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Showing posts from September, 2014

Xena Warrior Princess v Patient Griselda: Feisty Heroines in Historical Fiction

I had a wonderful time at the Historical Novel Society Conference in London last weekend (5-7 September 2014). There were some great panels and workshops, and it was lovely to meet old friends and make new ones.    One of the workshops I attended was “Feisty Heroines and Dutiful Wives” which looked at the challenges of writing about women in history when their lives were so often constrained by prevailing custom, ideology and law. The panellists were Jessie Burton ( The Miniaturist ), Kate Forsyth (best-selling author of thirty books including The Wild Girl and Bitter Greens ) and Professor Diana Wallace ( Professor of English Literature at the University of South Wales, The Woman's Historical Novel ) .   It was a topic that interested me because most of my stories have a male leading character. This surprises even me sometimes! After all, my main perspective in history and literature is a feminist one, and my literary giants are Frances Burney, Mary Wollstonecraft, Charlo