‘She had shot her husband dead’

Books Don't miss out on the headlines from Books. Followed categories will be added to My News. Hilary Mantel once called historical fiction writers “resurrectionists”.

Our remit is to breathe life and spirit into the long-dead past, its landscapes, events, and most of all, its people. We must transport our readers into the world of our characters, speaking with an authority and with (seeming) authenticity, but without undue authorial intrusion upon the story. A novel like this is not a history lesson, although my readers are always fascinated to learn the nuggets I manage to unearth about a particular time and place.

When Elmore Leonard said he aimed to leave out the bits people skip, he must surely have included the mini-history lecture that screams “I must tell you all about my research!” This does little to serve the reader, except as a sleeping aid or as a place to put down the book and make a refreshing cup of tea. ‘She had shot her husband’ ..

. one of Christine Wells’ historical novels takes in the extraordinary case of Princess Marie Marguerite Fahmy. See the video above for more.

I love history because history is all about people, and people are endlessly fascinating. It’s almost always a person who first draws me into a particular historical period or event. When I first found out that Christian Dior’s sister, Catherine, was a heroine of the French Resistance, I became obsessed with discovering more about her story.

That obsession inspired my novel.