Today we are joined by Sandra Worth, the author of the book I reviewed this morning, “Lady of the Roses.” Sandra, thank you for joining us here on Families.com.
I’m impressed with the amount of research that went into this book. Where did you find your information, and how do you keep it all organized?
Thank you, Tristi. I read everything I can get my hands on –biographies, historical texts of the period, articles—whatever is available at university libraries, by purchase, and online. As a result, I have quite a library now, and no more shelf space!
Being historical fiction, there is some leeway for fictional elements to creep into the story. How much of the book would you say is fiction, and how much is actual history, written in a fictional tone?
That’s hard to measure. There’s a great deal of historical fact on every page throughout the novel that the reader may not notice, but Ph.D.s do. If I was going to take a guess, I’d say fifty-fifty fiction and fact. I recently heard back from a notable Ricardian authority that Lady of the Roses had given her a new way to view the events of the 1450’s. Though her knowledge of that period resulted from decades of in-depth study, she had never thought to link the incidents the way I did in my novel. That pleased me immensely. I see what I do as a kind of giant jigsaw puzzle. You have all these pieces and they make no sense because so many bits are missing. You can’t move things around as you’d like, or pretend they didn’t happen, but then you find a way to place them where they’re supposed to be and make sense of why they’re there. It’s like “Aha! or “Eureka!”
I confess, English history confuses me at times, especially when there are so many Edwards and Henrys and Marys and Catherines. Any tips for how to keep it all straight?
In my debut novel I had, I believe, five Edwards at one point! I used nicknames to distinguish between them. One became “Edouard”, another “Edward”, the next one “Ned”, and “Young Edward” – and the fifth escapes me! One of the “John”s became “Jack”, and another “The Friendly Lion” since his emblem was the Silver Lion, and he was first seen through Richard’s childish eyes. You can do it, and you must do it, or the reader will be hopelessly lost.
Thank you for this, Sandra—we’ll continue our chat on Monday morning.
Thank you for joining us for our conversation with author Sandra Worth. If you would like to know more about her, click here.
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