Day twenty of the ‘advent calendar’ focusing on some of the historical/genealogical sources that I used in the writing of Barefoot on the Cobbles.

I am an inveterate reader of historical novels but one of the things that is likely to make me abandon a book halfway through is the use of inappropriate language. By this I don’t mean a text that is peppered with swear words; I am referring to novels that include words, phrases, metaphors or idioms that were not in use at the time. Novels I have rejected include a book set in 1800 that mentioned cardigans and suitcases and an early 1900s saga where the characters greeted each other with ‘Hiya’.

The historical novelist has to tread a fine line between accuracy and unintelligibility. A Medieval saga written in Chaucerian language, or a Tudor tale that faithfully reproduces every aspect of Shakespearean dialogue, would be incomprehensible to the majority of readers. Yet getting the language right is an important part of evoking an era. Reading novels, newspaper reports, diaries and letters that were written in the appropriate period can help when an author is trying to get a feeling for the vocabulary and turns of phrase of a time. It is important to remember though, that ordinary people did not speak in the way a novelist would write, in the same way as we do not sound the same when we are chatting to our friends as we would delivering a eulogy or being interviewed for a job.

Avoiding linguistic anachronisms is a vital part of giving an historical novel the right ambience. I use an idiom dictionary and you can also put the phrase and ‘idiom first used’ into the search engine of your choice. These are not infallible but will often quote early uses of the phrase in literature, so that you know you are safe to use it in books set after that point. You can’t ‘paper over the cracks’ until after the 1860s, or play with a ‘doll’ until the eighteenth century (before that it would be a poppet or puppet), yet a ‘millstone round the neck’ is biblical so can be used in all but the earliest historical novels. I had great fun trying to ‘iron out’ (fourteenth century) any inconsistencies in the language that I used.

More information about Barefoot on the Cobbles can be found here. Copies are available at various events and at all my presentations. You can order from Blue Poppy Publishing or directly from me. Kindle editions are available for those in the UK, USA, Australasia and Canada.