My guest today is Anne Easter Smith. A native of England, Anne spent some of her childhood in Germany and Egypt and the rest at boarding school. She came to the US in the late ‘60s for two years and is still here, living in Newburyport, MA with her husband, Scott. Anne is the author of five novels about the York family in the Wars of the Roses, all published by Touchstone at Simon & Schuster. She has been a secretary, a PBS auction coordinator, the features editor at a daily newspaper, a folksinger and the administrator at a music school. When she is not writing, Anne is usually to be found either acting or directing in community theater productions, beach-walking, practicing yoga, or watching “Mad Men.” Her latest novel, Royal Mistress has just been published and she's here today to share her passion for history, the Ricardian cause and writing with us. Join me and welcome Anne at FLY HIGH!
Welcome to my little corner of the blogosphere, Anne. It’s a pleasure and an honour to have you as my very special guest on FLY HIGH!
This is my first question. I know you love quoting Rudyard Kipling with his “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten." Does that mean we can learn the truth about our past and roots reading historical novels more than or as well as researching on documents?
I wouldn’t say that! Of course you will gain far more by reading the chronicles, letters and histories of the period. But what historical fiction does is bring those people to life and perhaps give you an appetite for doing more research on your own. However, just like watching a bio-pic on TV -- you shouldn’t believe everything you see. I try very hard never to have a person in the wrong place at the wong time--I will do my best to see if there is any evidence that someone was or was not at a certain castle when I want them to be, but I will not mess with history. If I cannot find anything that says Cecily Neville never met Joan of Arc, but the research tells me these two women were in the same building at the same time (one in the royal apartments and the other in the dungeon) then I feel it’s plausible that they did meet. As a reader of Historical Fiction, I think you have to learn to recognize a writer who respects the history rather than one who, with one obvious anachronism, can have me throwing a book across a room! If you question something in an historical novel, then go and seek out the truth in the non-fiction shelves. Fiction is fiction after all!
