a mark of true genius, when a character becomes so important that the reader becomes slightly infatuated with them, and this is true of Charlie. I cared, and cared deeply, what happened to him.

The amount of research that the author has accomplished to ensure every facet of this story is accurate is phenomenal, ranging from the flora and fauna of the Antipodes, through Waler horses, to folk history, Aboriginal people and traditions and that most elusive of Australian native phenomenon, ‘Dream Time’.

Smithers is his usual very British, stiff upper lip self, where fair play rules, right is right and wrong is everything else. His sense of indignity when confronted by someone who did not play by the unwritten British rule book, is so funny, and yet not too out of the ordinary for a certain type of Englishman – (think Jacob Rees-Mogg or Boris Johnson!) :

“Well, something had to be done, and no error. This was really too bad, but there was nothing else for it. My defiant glare transformed into an indignant frown. 

Gasping, I managed to wheeze, “Hold on,” spluttering out a mouthful of the ocean, “this ain’t cricket!” 

When this failed to stop him, or indeed, slow him down one iota, my indignation became quite severe, let me tell you, and I declared, “You, sir, are not a gentleman!” 

No doubt your surprise is as great as mine, upon finding that this also produced no effect, and I could see that things were looking pretty grim. 

“But dammit, you’re British!” I cried. 

Then, with a final gasp, I took what little air that I could swallow into my poor starving lungs, and sank beneath the waves. I could hear his enraged fists pummelling the spot ...” 

In this adventure, Smithers, whether as a result of a greater maturity or as a result of a severe bang on the head, begins to experience the gift of ‘sight’, inherited from his mother, which has been touched on in previous works, but never thoroughly examined. In this place, where real time and dream time go hand in hand, he finds a perfect avenue to get to know this other side of his psyche and a lot of the book is about the metaphysical, within the context of Charlie’s own exploration and experience of the theme. This is a brave undertaking for any author and CW Lovatt accomplishes this with exceptional understanding and tact and manages to explain paranormal events in a way that the lay person can understand and which would also be recognisable to a practitioner.

Dream Time is an anomaly in the space time continuum that is experienced by Aboriginal people and it is a subject that I have tried to understand in greater depth since the 1970s. Although this quote comes from the previous book in the series, it more than sums up Charlie’s tentative grasping at the subject: "There was more to our existence than met the eye. Whether it was through some sort of deity, or something else, there was a force at work beyond our capabilities of reckoning, and it defied reason."

This book stretches Charlie as a character and stretches the CW Lovatt as an author, to new levels of greatness and storytelling, weaving a magic spell around Smithers and Mattie as they dance to their music of time, that maybe, just maybe, only they can hear. Charlie probably will never get better from the loss of his wife Loiyan, but he has become better at it and is now able to confidently move on and face his life in all its dimensions. 

With his exceptional use of words, Lovatt paints pictures of the mysterious and beautiful land that is Australia, getting under the skin of the country to its very soul and carrying the reader along in his wake. Whilst on the subject of the author's exceptional use of words, the book contains my favourite quote of all time:
"I bowed my head, wondering yet again, how something so pitifully shallow as my body, could endure something so deep as my grief, and yet live?" Every time I read this I not only relate to it, but get tears in my eyes. 

And in an after word, the author posits a possible explanation for the lilting music that Charlie hears throughout the adventure tying the story together very cleverly, combining fact, folklore and fiction, a skill at which Lovatt excels.

And did Charlie learn to forgive? Read the book and find out! You won’t be disappointed.

About the author:

Image of the author in Australia researching 'Downunder'.
(The image is shared with permission from absolutely no one, having been blatantly stolen by Diana from the author's Face Book page.)

CW Lovatt is the award winning author of the best selling Charlie Smithers Collection, the short story anthology, “And Then It Rained,” and the critically acclaimed “Josiah Stubb: The Siege of Louisbourg.” His latest release,“Interim,” is the second book of the Josiah Stubb trilogy.  
You may read his blog here at Story River
and do read even more about him in this wonderful interview 
Diana talks to CW Lovatt.

© Diana Milne September 2017

Diana talks to Dianne Ascroft

Hi Dianne! Lovely to talk with you at last!!

If your latest book The Yankee Years Books 1-3

was adapted into a TV show or a film, who would you like to play the lead role?

Ruth Corey, a young Northern Irish woman, and Frank Longo, an Italian-American contractor who has come to Northern Ireland for a building project, are the leading female and male characters in the first 2 stories in the collection. I think Jason Behr, who starred several years ago in the American supernatural drama, Roswell, would be good as Frank. In the Roswell series, he had a calm, collected manner that would suit my character, Frank. I think an unknown actress would suit the role of Ruth. She is a quiet, unassertive character as the story begins and I think that someone who isn’t associated with any other role would play her best. I’m not really a great movie buff so I’ll leave it at that. I introduce two new lead characters in the third story in the collection but I won’t try to find actors for their roles. Maybe readers can help me out with that.

If, as a one off, (and you could guarantee publication!)  you could write anything you wanted, is there another genre you would love to work with and do you already have a budding plot line in mind?

Most of my writing is historical fiction but I enjoy reading the odd cosy mystery. So I might venture into the crime fiction genre for a book or two. I could even stay in the past and write an historical cosy mystery. As for the plot, I do actually have one in mind…

Do you have any rituals and routines when writing? Your favourite cup for example or ‘that’ piece of music...??

I don’t have any rituals as such, though it’s always good to have a big mug of tea beside me, and I do go back for refills. But, I do like to write early in the morning. I’m always the first one up in our house each morning so the house is quiet and I can write without any distractions, other than the cats clamouring for their breakfast (I do feed them before I start). In this atmosphere, it’s easy to gather my thoughts and put them on paper before my mind gets filled with the other tasks that I have to tackle that day.  Besides my day job, I also do admin work for a local writers’ group and I can easily get side-tracked with organising activities for the group if I don’t get the words on paper first.

What is the worst book you have ever read? What made it unreadable for you?

The Book of Paul by Richard Long is one of the few books that I decided I couldn’t continue reading. I can’t actually say it was the worst book I’ve ever read as the author’s use of language, development and understanding of character and ability to create tension in a plot was superb, but what made it unreadable for me was the incredibly graphic violence and one main character’s complete lack conscience. I felt that that the author included too much detail when he portrayed scenes of violence and torture, and I didn’t get a sense from the writing that these acts were deplorable. The scenes were written with a clinical eye for detail but no moral censure or emotional empathy for the victims and this disturbed me. Since I write wartime fiction, I also include some violence in my stories but I choose the details I reveal carefully. I want the reader to focus on the story, not only the violence. Reading The Book of Paul, what stuck in my mind was images of the violence and torture rather than the plot of the story. I’m afraid this type of psychological thriller isn’t for me.

Other than writing full time, what would be your dream job?

We live on a farm and I enjoy the outdoors so, after I leave the day job and when I’m not writing, I go for long walks and also spend time with our animals. My dream job would involve working with animals, especially goats. We had a pair of pet goats until recently and they are such amazing, intelligent animals and very individual characters. I could easily move to a remote hillside with just a herd of goats for company. Well, it might be nice if I could still get internet access there though. With a minimal amount of training, I’m sure the goats would be willing to post on Facebook and other social media sites for me. Wouldn’t that be an interesting marketing campaign? I could have my dream job and still have time to write.

Coffee or tea? Red or white?

Definitely tea. White wine. But if you have any herbal tea that has cinnamon in it, I wouldn’t say no to it either. Or hot apple cider (the non-alcoholic variety) wouldn’t go amiss. I love cinnamon!

If you had free choice over the font your book is printed in, what font/fonts would you choose?

I like Palatino Linotype for the main text in a novel. Font size 10 is about right.

Imagine that you could get hold of any original source document. What would it be?

There isn’t one particular document I would choose but I wouldn’t mind rooting through the files of documents that are still classified pertaining to Northern Ireland during the Second World War. I’m sure they would provide lots of interesting material for future stories.

Historical fiction authors have to contend with real characters invading our stories. Are there any ‘real’ characters you have been tempted to prematurely kill off or ignore because you just don’t like them or they spoil the plot?

I haven’t really had to deal with many irritating historic characters because I’m particularly interested in ‘the little man’, the average person, rather than those higher up the social, political or military hierarchies so most of my characters are fictional. I sometimes bring one of them into contact with historic characters but, since they would not move in the same circles, the meetings are brief encounters for a particular purpose in the story. Even though I set my tales in real places, such as airbases, army camps and country estates that existed in County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, most of the characters that inhabit them are fictional. A couple important historic figures appear in a novel that I’m currently working on: U. S. Army General Patton and the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Basil Brooke. They both make brief appearances in the novel and I enjoyed writing those scenes. But there aren’t any historic characters with walk on parts in The Yankee Years Books 1-3.

Are you prepared to go away from the known facts for the sake of the story and if so how do you get around this ?

I am very reluctant to do this and only do so when absolutely necessary. And then, I would only alter very minor details. I wouldn’t alter the outcome of a battle, for instance, but might make minor alterations to the physical setting to fit action in a story. In one story (Allies After All) in another collection, Pearl Harbor and More, I have made a cave accessible to suit the plot when, in fact, the opening is too small for an adult to enter. But, if there’s a dearth of information regarding a fact or incident, leaving the details open to interpretation, I will then let my imagination have free rein.

Do you find that the lines between fact and fiction sometimes become blurred?

As I’ve mentioned above, although I write historical fiction, I feel that historical accuracy is very important and I always try to put it first. I won’t alter key historical facts to suit my story. I have occasionally altered minor details of a setting to facilitate the plot of a story but not the historical facts. When I was plotting the stories for the collection, I referred to the timeline of World War II to keep the sequence of events during the war firmly in my mind. I also researched what was happening at the time in the locality where I set my stories. Then I chose relevant details from the local and broader picture to incorporate into the stories. In this way, I assure that the stories are true to what was happening when they are set and readers can be confident that they are stepping into a past that I’ve recreated as accurately as possible. I want them to believe that the story could have happened.

 

Have you ever totally hated or fallen in love with one of your characters?

I don’t usually hate any of my characters but I do make sure that the ‘bad guys’ eventually get what they deserve. I do get attached to some characters though. I develop favourites and rarely want to let go of them. Readers will notice that the first two stories in The Yankee Years Books 1-3 collection are about the same two main characters. After Ruth and Frank confronted the threat posed by a spy in their midst in the first story, The Shadow Ally, I had to see what happened to them next so I wrote the second story, Acts of Sabotage.  I’ve really got to like Ruth as she has developed and I think she has potential to be a bit of an amateur sleuth so I have further adventures planned for her and Frank in at least one more story that I will start work on soon.

 

What do you enjoy reading for pleasure?

I read a wide variety of fiction, contemporary and historical as well as some mystery and crime fiction. I look for stories that feature vivid, memorable characters and settings that nearly jump off the page combined with gripping plots. Since I write stories set during the Second World War, I also enjoy reading other novels set in the era. They are research and relaxation at the same time.

What drink would you recommend drinking whilst reading your latest book?

I think a caramel latte or cup of hot chocolate (with lots of chocolate!) might go well. But, then, those are two of my favourites. Or maybe readers should indulge in gin cocktails to get a flavour of the era.

Last but not least... favourite historical author?

That’s an easy one. Manda (M.C.) Scott is one of my favourite authors and has been for years. There is just something wonderful about her books. I love her writing. Her ability to breathe life into characters and unveil a complex story that keeps me on the edge of my seat, as well as her skilful use of language, is absolutely wonderful. I love stories, like hers, that come alive in my mind.  ((Note from Diana: I can relate to that. I not only heard her talk at the HNS conference in Oxford, I was fortunate enough to meet her. I LOVE her books. My only problem is that as they are so engrossing, I read them far too fast! ))

 

Dianne Ascroft biography:

Dianne Ascroft writes historical and contemporary fiction, often with an Irish connection. Her series The Yankee Years is a collection of Short Reads and novels set in World War II Northern Ireland. After the Allied troops arrived in this outlying part of Great Britain, life there would never be the same again. The series strives to bring those heady, fleeting years to life again, in thrilling and romantic tales of the era.

Her other writing includes a ghost tale inspired by the famous Northern Irish legend of the Coonian ghost, An Unbidden Visitor; a short story collection, Dancing Shadows, Tramping Hooves, and an historical novel, Hitler and Mars Bars.

Dianne lives on a small farm, in Northern Ireland, with her husband and an assortment of strong-willed animals. When she’s not writing, she enjoys walks in the countryside, evenings in front of her open fireplace and folk and traditional music. 

Media links:
Website and blog: www.dianneascroft.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/DianneAscroftwriter

Twitter: www.twitter.com/DianneAscroft 

Newsletter signup: http://eepurl.com/bn_Bjz

Amazon book links:

US: paperback - https://www.amazon.com/Yankee-Years-Books-1-3/dp/1907530487

Ebook - https://www.amazon.com/Yankee-Years-Boxset-Books-1-3-ebook/dp/B01KG84NZ8

UK: paperback - https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Yankee-Years-1-3-Dianne-Ascroft/1907530487

Ebook - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yankee-Years-Boxset-Books-1-3-ebook/dp/B01KG84NZ8



 © Diana Milne July 2016 © Dianne Ascroft March 2017

 

 

 

 

 

Diana talks to Karen Vaughan

Hi Karen, I wouldn't have discovered your wonderful, quirky-humoured mystery books if you had not entered (and won) a recent Review Blog prize draw, starting us both talking. Now I am hooked and I am reading them as fast as I can buy them and I thought it was a good idea to talk to you here and introduce you to a much wider audience.

First things first I am sure there is a question that you have always longed to be asked. Now is the chance. Ask your own question and answer it!
MY QUESTION FOR ME? What would I do for a Klondike bar?? Do an open mike comedy night.
(She is serious, folks! Has anyone heard her sing? Maybe we should just club together and buy her one!)
What would I do with it once I got it???-eat it of course!

If your latest book HOLMES IN AMERICA- was adapted into a TV show or a film, who would you like to play the lead role?
I would put Ricky Gervais in the lead role because Nigel Holmes is as politically incorrect as he is!

What made you choose this genre?  I have always loved mysteries and I love comedy so I thought I would combine them.
How do you get ideas for plots and characters? In my head, really, and people have given me some really neat ideas that I might use. 
If, as a one off, (and you could guarantee publication!) you could write anything you wanted, is there another genre you would love to work with and do you already have a budding plot line in mind?
I have got a few romance/romantic suspense stories in progress.

Was becoming a writer a conscious decision or something that you drifted into (or even something so compelling that it could not be denied?) How old were you when you first started to write seriously.
It was a huge drift. I was home sick and very bored. I started writing what is now 'Dead on Arrival' in 2005 and just kept going - it's like potato chips; you can't just eat one!
Marmite? Love it or hate it? MAKES NASTY HACKING SOUNDS—UM HATE IT. (No need to be polite, Karen, say what you really think!!!)
Do you have any rituals and routines when writing? Your favourite cup for example or ‘that’ piece of music...??
My 'Please don't annoy the author' mug, full of coffee or tea. 70s Classic rock or oldies.

I promise I won’t tell them the answer to this, but when you are writing, who is more important, your family or your characters?
Characters rule!
Other than writing full time, what would be your dream job?
Stand up comedian. I am also an author/book promoter.
Coffee or tea? Red or white?
Both coffee and tea-sorry can't choose. Red as it is bold and vibrant like my characters

How much of your work is planned before you start? Do you have a full draft or let it find its way? I write by the seat of my pants  -my characters write it I am just the typist

If you had free choice over the font your book is printed in, what font/fonts would you choose? COMIC SANS MS

Imagine that you could get hold of any original source document. What would it be? Romeo and Juliette.

Have any of your characters ever shocked you and gone off on their own adventure leaving you scratching your head??? If so how did you cope with that!? I had it planned in my nano last year - Playing Dead - that the thugs would abduct my protagonists, but one of them took off and made a deal with the badasses.

How much research do you do and do you ever go on research trips?

Not much, I am lazy -LOL- mostly online, but I did go down to Toronto to research one area that would play a prominent part of the story!

Fiction authors have to contend with real characters invading our stories. Are there any ‘real’ characters you have been tempted to prematurely kill off or ignore because you just don’t like them or they spoil the plot?

My editor has a nemesis named Stella so after hearing stories about her I gave her a part but she is so annoying I had her kill her ex husband and sent her off to jail. I have killed off a few people on paper that just needed it.

Are you prepared to go away from the known facts for the sake of the story and if so how do you get around this?

It’s called creative license I believe. I get close to the truth but the facts get warped sometimes

.
Do you find that the lines between fact and fiction sometimes become blurred? Truth is stranger than fiction sometimes.

Have you ever totally hated or fallen in love with one of your characters?

I love Jeff Gibbons, my cop in my series; he is married but a girl can dream.

What do you enjoy reading for pleasure? It's easier to say what I don't like -- HORROR!

What drink would you recommend drinking whilst reading your latest book?

I don’t recommend drinking anything as you might spit it out while laughing, but wine is good.

Last but not least... favourite author? James Patterson, Jonathan Kellerman and many more
Your answers have been as fun and funny as your books, Karen, so now I will tell people a bit about you:
Karen Vaughan lives in Peterborough Ontario with her husband Jim and a cat named JJ. She is the mom of a 26-year-old daughter and four grown stepchildren, a newborn granddaughter and a 6-year-old grandson named Izak who could very well be smarter than a fifth grader. DEAD COMIC STANDING is her second novel. Her first novel DEAD ON ARRIVAL garnered praise from friends, family, and online gamers. She also enjoys doing crafts and other hobbies. Her third book and sequel to DEAD ON ARRIVAL is called OVER HER DEAD BODY. DAYTONA DEAD is the third in that series and was released in May 2013. Other than writing Karen loves to read, do crafts and play online games. Currently, she hosts an internet radio show called WRITERS ROUND TABLE since January the 14th, 2014. She has a quirky sense of humor and shows this in her mysteries and her side hobby of stand-up comedy. DEAD MEN DON’T SWING AND JAMAICA DEAD WERE PUBLISHED in January 2015. LEFT FOR DEAD AND HOLMES IN AMERICA WERE PUBLISHED IN 2016. Karen is currently working on her 7th book in the Laura and Gerry series DEAD TO WRITES.                


© Diana Milne January 2017 © Karen Vaughan February 2017

Diana talks to Kristie Dean

Hi Kristie, lovely to catch up with you and have a chat...
I have loved all your books but particularly your two Richard III related books...

''Richard III is probably the House of York’s best-known figure, but the other members of the family are just as intriguing as the king who fell on Bosworth Field brings to life the people and their  places in her latest book, On the Trail of the Yorks (with brilliant maps and photographs*)''

What made you choose this genre? I love non-fiction because it allows me to research the history I love and then present it to others. I like explaining what actually happened, although I’ve been toying with the idea of writing fiction as well.

How do you get ideas for plots and characters? I get the ideas for my books from what I love. Both Richard III and his family have always interested me, so they were my focus when I decided I wanted to write a travel history. Actually, the idea of the travel history book came about because I’d always wanted a book to give me locations for my favorite figures from history, especially Richard III.

If, as a one off, (and you could guarantee publication!) you could write anything you wanted, is there another genre you would love to work with and do you already have a budding plot line in mind? I would love to write a thriller. I have had an idea in mind for a while based on an incident that happened to me when I was in college. I’m not sure if I will ever put it on paper, though.

Was becoming a writer a conscious decision or something that you drifted into (or even something so compelling that it could not be denied?) How old were you when you first started to write seriously. It was a conscious decision. I’ve been writing since 4^th grade (around nine years old) and it’s always been something important for me to do. I can’t stand a blank piece of paper.  I studied journalism in school as an undergraduate prior to earning my master’s in history, so writing non-fiction has been a good fit.  

Marmite? Love it or hate it? I have never been able to bring myself to try it… ((Smile))

Do you have any rituals and routines when writing? Your favourite cup for example or ‘that’ piece of music...?? I have to begin the day with coffee and play with my pets for a few moments before I start working. I love to work at my desk, but in all honesty, I am so messy that it’s often covered and I have to write in the family room.

I promise I won’t tell them the answer to this, but when you are writing, who is more important, your family or your characters? My family is more important, but I do neglect them while writing. It becomes an all-consuming passion. I have started at 7 a.m. and finished at 10 p.m. without noticing. I love what I do!

Other than writing full time, what would be your dream job? I would love to be a travel guide and take people to my favorite destinations.

Coffee or tea? Red or white? Coffee and white

How much of your work is planned before you start? Do you have a full draft or let it find its way? For non-fiction I plan it out, but if I find another location or something I need to add through my research, I will add it.

Imagine that you could get hold of any original source document. What would it be? Oh, that’s an easy one for me. Titulus Regius.

How much research do you do and do you ever go on research trips? For a non-fiction book, meticulous research is necessary.  In addition to primary research for the historic background, I traveled to almost every site I discuss. I liked the chance to get the ‘feel’ of the location.

What do you enjoy reading for pleasure? I read just about anything. This morning I read the back of the Cheerios box. It hadn’t changed since the last time I read it, but it was there and I was bored. Seriously, I will read just about any genre, although I’m not big on fantasy. My preference is either history or thrillers.

What drink would you recommend drinking whilst reading your latest book? White wine. ((I read it at the airport whilst drinking coffee. I can recommend that too!))

Last but not least... favourite author? This is a difficult one for me. I like so many authors, but I do enjoy Susanna Kearsley and Barbara Erskine (Lady of Hay is a favourite!) For non-fiction, there are many authors I admire, so it would take forever to list them all. I do have a book that I’m chomping at the bit to read, which hopefully will be released soon. Sharon Bennett Connolly is doing a book about medieval heroines, and I cannot wait to get my hands on it.

*

Kristie Dean has an MA in History and now enjoys teaching the subject, following a successful career in public relations. Her particular historic interest is the medieval era, specifically the Plantagenets, the Wars of the Roses and the Tudors.
She has been published in several online magazines and local newspapers, and presented a paper at the International Congress on Medieval Studies. She has also published a series of short guidebooks (less than 20 pages) to help visitors to the UK find great locations

You can follow Kristie on Twitter @kristiedavisdea, or like her Facebook page, The World of Richard III. She also has a blog at KristieDean.com. When not traveling for research, you can find Kristie at home in Tennessee with her husband, three dogs, and two cats.

© Diana Milne January 2017 © Kristie Dean February 2017

* Maps in the book by Lady White Art and Sharon Connelly provided some wonderful photos

Diana Talks to John Jackson

Hi John, thanks for talking to me today. I am sure that you are tired of being asked the usual questions that would be interviewers ask authors, so hopefully this interview is an interview with a difference and I have come up with some unusual questions!

If your latest book was adapted into a TV show or a film, who would you like to play the lead role?

The latest (still to be published) book will be A Heart of Stone.

The Hero? (Arthur):       Jamie Bell

The Heroine? (Mary):    Emma Watson

The Villain? (Robert):    Hugh Lawrie

If, as a one off, (and you could guarantee publication!)  you could write anything you wanted, is there another genre you would love to work with and do you already have a budding plot line in mind?

Crime! (nothing specific plot-wise in mind yet)

Do you have any rituals and routines when writing? Your favourite cup for example or ‘that’ piece of music...??

I always write at my table and in my favourite chair. The only routine as such is to clear all the other tasks out of the way first to give myself a clear couple of hours.

What is the worse book you have ever read? What made it unreadable for you?

I am not saying!

Other than writing full time, what would be your dream job?

I've done my dream job! I was a ship's officer and captain in the last few years of the era where going to sea was still an exciting and romantic career.

Coffee or tea? Red or white?

Tea and Red

If you had free choice over the font your book is printed in, what font/fonts would you choose?

Garamond 12pt.

Imagine that you could get hold of any original source document. What would it be?

The court documents relating to the case of Crim Com between Robert and Arthur Rochfort.

Historical fiction authors have to contend with real characters invading our stories. Are there any ‘real’ characters you have been tempted to prematurely kill off or ignore because you just don’t like them or they spoil the plot?

None so far.

Are you prepared to go away from the known facts for the sake of the story and if so how do you get around this?

Yes – that's why it's called Fiction, but it has to be done with care, and for a deliberate reason.

Do you find that the lines between fact and fiction sometimes become blurred?

Oh yes! We NEVER know exactly what or how, or even why "someone said something" We weren’t there, and history is written by the winner.

Have you ever totally hated or fallen in love with one of your characters?

I think you have to, to get the best out of them. Just don't be indifferent to them.

What do you enjoy reading for pleasure?

Historical and contemporary fiction, especially books by my friends (all genres) because I can see them in their works.

What drink would you recommend drinking whilst reading your latest book?

Red wine – especially a Malbec from Cahors!

Last but not least... favourite historical author?

Georgette Heyer. Boring but true!

You can find John Jackson on his blog and Facebook

© Diana Milne July 2016 © John Jackson November 2016

Diana talks to ... Antoine Vanner

 

I was lucky enough to chat with Antoine over far too many olives at the HNS16 conference in September. What a charming man he is!  I took the opportunity to ask him a few questions...
        Antoine's latest book came out on 20th October and has received some wonderful reviews. You may buy the book here .

Alternatively, Antoine is very generously donating a copy of the book as a prize!!! To be in with a chance to win a paper copy of this book, please leave a comment here on the blog, or on our Review page.  The names will all go into the hat and the first one drawn on 27th November will be the winner!!

 
Q.   Antoine, if your latest book, Britannia’s Amazon, was adapted into a TV show or a film, who would you like to play the lead role?

A.    You’re putting me in an embarrassing position here! Florence Dawlish is the wife of Royal Navy captain Nicholas Dawlish, who had played the lead in four previous books. Florence played major roles in two of them – Britannia’s Wolf and Britannia’s Shark – but now, in Britannia’s Amazon, set in 1882, she has a whole book to herself. She’s the type of woman I admire – clever, courageous, loyal, compassionate and resourceful. She is however not a beauty and she knows it. In Britannia’s Amazon, in which she has to adopt another persona, “it was somehow disappointing when she saw her reflection in the wardrobe mirror and recognised that it had been so easy to transform herself into what she had so fortuitously escaped becoming, a frugally respectable working woman. For all Nicholas’s assurances, she knew that she was not beautiful – her face was too bony, her mouth was too large – and it was sobering to realise how it was prosperity alone that helped disguise the fact.”  With a description like that I suspect that I’d earn the undying enmity of any actress I’d name as suitable for the part. So I’m keeping my head down and am dodging this question!

Q.   If, as a one-off, you could write anything you want, is there another genre you would love to work with and do you already have a budding plot line in mind?

A.    The time-demand would be beyond me but I’d enjoy researching and writing a narrative history about a single historical event or campaign of relatively short duration – rather in the style of the excellent James Holland. A few nights ago I watched the new movie “The Siege of Jadotville”, about an Irish Army unit on UN service which was plunged into a nightmarish Rorke’s Drift-type situation in Katanga in 1961. There’s been one book about it already but it represents the type of event I’d choose to write a book about if I could afford the time.

Q.   Do you have any rituals and routines in your writing? Your favourite cup, for example, or your favourite piece of music?

A.    Writing is only half the process – the other half is “living” scenes in my head, and for this afternoon walks with my dog Rufus are essential. I go back over what I’ve written in the morning – I sometimes get insights on how to improve it – and I think through, indeed feel through and live through, what will follow.  My characters are real to me and they get more real still as I visualise what they’ll say and do, and how they’ll feel, in the following scenes and chapters.

Q.   Other than writing full time, what would be your dream job?

A.    An astronaut! Even one orbit would be worth diamonds! I think that the saddest thing about our mortality is that we don’t know exactly where the future will take Humanity. I’m pretty sure however that it’s going to take us beyond Earth – how far, I can’t imagine – and I’d love to be on the front line in this.

Q.   Coffee or tea, red or white?

A.    For anybody with Dutch connections it can only be coffee – and black!

(I love that answer!)

Q.   Imagine you could get hold of any source document. What would it be?

A.    I’m fascinated by the geometric progression in numbers of ancestors as we work backwards through time. Assuming three generations per century, we each had 512 ancestors three centuries ago – though I guess the actual number may have been considerably less as a fair number of them might have been ancestors through different descendants. There must have been a lot of distant cousins marrying distant cousins a few generations further on. But it’s impossible to visualise the probably very disparate lives of so many eight-times grandparents who were alive in the time of Marlborough, Peter the Great, Louis XIV. I’d love to get my hands on even one document that could give me an insight on how those people lived and loved, what joys and sorrows they knew, what perceptions they had of the world, what passions and concerns and ideals motivated them, what expectations they might have had of the future.

Q.   Historical fiction authors have to contend with real characters invading our stories. Are there any real characters you have been tempted to kill off prematurely or ignore just because you don’t like them, or they spoil the plot?

A.    Historical figures are opportunities – and in some cases are catalysts for the plot. When they’re introduced they’ve got to act in character, even if the incidents they’re involved with are fictional. I prefer to keep my plots within the framework of actual events so killing off a real character would destroy this – it would indeed be an instance of “the butterfly effect” changing history. That isn’t to say that there aren’t real-life figures in my books whom I’d like to have seen come to more unpleasant ends than they did – or indeed whom I’d like not to have been born in the first place. The example that comes to mind is the Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid II –– who plays an important role in Britannia’s Wolf. But I’ve had to leave him to live out his long shameful life and be remembered with loathing today as “Abdul the Damned”.

Q.   Are you prepared to go away from the known facts for the sake of the story and if so how do you get around that?

A.    This relates to some extent to the previous question. All “Historical Fiction” is to some “Alternative History” and there’s some point of departure from what really happened. The story develops from that point. In my books the plots fit into real-life timelines, especially in Britannia’s Wolf and Britannia’s Spartan in which much of the action is integrated with what really did happen on a day-by-day basis. Where historical fiction such as my own differs from the best alternative history fiction is that by the end of my books we’re back in the world as it really was and subsequent history has not been changed.

 

Q.   Have you ever totally hated or fallen in love with one of our characters?

A.    I’m definitely in love with Florence Dawlish – what man wouldn’t be? But I’ve also got a sneaking liking for some of my shades-of-grey villains: Silas Culbertson, the ruthless, cunning and brutal ex-Confederate colonel who is also courageous; Fred Kung, the Chinese power-broker who was mutilated during construction of the Central Pacific railroad through the Sierra Nevada and who made a fortune thereafter through shipping corpses back to China; Shimazu Hirosato, a captain of the Japanese Navy who is cruel and pitiless, but is unswerving in his dedication to his Samurai code of honour. And I can’t but love a character who was in fact a real-life one: Adam Worth, a.k.a. Henry Raymond, who was described by Scotland Yard as “The Napoleon of Crime” and who was the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes’ adversary, Professor Moriarty. He was a key player in Britannia’s Shark and Florence encounters him again in the new novel, Britannia’s Amazon.

 

Q.   What do you enjoy reading for pleasure?

A.    I love narrative history and we’re in somewhat of a golden age of it. The late Shelby Foote’s superb The Civil War would be my desert-island book and more recently James D. Hornfischer, Nathaniel Philbrick and Hampton Sides in the United States, and James Holland, Simon Sebag Montefiore and Tom Holland in Britain, have been setting a very high standard. I can’t recommend these authors highly enough.

 

Q.   Last but not least … who is your favourite historical author?

A.    Without hesitation – Zoë Oldenbourg. I know of no other author who has entered into the minds of people whose values and outlook – and world – were so different to our own, and who makes them come alive so movingly and so convincingly. Her masterpiece, Destiny of Fire, is almost unbearably painful to read but it says so much about what is truly valuable in Humanity that I’ve returned to it again and again over the last forty years. It has had a massive effect on my own values and outlook – literally a life-changing book.  Oldenbourg’s histories have the same quality of bringing lost societies poignantly alive.

Antoine and Rufus.

 

A potted biography: Antoine Vanner writes historical naval fiction. He found himself flattered when nautical novelist Joan Druett described him as the "The Tom Clancy of historic naval fiction".
He says: "I find the late Victorian era, roughly 1870 to 1900, fascinating because for my baby-boomer generation it's 'the day before yesterday'. It's history that you can almost touch. Our grandparents grew up in that period and you heard a lot from them about it. So much in that time was so similar to what we still have today that you feel you could live easily in it, and then you hit some aspects - especially those associated with social conventions and attitudes - that make it seem wholly alien. It was a time of change on every front - intellectual, scientific, medical, social, political and technological - and yet people seem to have accommodated to these rapid changes very well." He had had an adventurous life in international business and also travelled extensively on a private basis. He survived military coups, guerrilla warfare, a militia attack, storms at sea and life in mangrove swamps, tropical forest, offshore platforms and the boardroom. Antoine’s knowledge of human nature, passion for nineteenth-century political and military history   and first-hand experience of their locales provide the background to his historical novels centred on the lives of Royal Navy officer Nicholas Dawlish and his wife Florence. The five volumes published so far are all linked to actual historical events and are set in locales as various as the Black Sea and the Balkans in winter, a river-system in the heart of South America, the luxury and squalor of the United States' Gilded Age, Cuba in revolt, Korea as it emerges from centuries of isolation and - not the least deadly - the corrupt and brutal underside of the complacent and outwardly respectable society of Late-Victorian Britain

See more at The Dawlish Chronicles

To see a video of Antoine talking about his latest book and the challenges it presented click here

Britannia’s Amazon: http://amzn.to/2eZurBM

Interview with Antoine Vanner: http://bit.ly/2fEMzm3
Blog Link:  http://bit.ly/15f20oy

Fade out as required!

Diana Milne & Antoine Vanner © November 2016