Top Ten New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2022

I definitely read more new authors than familiar ones in 2022, and I’m planning to keep that going in 2023. Here’s my pick of the bunch…

Karen Joy Fowler

Who’s she? An American author of literary fiction, sci-fi and fantasy.

What did I read? ‘We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves’ – a story about a young woman whose sister mysteriously disappeared during childhood.

What do I want to read next? I’ll probably go for her most well-known novel – ‘The Jane Austen Book Club’.

Philippa Gregory

Who’s she? Only the queen of historical fiction.

What did I read? ‘The Queen’s Fool’ – the story of a teenage girl who becomes involved in a Tudor power struggle.

What do I want to read next? ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ is her most well-known novel but I’m more drawn to ‘Tidelands’ – a novel set in 1648, about a woman suspected of being a witch.

Peter Carey

Who’s he? An award-winning Australian author. He is frequently named as Australia’s next contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

What did I read? ‘True History of the Kelly Gang’ – a fictionalised account of the life of Australian outlaw Ned Kelly.

What do I want to read next? ‘Parrot and Olivier in America’ – strange adventures, an unlikely friendship, and an exploration of American democracy from the perspective of outsiders.

Zoraida Córdova

Who’s she? An Ecuadorian-American author, best known for her ‘Brooklyn Brujas’ series.

What did I read? ‘Labyrinth Lost’ – a YA fantasy about a young bruja who casts a spell with dire consequences and has to rescue her family from a strange world.

What do I want to read next? ‘Bruja Born’ – the next book in the ‘Brooklyn Brujas’ series.

Noel Streatfeild

Who’s she? A British author who published children’s and adults’ fiction from the 1930s to the 1970s.

What did I read? ‘Ballet Shoes’ – the story of three very different sisters who take to the stage to earn some much-needed money.

What do I want to read next? ‘Ballet Shoes’ was such a cute, feel-good story that I’d like to read another book in the series like ‘Tennis Shoes’ or ‘Party Shoes’.

Douglas Stuart

Who’s he? A Scottish-American writer (and fashion designer).

What did I read? ‘Shuggie Bain’ – a novel about a young boy growing up in Scotland, and his mother’s struggle with alcoholism.

What do I want to read next? Stuart hasn’t written many novels, but ‘Young Mungo’ – the story of a Protestant boy and a Catholic boy falling in love on a Glasgow housing estate – definitely sounds worth a read.

Rachel Klein

Who’s she? An American novelist, essayist and translator.

What did I read? ‘The Moth Diaries’. Written in diary form, this novel explores the experiences of an intelligent, troubled teenage girl, and her obsession with Ernessa – the new girl at school who may or may not be a vampire.

What do I want to read next? As far as I can tell, ‘The Moth Diaries’ is the only novel Klein has written. Maybe I can find some of her short stories to read.

Ben Macintyre

Who’s he? A British historian and writer of non-fiction books, mostly about soldiers and spies.  

What did I read? ‘SAS: Rogue Heroes’ – the absolutely barmy story of the formation of the SAS in World War II.

What do I want to read next? It’ll have to be ‘Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle’. One of the main players from ‘SAS: Rogue heroes’ ended up in this POW camp and I want to find out what happened to him there.

Melissa Harrison

Who’s she? A British novelist and nature writer.

What did I read? ‘All Among the Barley’ – the story of a teenage girl and her rural community in the 1930s.

What do I want to read next? ‘The Stubborn Light of Things’ – a nature diary written in Harrison’s beautiful, unshowy prose sounds blissful.

Agatha Christie

Who’s she? You know who she is. Literally the world’s best-selling author of all time.

What did I read? I’m embarrassed to admit I got to my mid-thirties before reading an Agatha Christie, but at least I started with a good one. I read ‘Murder on the Orient Express’, in which detective Hercule Poirot must solve a murder on a train while the murderer is still aboard.

What do I want to read next? There are plenty of novels to choose from (Christie wrote 66) but I’m drawn to ‘Death on the Nile’ – another Hercule Poirot whodunnit.

Have you read any of these authors? If so, which of their books would you recommend?

You can find more topics for Top Ten Tuesday here.

The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge – Renaissance Reader

Woop woop, I met my goal of 10 historical fiction books this year, which means I’ve reached the “Renaissance Reader” level of the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. The five hist fic books I read since my last reading challenge post are:

(BEWARE OF SPOILERS!)

True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

I picked up this book after enjoying the film adaptation. While I’m well aware that THE BOOK IS ALWAYS BETTER, I must admit that it took a while for me to warm up to this book about the famous Australian outlaw Ned Kelly.

It’s written in long, rambling sentences to reflect Ned Kelly’s lack of formal education, and this distinctive style means it’s not always a smooth read. It’s also difficult to discern the thoughts and motivations of other characters since the reader is kept totally in Ned’s head. Luckily it has enough action, humour and Huck Finn-ish charm to reward perseverance.

Mutiny on the Bounty by John Boyne

Another historical novel based on true events – this one follows a teenage pickpocket as he ends up on HMS Bounty before the infamous mutiny. John Jacob Turnstile is spirited, funny, complex, and generally great company. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of the rest of the characters.

JJT gets bullied relentlessly by the uppity crew of the Bounty, which makes for depressing reading. But arguably the biggest stumbling block in this novel is the portrayal of Captain Bligh – I couldn’t understand JJT’s loyalty to him because he seems like kind of an arsehole. Judging by the mutiny, his crew would agree!

Sailing by Orion’s Star by Katie Crabb

Nautical setting aside, this was a very different read to Mutiny on the Bounty. Rather than a typical swashbuckler, it’s a story about found-family that follows a diverse group of characters as they deal with the restrictions society has placed on them. Some lose their way, while others rebel in spectacular fashion.

The writing is sometimes overwrought, but hopefully this will be less of an issue in the second and third parts of the trilogy, as Crabb gains confidence in her characters and the relationships between them. The story is so genuinely affecting that there’s no need to over-egg the pudding.  

The Pup and the Pianist by Sara Kjeldsen

A pattern emerges! Nautical fiction might seem a bit niche, but I don’t see how anyone can resist a book with a beautiful old ship on the front cover, beckoning the reader to run away to sea.

In less than 100 pages, Kjeldsen crafts an intimate epic of war, young love, and the struggle to survive, as an English boy and a French boy find themselves washed up on The Galapagos islands. An uneasy alliance eventually softens into a tentative romance, but don’t go expecting a happily ever after.

The Queen’s Fool by Philippa Gregory

Philippa Gregory is such a well-known historical fiction writer that I was expecting to be blown away by this. Objectively speaking, I can see what all the fuss is about. The historical detail is rich, the pacing is exemplary and the court intrigue is, well, intriguing.

Subjectively speaking, I think there are two reasons why this book didn’t wow me. The first is my squeamishness with all the “wooing” of adolescent girls by grown men. The second is that the central characters are so well known, the author’s personal interpretation of them can be a little jarring.

Like most English schoolkids, I learnt of “Bloody Mary”, burning Protestants at the stake, and “the Virgin Queen” ruling England well and wisely. So it was odd to see Mary presented as a sympathetic character and Elizabeth presented as a scheming flirt. In future, I’ll go for hist fic books about invented characters, or ones I can’t remember from history lessons.

Have you read any of these? And what hist fic books would you recommend?

The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge – Victorian Reader

I’ve read five historical fiction books so far this year, which means I’ve reached the “Victorian Reader” level of the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. The three that I’ve read since my last reading challenge post are…

The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein

Yes, it’s a YA horror novel, but it also counts as historical fiction since it was published in 2002 and it’s set in the early 1970s (judging by the references to the Vietnam war, bell bottoms, and Cat Stevens).

If you start this novel expecting a sapphic Twilight, you’ll be in for a surprise. It’s more like The Bell Jar with a supernatural twist. It takes a deep-dive into the mind of an intelligent, troubled girl, and explores her obsession with a classmate whom she suspects of being a vampire.

It’s intense, thoughtful, occasionally over-intellectual, and it wholeheartedly embraces ambiguity. Is Ernessa really a vampire? Is the narrator having a nervous breakdown? Is she in love with her best friend? Every question is thoroughly explored, but never truly answered, in the claustrophobic atmosphere of a girls’ boarding school.

So Many Beginnings by Bethany C. Morrow

This “remix” of Little Women (Authors are always remixing and retelling and reimagining, and never admit that they are literally publishing fanfiction) imagines the March sisters as four newly emancipated Black girls in the colony of Roanoke, North Carolina. The civil war is raging around them, and they are determined to build lives of their own making.

Being a white girl from Britain, I’m pretty clueless about African American history, and this was an eye-opener for sure. Racism and the after-effects of slavery impact every aspect of the girls’ lives, from Bethlehem’s health to Joanna’s writing career. This makes for a very different story to Little Women, as the “burdens” the girls carry are external rather than internal.

It’s not a perfect book. The male characters are thinly drawn, and a few inevitable anachronisms creep in. But it’s full of love and rage, and a true celebration of sisterhood. Two more things I loved:

1. Joanna’s portrayal as asexual/aromantic. These words aren’t used of course, but it’s made clear in conversation with Meg and in her relationship with Lori. As an aro-ace woman I usually have to seek out representation, but to find it right there waiting for me in a character I’ve always identified with felt like a gift.

2. The last line. OMG, you’re gonna cry (happy tears).

All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison

Told from the perspective of fourteen-year-old Edie, this starts out as an evocative, unsentimental picture of life in rural England in the 1930s. It’s also a comedy of manners, with city slicker Connie being entertainingly clueless about the realities of rural life.

But about halfway through it becomes something different and more unsettling. People who seemed harmless are suddenly a genuine threat. Quaint traditions like witch bottles take on a new significance.

Maybe it’s just because I read the two close together, but I couldn’t help but notice similarities with The Moth Diaries. Once again, the protagonist is a thoughtful teenage girl of ambiguous sexuality and wobbly mental health. Once again, the lines between natural and supernatural blur. And once again, antisemitism rears its ugly head.

So, quite by accident I’ve ended up reading three female-focussed coming-of-age stories. I feel like I should balance it out with some stories about old dudes. If you have any historical fiction recs where the protagonist is an elderly gent, please leave them in the comments!

The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge – 20th Century Reader

This year I am taking part in the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2022, hosted here. There are six different levels to aim for, and they are:

• 20^th Century Reader – 2 books
• Victorian Reader – 5 books
• Renaissance Reader – 10 books
• Medieval – 15 books
• Ancient History – 25 books
• Prehistoric – 50+ books

Since historical fiction books are often chunky beasts, and since I don’t want to read only historical fiction this year, I’m going to aim for the Renaissance Reader level. I’ve now hit the 20^th Century Reader level, and here are the books I read…

The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett

You know how I was saying historical fiction books are chunky? This one is 897 pages. It spans the years 997 to 1006, so it’s all Anglo Saxons, Normans and Vikings. It follows a boatbuilder, a noblewoman and a monk as their lives intertwine, and they contend with a Machiavellian bishop.

There’s a lot to like about this novel. It has a consistently engaging plot, full of twists, turns and intrigue. It doesn’t present a sanitised version of the past (slaves are pimped out, criminals are castrated) and there’s no silly straightwashing either (one of the main characters is gay and there are plenty of other queer characters).

Unfortunately, the depth of world-building and plot leaves the characters looking rather shallow, and I wanted more nuance from them. Also, I’m not entirely sold on Ken Follett’s style – too much exposition made me feel like I was getting a history lesson at times. I enjoyed reading this book, but it didn’t linger in my mind afterwards.

The Fortune of War by Patrick O’Brian

I can’t write anything sensible about Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series because I love it too much. Instead, here are my five favourite things about this novel (mild SPOILERS):

1. Jack Aubrey’s hat gets eaten by a wombat in chapter one. Stephen Maturin is more concerned with his wombat’s digestion than Jack’s hat. These books are so f*cking funny and I always forget that until I start reading one.
2. There are a couple of actual, honest-to-God murders. In a series full of battles and bloodshed, these somehow manage to be shocking.
3. Jack and Stephen call each other “brother” all the time, which I guess is just the 19^th century equivalent of “bro”, but it hits those found-family feels all the same.
4. Stephen’s relationship with Diana Villiers is … rekindled? No, not exactly. Interesting stuff happens.
5. The battles. OMG, the battles.

I need three more hist fic books to reach the Victorian Reader level, and any recommendations will be gratefully received. Is anyone else doing the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge?

Historical Fiction – How “Modern” Should the Characters Be?

I’ve been living in the past lately. Why wouldn’t I, when there’s so much fabulous historical fiction around? Between The Murder Next Door, HMS Expedient and Nights at the Circus, I’ve not read anything set later than 1912 in quite a while.

Writing characters from another time can be difficult. You don’t want to take readers out of the story by having characters do or say things that are obviously anachronistic. You also don’t want readers to start hating the characters because they’ve said or done things that are completely objectionable to a modern audience (unless they’re the villain, of course).

So how modern should we make them? I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer to this question, but here are some of my thoughts. Feel free to add your own in the comments!

Modern characters in period costume

In some historical fiction, the characters act, think and talk very much like modern people. They might use the occasional old-fashioned word like “strumpet” or “consumption” but it’s just window dressing.

Is there anything wrong with this? Not necessarily. If you’re writing a fun, escapist historical romance, a lot of readers will actually be looking for 21^st-century characters enjoying a modern love story, but with corsets and adorably formal language.

If you know that historical accuracy is not a priority for you or your readers, stand your ground against the purists and let your characters be as progressive, sarcastic, outspoken, sex-positive and generally “modern” as you want them to be.

Tread carefully

But what if gritty historical realism is more your style? This is where things get tricky, because you have to look at your characters through two different lenses. The first is their historical context – what were the norms of behaviour in that time and place? The second is the modern context – how will modern readers react to those behaviours?

The number one thing to be careful with is bigotry. We all know that sexist and racist attitudes were more socially accepted in the past, but be wary about how your characters express them. Some useful questions to ask yourself are:

• Are they being hateful, or just ignorant?
• Can their views be challenged in some way?
• Is it necessary? Remember there are other ways of making your characters realistically flawed.

A less obvious thing that 21^st-century readers often have a problem with is passivity. In our modern society, we’re brought up to think of ourselves as masters of our own destiny and act accordingly.

This wasn’t always the case, but readers often still expect characters in historical fiction to shape their own stories. Don’t expect them to empathise with a woman who meekly accepts marriage to a man she hates and doesn’t even bother to have an affair!

Character vs personality

One thing to remember when writing characters from other time periods is that different personality traits were valued at different points in history. In her rather excellent non-fiction book Quiet, Susan Cain argues that “personality” is basically a 20^th-century invention.

Before most people lived in big cities and worked in sales-based economies, “character” was the order of the day, and traits such as being hard-working, honest and modest were valued.

20^th century changes in how people made a living caused a shift in focus from character to personality, and people began to value flashier traits such as confidence, charm and creativity.

Don’t be afraid to write a protagonist “of good character” rather than one with “lots of personality”. Nobody reads Pride and Prejudice and says “If only Mr Darcy were more expressive and a better communicator, I’d like him so much more.”

Context is key

Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that independent female characters, powerful ethnic minority characters or happy LGBT+ characters don’t belong in historical fiction. People have always found ways to overcome societal barriers.

However, it’s important to remember that traits such as strength, power and independence look different in different contexts. Just because a 21^st-century feminist is expected to be outspoken and unfiltered, that doesn’t mean an 18^th-century feminist would act the same way.  

Perhaps she has to be cunning, or even sneaky, to get ahead in the world. Perhaps she has to be more flexible, or more stubborn and determined. Maybe she has to get angry, or maybe it’s vitally important that she doesn’t lose her temper. Don’t ask yourself “What would I do in that situation?”, but “What would I do if I’d grown up in that situation?”

Thanks very much for reading. I’d love to hear your thoughts on character in historical fiction, and I’d also love to get some hist fic recommendations!