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.
Then it was the village garden and produce show. I always try to get involved in community events. The cooking classes were clearly a non-starter. I hadn’t had time to create something crafty. As my garden is a wasteland, being as it is mid re-vamp, plant and vegetable classes were challenging. Fortunately I could fall back on my herb garden, which was made-over last year. So second prize for a posy of herbs, or Tuzzy-Muzzy as we say, I’ll take that. I am sure I should be Daisy writing rather than blog writing so that’s it for today. I wonder if I can get another chapter finished amongst two talks to present in two days and the return of the job we must not mention.
So what has this week brought? A hedgehog joining the two frogs who are crazy enough to inhabit the scummy indentation that passes for a pond in my garden. Luckily this hedgehog was not actually in the pond, though others of its species passed that way, with unfortunate results, before I inserted an escape route. The garden revamp is progressing slowly. I have (that would be the royal I) reclaimed three foot of garden by decimating the privet hedge. I have also had fun creating a nature book for my descendants. I seem to have photographs of quite a number of unidentifiable plants and birds. The latter are mostly waterfowl that do not feature in my not-so-comprehensive ‘Birds of Britain and Europe’ book. Do the authors not know how inconvenient this is?
All this meeting and chatting with other authors is a wonderful way of procrastinating but I really have made some #daisy progress; honestly. First a foray round some impressive Victorian villas, trying to identify which one my character may have been working in during the 1890s. Once again I find myself peering at people’s properties, taking notes and photographs and arousing suspicion. It seems that the name of the house concerned once applied to several homes and then in the twentieth century referred to a different dwelling entirely. There really should be a law preventing people from changing the names of their homes. Of course the bottom line is that, for the purposes of fiction, its doesn’t really matter which house it was but actually it so does. Now off to write 100 times ‘I can pretend it is any house I wish’ but it still matters! I have roughed out a chronology and done some more research to extend the biographies of some of my characters and since you asked 3500 – ok, I know that isn’t much but I have been very busy sewing shifts for 
The History Interpreter - Janet Few 