Diana talks to Carol McGrath, author of one of my top three books for 2017, Woman in the Shadows

Hi Carol, good to talk to you.

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!

Do you want publishers to pigeon hole you into a particular historical era as an author?

Absolutely not. I shall be writing a novel set in the seventeenth century after I complete the Rose novels of which I currently plan two. They are set during the ‘magnificent thirteenth century’.

What is the genre you are best known for?

Historical Fiction.

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

Carey Mulligan would make a lovely Elizabeth Cromwell. However, Elizabeth does have silvery hair! Will Carey dye hers?

What made you choose this genre?

I am passionate about History and always have been. I always have read Historical novels, growing up on a diet of Jean Plaidy and Ayna Seton.

 How do you get ideas for plots and characters?

Historical Research and paintings. It is good to read contemporary novels as they can provide universal themes and plots.

Favourite picture or work of art?

The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan Van Eyck 1434. The colours are vivid, the portrait has depth and there’s a story there.

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 like to write a contemporary woman’s story with a political edge, possibly with a photo journalist as my heroine and set in one of the countries I visit such as India or Japan.

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.

I have always loved writing. I love poetry and used to write it. I began to write seriously in my forties but was not published for another decade. I took an MA in Creative Writing at Queens Belfast and an MPhil at Royal Holloway. This involved thesis work and that held me up but was fulfilling.

Marmite? Love it or hate it? Hate it. Too salty.

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

I listen to Classical, Jazz and interesting Folk. I love piano music especially Satie’s Trois Gymnopedies.

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 characters but I absolutely would leave them to resolve a family crisis.

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

Foreign Correspondent.

Coffee or tea? Red or white?

Tea and with a dash of milk. White wine is my tipple.

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

I plan characters carefully and use an overall three part structure to design a novel’s narrative. I write into it and plan further. I make lists for each section and use spider diagrams a lot as I write. It still can take its own life.

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

Times New Roman. Clarity rules for me.

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

I would like to see the original inventory for Cromwell’s house, Austin Friars. Possessions can reveal so much about a character. (Gosh!Yes! How I would love to see that too!|D)

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!?

Elditha from The Handfasted Wife sadly refused the happy ending I had planned for her. I cannot say more as it would be a reveal.

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

I endlessly research but all this must be seamlessly incorporated into the fabric of the novel. I aim to recreate the atmosphere of a period and the trappings of that particular Historical world. I do go on research trips and unfortunately was unable to visit Kiev as planned when writing The Betrothed Sister. The Ukraine became dangerous. However, I have a working knowledge of Russia. That helped. I visited Dublin to research the Irish Viking period whilst writing The Handfasted Wife. I had to visit Exeter to get the siege section right as well. I used Tudor maps of London when writing The Woman in the Shadows and visited The Museum of London as well as The British Museum and many Renaissance art works in various galleries.

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?

Oh yes. Padar had to be contained as he was upstaging Elditha and thus distancing her for a reader. I realised I could not use his POV when she was present in a scene. Rosalind, an embroiderer, is in danger of stealing the show from Queen Ailenor in The Silken Rose. She is currently banished to a convent but she will emerge and her story line will conclude. (Big smile)

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?

Generally I do not deviate but I invent extras to full in the dots and particularly to create interesting stories. I invented a fire in The Woman in the Shadows and the outcome of that to build tension, provide a story and highlight known aspects of character as regards Thomas Cromwell. I always try to be plausible.

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

Yes, of course, but for me keeping to known facts matter. I invent around these and create hypotheses. I guess this is blurring!

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

I am still  utterly in love with Padar and I am rather fond of Thomas Cromwell as he was before The King’s Great Matter. I do admire his wife, Elizabeth who tells the story. (I am rather infatuated with the early Thomas Cromwell myself... D)

What do you enjoy reading for pleasure?

I read widely. I currently am reading Anne Cleeves and highly recommend The Crow Trap. It helps me understand plotting.

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

You would want a delicious posset with beaten egg, milk, honey and spices whilst reading The Woman in the Shadows. Keep it warm by an open fire and curl up in your favourite armchair. Follow it with a shot of Benedictine.

Last but not least... favourite author?I love and re read Charlotte Bronte, especially Jane Eyre. I think EM Foster is my joint favourite author. I adore his work, especially A Passage to India. 

About The Woman in the Shadows:

A powerful, evocative new novel by the critically acclaimed author of The Handfasted Wife, The Woman in the Shadows tells the rise of Thomas Cromwell, Tudor England's most powerful statesman, through the eyes of his wife Elizabeth.

When beautiful cloth merchant’s daughter Elizabeth Williams is widowed at the age of twenty-two, she is determined to make herself a success in the business she has learned from her father. But there are those who oppose a woman making her own way in the world, and soon Elizabeth realises she may have some powerful enemies – enemies who also know the truth about her late husband.

Security – and happiness – comes when Elizabeth is introduced to kindly, ambitious merchant turned lawyer, Thomas Cromwell. Their marriage is one based on mutual love and respect…but it isn’t always easy being the wife of an influential, headstrong man in Henry VIII’s London.

The city is filled with ruthless people and strange delights – and Elizabeth realises she must adjust to the life she has chosen…or risk losing everything.

Read more about Carol McGrath here

© Diana Milne January 2018 © Carol McGrath, 1/1/18

Sharon Reviews: The Woman in the Shadows by Carol McGrath

Today Sharon Bennett Connolly has the unique opportunity to review a book that has only come out this week. The Woman in the Shadows by Carol McGrath is a fascinating historical novel set in Tudor England. The author has kindly offered a paperback copy as a giveaway. To be in with a chance of winning this fabulous story, simply leave a comment below of on our Facebook Page.

The winner will be drawn on 9th August 2017. Good luck! 

A powerful, evocative new novel by the critically acclaimed author of The Handfasted Wife, The Woman in the Shadows tells the rise of Thomas Cromwell, Tudor England's most powerful statesman, through the eyes of his wife Elizabeth.

When beautiful cloth merchant’s daughter Elizabeth Williams is widowed at the age of twenty-two, she is determined to make herself a success in the business she has learned from her father. But there are those who oppose a woman making her own way in the world, and soon Elizabeth realises she may have some powerful enemies – enemies who also know the truth about her late husband.

Security – and happiness – comes when Elizabeth is introduced to kindly, ambitious merchant turned lawyer, Thomas Cromwell. Their marriage is one based on mutual love and respect…but it isn’t always easy being the wife of an influential, headstrong man in Henry VIII’s London.

The city is filled with ruthless people and strange delights – and Elizabeth realises she must adjust to the life she has chosen…or risk losing everything.

What a treat! 

Carol McGrath's latest book, The Woman in the Shadows is a fabulous fictional account of the life and times of Elizabeth Cromwell, wife of Henry VIII's famous - some would say notorious - adviser.  It is an enjoyable, thoughtful story which gives the reader an insight into life in Tudor London, in general, and in a Tudor household in particular. Following Elizabeth from the funeral of her first husband, through her widowhood and new love and marriage with Thomas Cromwell, this is not the story of Henry VIII and the Tudor court, but of the 'ordinary' people without whom the Tudors would not have been able to sustain their glamorous court.

Written in colourful, vivid language that draws you in from the first page, The Woman in the Shadows is a wonderful novel, full of life and imagery. And, of course, the fact I could find no picture of Elizabeth Cromwell - only ones of Thomas - serves to highlight how little information we have about the ordinary Tudor woman. Carol McGrath's novel gives us a rarely seen insight into everyday life of the non-aristocratic family in Tudor London. However, if you were expecting melodrama, this book is not it; adventure and mystery are given equal billing, with murder, arson and secrets, ambushes in dark corners and some strange, scary personalities making this an exciting story which is not to be missed.

Cromwell's rise to power at the Tudor court runs parallel with his family concerns, with the arrival of children and Elizabeth's own business adventures. His mysterious past - as a soldier and adventurer in Italy - is alluded to and even comes in useful. Carol McGrath does an excellent job of portraying the enigma that is Thomas Cromwell; the courtier, soldier and statesman who is also merchant, husband and father. The characters are brought to life in vivid, vibrant detail, creating a tableau that is hard to forget even once the last page has been read.

For several hours, I spoke little and ate sparingly. Father went about the hall speaking with merchants. I wondered how I would manage but knew I must and would. A chair scraped beside me, jolting me out of my thoughts. I felt a light touch on my elbow and glanced up. The feast was ending. My merchant had left his place. Gone to the privy, no doubt. Instead, Father stood by my chair, with Master Cromwell by his side.

'Lizzy, Master Cromwell is my new cloth middle-man. He would like you to show him your bombazine cloth. He has admired your mourning gown.'

I started. This was nothing new. Father always employed different cloth middlemen to sell his fabrics to Flanders, thinking each one better than the last but today, at my husband's funeral it was not seemly. Master Cromwell was watching me through eyes of an unusual shade, not quite blue or grey.

He bowed and said, 'Forgive me for staring, Mistress Williams, but you see I knew you as a child. Your father used our fulling mill in Putney.' He smiled at Father.

That was why he was familiar. I stared back, and in a moment or two I had recollected a tough, wicked little boy, some years older than I, who taught me to fish in the river with a string and a hook with a wriggling worm at the end of it.

'I do recollect you, Master Cromwell. We played together as children,' I said, feeling my mouth widen into a smile. 'Father sent your father our cloth to be washed, beaten, prepared and softened for sale. I remember climbing trees and stealing apples. You led me astray.'

Elizabeth Cromwell herself is a wonderful, strong character, facing the prejudices of the merchant class and her own family in order to take some control over her life. And The Woman in the Shadows will make you want to know more Although a history buff would know what is to become of Cromwell and Elizabeth, the author cleverly manages to avoid inserting any hindsight into the story. If you don't know what becomes of the characters, you will soon be scouring the history books for the true story.

Carol McGrath's wonderful novel transports you through time and space to the streets of London and Northampton at the height of Henry VIII's magnificent reign. With colourful, vivid imagery she recreates a world and its people which has been otherwise lost through the centuries. The city, the characters and the lifestyle have been brought back to life, recreating the vibrant world in which Thomas Cromwell would eventually rise to be the king's chief statesman. The story follows Elizabeth's life; her family, her business and her husband, cleverly demonstrating how these are affected and changed by her husband's inexorable rise to power.

The attention to detail is phenomenal, showing many of the social conventions of the time, while not detracting from the story, nor making the reader feel like they're in a lecture on social history. It paints a fascinating tableau of merchant life in Tudor London, portraying the struggles and successes facing a widow trying to keep her business going in a man's world. Rich in detail in every aspect, Carol McGrath's meticulous research has produced a novel which plunges the reader into the middle of Elizabeth's household in Tudor London. From funeral and marriage arrangements, births and christenings, to the contents of a Tudor garden and the conduct of the cloth trade, The Woman in the Shadows acts as a window into Tudor merchant society.

If you liked Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall you will love The Woman in the Shadows by Carol McGrath.. It shows the human side of the Cromwell family and is a treat for any lover of historical fiction, and especially for a fan of Tudor history. It is a novel not to be missed, and which must be devoured for both the meticulous detail and the wonderful story - especially the story.






About the author: Carol McGrath has an MA in Creative Writing from The Seamus Heaney Centre, Queens University Belfast, followed by an MPhil in Creative Writing from University of London. The Handfasted Wife, first in a trilogy about the royal women of 1066 was shortlisted for the RoNAs in 2014. The Swan-Daughter and The Betrothed Sister complete this best-selling trilogy. The Woman in the Shadows, a novel that considers Henry VIII’s statesman, Thomas Cromwell, through the eyes of Elizabeth his wife, will be published on August 4^th, 2017. Carol is working on a new medieval Trilogy, The Rose Trilogy, set in the High Middle Ages.  It subject matter is three linked medieval queens, sometimes considered ‘She Wolves’. She speaks at events and conferences on the subject of medieval women, writing Historical Fiction, The Bayeux Tapestry, and Fabrics, Tapestry and Embroidery as incorporated into fiction. Carol was the co-ordinator of the Historical Novels Association Conference, Oxford in September 2016 and reviews for the HNS.  Find Carol on her website: www.carolcmcgrath.co.uk. The Woman in the Shadows is available to purchase at http://tinyurl.com/yd3ylc2b  

About the The Reviewer: Sharon Bennett Connolly has been fascinated by history for over 30 years.

She has studied history at university and worked as a tour guide at several historic sites. She has lived in Paris and London before settling down back in a little village in her native Yorkshire, with husband James and their soon-to-be-teenage son.

Sharon has been writing a blog entitled 'History...the Interesting Bits' for a little over 2 years and has just finished her first non-fiction work, 'Heroines of the Medieval World'. The book looks at the lives of the women – some well known and some almost forgotten to history – who broke the mould; those who defied social norms and made their own future, consequently changing lives, society and even the course of history. It is due to be published by Amberley on 15th September 2017. It is now available for pre-order from Amberley, Book Depository and  Amazon.

Sharon can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.