Rosemary Morris's Blog – November 2011 Archive (5)

As a historical novelist I enjoy reading about eras which have gone with the wind. I have just re-read The Little Madeleine by Mrs Robert Henrey, which relates the joys and sorrows of Madeleine, a French girl, loved by her mother, who earned a living as a talented seamstress, and her father, ‘a picturesque figure from the Midi.’



"Mrs Henrey’s autobiography is the story of her girlhood in Montmartre and the wasteland near the Paris fortifications, or city walls,…

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I have finished re-reading Madeleine Grown Up. the sequel to The Little Madeleine in which the authoress, Madeleine aka Mrs Robert Henrey, writes of her life as a child in Montmartre and elsewhere in France. Madeleine Grown Up covers the period from 1928 to 1929 when she worked as a manicurist in the Savoy Hotel.  Her observations of life in Stacey Street, where she shared a room with her mother, who continued to work as a dressmaker, are fascinating and so are those of the Savoy, her…

All the good advice given in books on how to write fiction is applicable to writing historical fiction. 

Writers must enjoy writing even when they encounter obstacles.  This is particularly true of writing historical fiction.  Historical novelists require a profound interest in all things historical.

The historical novels that I read more than once sweep me into the activities and ‘mind sets’ in a way which I enjoy. 

When writing historical…

How I Write Historical Fiction

Although there are books on the subject of How To Write Historical Fiction, which are useful, I am sure that novelists develop their own techniques.

I read history books and sooner or later something triggers my imagination.  For example, I read that most of the English nobility disliked James II, his politics and his religion.  After James fled to France, first his older daughter, Mary, and her…