Diana talks to C F Dunn

Hi Claire, lovely to talk to you again.
 

Hopefully this interview is an interview with a difference and I have come up with some unusual questions! Even more hopefully you will find it interesting and come up with some brilliant answers!!

If your series 'The Secret Of The Journal' was adapted into a TV show or a film, who would you like to play the lead role?

For  independent and self-contained Emma , Emily Blunt, Rebecca Hall, or Jessica Chasten embody her look and temperament. Matthew is more difficult. For looks, the late, lovely Paul Walker was exactly as I imagined Matthew, but the look is only one aspect of character, isn’t it? Capturing the essence of a person is so much more complex. British actor, Sam Claflin, has the range and depth of expression not often seen in young actors, so I’d choose him.

What made you choose this genre?

I like multilayered plots involving different genre, so The Secret of the Journal series is a mix of romance (nothing sappy), mystery, suspense, and a thread of history that runs through everything. My current series, however, is unadulterated history and suspense.

How do you get ideas for plots and characters?

Everywhere. Life is one big story. I have a whole load of plots waiting to be written.

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?

When I started writing Mortal Fire I hadn’t planned including quite so much history. It kept muscling in on the action until I gave in and realised that - whatever I write - history will be in there somewhere. As a result, the series I am now working on is delicious history through and through.

Was becoming a writer a conscious decision or something that you drifted into (or even something so compelling that it could not be denied?)

I had to write. Language, imagery, and story have tumbled around in my mind for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, being dyslexic meant the process of writing was never easy; but once I obtained a laptop which helps with organisation, there was no stopping me.

How old were you when you first started to write seriously.

Seriously? In my late forties, but stories had been queuing up to be written long before then.

Marmite? Love it or hate it?

Meh.

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

Not really. I’d like to claim I do a five-mile run every morning before settling down to write, but that would be pure fiction. However, coffee is a must. As for music, I listen to certain pieces when writing particular types of scene: pictorial film music such as Gladiator and The Last Samurai for action scenes, Girl With A Pearl Earring for atmosphere; and sonorous choral music by Medieval and Renaissance composers for evoking period.

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?

Family. First, last, always.

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

I’ve had my dream job. Right from the moment we met at university, my husband and I wanted to open a school. We thought it a pipe-dream, but for the last nineteen years, I’ve run our specialist dyslexia and autism school in Kent. Working with our young people ( aged 6 to 25 years) has been the greatest inspiration and privilege I could have hoped for in life.
(Total respect!)

Coffee or tea? Red or white?

Coffee. Champagne. Water. Anything else gives me a headache.

How much of your work is planned before you start? Do you have a full draft or let it find its way?

Inspiration comes in many forms and I’m never short of a plot. I imagine the whole story first. I have the beginning, middle and end and all the major scenes along the way worked out before I start writing. However, all the little twists and turns that give the story complexity and depth develop as the characters get to know one another. I work between six and twelve hours a day, use a lap top, and am often kept company by my huge Norwegian Forest Cat, Esker.

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

I’m not fussed as long as it is easy on the eye of the reader.

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

I’m going to cheat a little here. If I had a choice, it’d be all the documents relating to Richard III’s short reign expunged by Henry VII.

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 swear characters have a life of their own. In The Secret of the Journal series, Sam Weisner was supposed to be quite a different character to the one he turned out to be. No matter what I did, he kept bucking the trend. In the end, I went with it, and it made a much better story. We became friends by the end of the series.

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

As a Medieval historian, I relish research. There’s always more to learn and I often find new avenues to explore which in turn inspire fresh ideas. I undertake one major and several minor research trips a year. The Secret of the Journal series took me to Maine, USA for background details (the dead skunk was a stroke of luck). In contrast, Emma D’Eresby comes from Stamford - an ancient and very beautiful stone town in Lincolnshire where my own family originates - so I had generations of information tucked away ready to be used for the books. My current Wheel of Fortune series took me to such exotic locations as North Lincolnshire and West Yorkshire. I really must attempt at least one book set in the Maldives...

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’d quite happily eliminate Henry VII, but that would be meddling with history, wouldn’t it? Tempting, though.

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 get all prickly on this subject (see my previous answer). I can’t and won’t change what is known. I have a duty towards the past and the people who populated it. It’s somehow not respectful to fiddle with the facts, and there is always a way to get around an immovable object, it just takes imagination.

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

This is where I license as a novelist. I used to take my characters shopping to see how they interacted with the world and each other. Crazy? Me? Never!

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

I have a character in my latest series I should hate, but found I grew to like and respect him until the point where I mourned his loss.

What do you enjoy reading for pleasure?

I’ve just managed to find John Fenn’s Paston Letters - original C18th bindings, great condition. Inhaling that leather-bound history makes reading a complete pleasure.  (Diana turns a jealous shade of green and then swoons!)

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

Coffee. Is there another drink?
 

Last but not least... favourite author?

That’s the cruellest question of all. How on earth am I supposed to chose a single author from millennia of writers?

Author bio:

Writing as CF Dunn, Claire Dunn is a novelist writing historical and contemporary suspense fiction. Her debut novel Mortal Fire - published by Lion Fiction - won the gold medal for adult romance in the Book Of The Year Awards, 2012, and was nominated for Best Novel by CRT in the same year. 

Alongside her first loves of family, history and writing, CF Dunn is passionate about the education and welfare of children with dyslexia, autism and communication difficulties, and runs a special needs school, which she founded in Kent with her husband.

Book five of The Secret of the Journal series - Fearful Symmetry - has brought the series to a heart-stopping conclusion and is a finalist in this year’s Forward Book of the Year Awards. Claire is currently writing the first book in a Medieval suspense trilogy and drinking too much coffee

 

Contact/Social Links:

Web site: http://cfdunn.co.uk

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/claire.dunn.37

Facebook series page: https://www.facebook.com/secretofthejournal/

Email: cfdunn@rocketmail.com

© Diana Milne January 2017 © C F Dunne May 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 Matthew Harffy

Matthew is very kindly donating an e- copy of any one of his three books to one lucky winner. To enter this competition, please leave a comment on the blog or on the Review post.

Hi Matthew, I am sorry I kept missing you at HNS16 ... whenever I glimpsed you, we were always rushing in opposite directions, so I am so happy to have caught up with you on line.

Hopefully this interview is an interview with a difference and I have tried to come up with some unusual questions!

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

 

That’s a really difficult question. When I’m writing I don’t picture actors in any of the roles. However, if the Bernicia Chronicles ever make their way onto the screen, I hope they find an actor who has the intensity and physical presence to play Beobrand convincingly. He towers over most of his enemies and is a natural killer, but also has a reflective, tender side. I remember in the recent Rugby World Cup thinking that Dan Biggar from the Welsh team could portray Beobrand convincingly, at least from the physical aspect. I have no idea if he can act!

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?

Anyone who knows me well knows I love Westerns and I have often talked about how I would love to write one. I don’t really have much of a plot, but I have written the first paragraphs of a story. The opening lines are:

“A man always remembers his first murder. Just like he always remembers his first visit to the whore house.”

Maybe one day I’ll finish it!

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. Each book seems to create its own soundtrack though. For The Serpent Sword, I listened to a lot of classical music and film scores, particularly The Lord of the Rings. Whilst writing The Cross and the Curse, I listened to a lot of nature sounds, predominantly thunderstorms and rain. If you’ve read that book you’ll see how that affected the plot. Or was it the plot that made me choose those sounds? More recently, I have been listening to Wardruna, a Norwegian ambient folk band. There are lots of nature sounds and indistinct chanting of runes in the music, giving a very unique atmosphere that sits well with the themes and ambience of the Bernicia Chronicles.

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

I think I would have to say Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. I had to read it at school and I really couldn’t get more than a few pages in without giving up. Horrible, dense prose with no discernible hook to interest me in the characters or the plot. There have been many other books I have not finished. I am a slow reader, and if I struggle with a story, I give up and move on. Life’s too short to trudge through boring books.

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

Rock singer. I have sung in many bands over the years and I love to perform. I would have to be in a band though, as I really enjoy the camaraderie of being with like-minded people. Besides, I can’t play any instruments!

Coffee or tea? Red or white?

Coffee and white wine. Red wine gives me migraines, which was very annoying when I lived in Spain for many years, which produces some of the best red wines in the world.

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

A readable one! Actually, when I first self-published The Serpent Sword, I used a free font (Tallys) that was quite close in design to Jenson, the oldest Roman style typeface, that was created by Nicholas Jenson in the 15^th century. It is very readable and yet gives a hint of the past in its form. (A wonderful font! If only I could get hold of an original set of it!)

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

I would love to be able to see the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Beowulf, and Bede. The Lindisfarne Gospels would be nice to have a flick through too!

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?

No, though it is sometimes hard to know what to do with certain real life characters. I find it is often necessary to gloss over characters, as too many can lead to confusion of the plot. For example, King Edwin had a son that was captured at the battle of Hatfield Chase in 633. In The Serpent Sword, I chose not to mention this son at all, as he is later murdered in captivity and it would only have made things confusing. Now, when writing Killer of Kings, book four in the series, I wish I’d mentioned him, as I could have used him in the plot… ((Big smile here. I *know* that!!!))

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?

Oh yes. I always say story over history. My books are meant to entertain, so if I need to stray from the accepted path of fact, I will. Having said that, I try not to, and I always confess in the Historical Notes where I have deviated from the known history or filled gaps. One of the great things about writing about the so-called Dark Ages, is there are very few sources, and information is scarce, so it is quite easy to get away with most plot twists I come up with.

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

Not really. But I do often look at the world and think that fact is frequently stranger than fiction!

In the Bernicia Chronicles I am very conscious of the fact that I am not writing history. I am writing a fictional account of a past that could have occurred. I know things did not happen the way I portray them, but I always strive to create a plausible world. I think immersive historical fiction is all about authenticity, not accuracy.

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

I think I fell in love with Sunniva, Beobrand’s love interest, a bit. If you are creating a character you want your protagonist to fall in love with, perhaps you have to fall in love with them a bit too.

When it comes to hatred, well that is a bit more difficult. There are some truly despicable characters in my books, but whilst I would hate them if I met them in real life, I have created them, and therefore to some extent I love them too! If they are odious, they are great characters!

What do you enjoy reading for pleasure?

I like escapist, fast-paced thrillers and historical fiction, for the most part, but I will try anything. Lee Child and Bernard Cornwell are my go-to writers if I want to read something that really grips me.

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

A rich, robust ale. Something with hints of fruit, but with a pleasant hoppy, bitterness.

Last but not least... favourite historical author?

Well, I’ve already mentioned Bernard Cornwell, so he’d have to be up there. However, I’d like to give an honourable mention to Conn Iggulden, Larry McMurtry and Patrick O’Brian.

 

Thanks for the thought-provoking questions, Diana. It’s been great fun.

Thank *you* Matthew! Very interesting answers!

 

© Diana Milne July 2016 © Matthew Harffy November 2016

 

Author info:

Matthew Harffy is the author of the Bernicia Chronicles, a series of novels set in seventh century Britain. The first of the series, The Serpent Sword, was published by Aria/Head of Zeus on 1st June 2016. The sequel, The Cross and The Curse was released on 1st August 2016. Book three, Blood and Blade, is due for publication in December 2016.

The Serpent Sword, The Cross and the Curse and Blood and Blade are available on Amazon, Kobo, Google Play, and all good online bookstores.

Killer of Kings and Kin of Cain are available for pre-order on Amazon and all good online bookstores.

 

Website: www.matthewharffy.com

Twitter: @MatthewHarffy

Facebook: MatthewHarffyAuthor

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