I started writing historical fiction because I ran out of "modern" themes for books. My main character is usually a girl of 15, and when I was writing "modern", practically everything that can happen to a 15-year-old had already happened in one of my books: teenage pregnancy, the dangers of the internet, unhappy families, best friends – all what is known as "issue" books.
I couldn't think of what I was going to write about next. A completely imagined world, a dystopian world, did not attract me at all, I wanted to stay with real life. I also liked the idea of someone reading a book, being entertained and enthralled by it – and also finding out some truths along the way, like what it was like to live in the year of the Great Plague, or to escape from the Great Fire of London, to meet a highwayman, to act on the London stage in the 17th century or to be hanged for a crime you didn't commit. Suddenly I had lots of new and exciting subjects to write about.
My new book, The Disgrace of Kitty Grey, is set at the time of Jane Austen. I usually have a real person (Dickens, Pepys, Charles II) appear in my books but, instead of having the great lady herself make an entrance, I decided that my main character, a housemaid named Kitty, could travel to London to purchase a copy of Pride and Prejudice for the family she works for (the book was published exactly 200 years ago, as I'm sure you will know by now). Naturally, things go very wrong for Kitty and she ends up being sent to Newgate Prison and then put on a ship bound for Australia with a hundred or so other girls. This happened to be perfectly true; the idea was that the girls would be chosen by sailors who'd get them pregnant en route, so the ship would arrive with double the number it had set sail with. An easy way of increasing the population of Botany Bay. Unless, of course, you didn't wish to be chosen!
There are lots of fantastic historical fiction books around at the moment, and here are a few of my favourites:
It was this book which really started me on historical fiction. I wanted to try to emulate Celia's wonderful feat in making Mary (the Witch Child of the title) so realistic. But not in a sprinkly-magic, ethereal way, but in a mud and warts real historical way. I read it and felt immediately that yes, this is the way it must have been for those who were accused of being witches. I love the beginning, too, the old quilt and the "story within a story"; it really has the ring of truth to it.
The Mourning Emporium by Michelle Lovric
I wanted to read this as soon as I heard the title. I love the idea of mourning emporiums (historically, stores which sold nothing but mourning clothes and accessories) and wanted to see how another author would fit them into a book. The story had me on the edge of my seat: it's a sparkling, whirling mass of a book, different from any other historical fiction you'll read. It takes place in a sort of alternative Venice and moves to London, and there's a great cast of characters including mermaids, a clever cat and a whimsical and wonderful talking dog. Ingenious!
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
This was written in the late 1940s, is set between the two world wars, and is about an impoverished yet happy and loving family living in a tumbledown castle. It's both quirky and down-to-earth, with a mildly eccentric narrator who is just the sort of girl you'd like to have for your best friend. The romantic plot is carefully constructed and – hurray – the ending is not tied up, so you can make up your own mind about what the lovely Cassandra does next.
The Girl in the Mask by Marie-Louise Jensen
Lots of swash-buckling, derring-do and gentleman suitors in a helter-skelter adventure about a teenage girl who kicks against convention, makes friends with unsuitable people and climbs out of her bedroom window at night to go a-roving while dressed as a highwayman. Set in Bath, there's a wicked aunt, a beast of a father and a real political background to this book - and not a trace of the sedate Jane.
All Fall Down by Sally Nicholls
The theme of this book is the Black Death of 1349, which was even deadlier than the Great Plague of 1665. This is one girl – Isabel's - heart-rending yet never overly-sentimental story about her fight to stay alive. Realistic and believable, it catches the sense of dread as the death creeps ever-nearer and Isabel tries to do the best for the family she has left. Heartfelt and touching.
Have you got an historical fiction recommendation to share? Email us at childrens.books@theguardian.com and we'll add it below.
