It’s festival time again!
Why a tiny island leads the way in historical writing
Call me lucky if you like. Sensible may be a better word. Or perhaps inspired.
When the urge to escape traffic jams, UK politics and dire economic forecasting landed me and my wife Lynda on a five-and-a-bit square mile island just off the Normandy coast, I knew full well we’d find peace and deserted beaches to walk the dogs.
And time to write.
I also knew that Alderney punched way above its weight (or acreage) in the literary festival department.
And now that moment is about to arrive.
Luck has held and for a few weeks now I’ve been a happy volunteer for the Alderney Literary Festival which kicks off on Friday and surges through the theme Mistaken History: historical narrative versus historical truth for the entire weekend.
Established authors taking part include bestselling crime and historical novelist Andrew Taylor, author of The Shadows of London (just out).
Andrew’s a bestselling crime and historical novelist and I look forward to meeting him. He has won the Diamond Dagger of the Crime Writers Association, the Gold Crown of the Historical Writers Association, and many other awards. He has written over 50 books, including TV storylines (Bergerac), children & young adult books, novellas, and short stories, three of which have been televised.
Here's a BBC radio interview with him a few days ago when those lovely people at our local Beeb station were so helpful and have broadcast several interviews. Slide the seek bar to around the 16-minute spot.
Gratitude to the BBC for permission to use this. Note that Andrew says he was in his thirties when he realised that if he didn’t do it then he probably never would. Wish I could turn back time but it’s never too late!
‘Shadows’ is the sixth novel in the sequence that started with the Great Fire of London in the 17th Century, a fascinating period which Andrew says was the first time that women could play a role in society and business. That makes it so relevant as many women today are still seeking equality.
There’s more to come as BBC, ITV, Alderney’s local station QuayFM and all the local papers climb on board with their love of all that’s fresh and exciting in the world of historical writing. Watch out for more interviews in the next few days.
If you’ve got time to listen to another BBC broadcast, especially if you’re a fan of the world’s greatest fairy tales (and who isn’t?), go here and slide to around 17.30 on the seek bar (just after Take That!). Nick Jubber started out as a teacher in Jerusalem after leaving uni and worked up a huge interest in fairy tales and folklore in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and India.
He’s the author of five non-fiction books and a winner of the Dolman Travel Book Award. His journeys have taken him across the Middle East to Ethiopia in search of a mythical priest-king, across Afghanistan in the wake of a medieval poet, around the Sahara with nomadic communities and across Europe in the slipstream of its epic tales.
In The Fairy Tellers he tracks a soldier-of-fortune in 17th century Italy who fought against the Ottomans and drank at the same bars as Caravaggio, and a Russian dissident involved in a plot to assassinate the Tsar – just two of the many stories behind our most iconic fairy tales, people who lived lives as dramatic as the stories they wrote. A great work that takes us from medieval times to the development of the children’s book industry in the nineteenth century.
Another visitor to our island this weekend is Christina Ezrahi, an award-winning historian of Soviet cultural politics and Russian ballet. Her novel, Dancing for Stalin, is the true story of dancer and choreographer Nina Anisimova who disappeared in 1938 at the height of Stalin’s Great Terror yet miraculously survived the Soviet gulag.
There’s also a strong Channel Islands emphasis when José Day, daughter of Guernsey’s Louis Guillemette OBE (1910-1977), and Ken Tough, former H.M. Greffier and Occupation Historian, provide fascinating insights from Guillemette’s diary – he was Assistant Secretary to the Bailiff at the outbreak of war, then appointed Secretary to its President, a position which he held throughout the Occupation.
The World War II theme is continued with a talk by Julia Boyd, author of the Sunday Times bestseller Travellers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism through the Eyes of Everyday People and A Village in the Third Reich: How Ordinary Lives were Transformed by the Rise of Fascism.
Carl Graves, Director of the Egypt Exploration Society, will unveil the first colour version of Amelia B. Edwards’ A Thousand Miles up the Nile, first published 140 years ago, and tell the story of this remarkable woman and her legacy to British Egyptology.
And Anne Sebba, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and author of eleven books about iconic women, will tell the story of Ethel Rosenberg who with her husband Julius was sent to the electric chair in 1953 in the United States for allegedly spying for the Soviet Union, despite very questionable evidence.
Find out more about the Festival here and about our amazing island here.
This island gives me rich pickings for me as an author as I’m now well into my next series exploring the reasons Caesar decided to have a pop at Britannia midway through the first century BCE, advancing my favoured themes of ancient politics, naval tactics and a spot of military argy-bargy. This time with added Celtic mysticism which will no doubt please my sister Indira and my wife Lynda. The Big Question is, did Julius Caesar ever visit Alderney? Give me a few months to write the story, or to put it another way, wait and see.
The first in the new series will explore Celtic-Roman tensions and some tasty tussles between grown men who should know better and some clever ladies who do know better.
Watch this space and catch up on my novels so far here.
So much to take on board in this post, Alistair, I’m saving the BBC clips to enjoy in a moment of leisure.