Why I read... and other stories

Since I published The Solace of the Common People at the end of last year, I've spent a lot of time thinking about what other people like to read. I know what I like: historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and a bit of war writing thrown in for good measure. But I also belong to two book groups so read a lot of other stuff as well. I decided it was time share.

The Solace of the Common People combines genres that I am passionate about. It appears to be historical fiction, it world-builds like historical fiction, and I have done everything I can to make the Ricardian age the novel invents as authentic as possible. King Richard III, stepping into the imaginary, following his win at Bosworth, encounters all the same political, social and cultural problems that faced the 'real life' Henry Tudor. The people of distinction, the movers and shakers of the era, are the same irrespective of who is king. So I had to recreate the 15th and 16th centuries, making them as real as possible, as brash, bawdy and brutal as the period was.

But the novel is also a fantasy. Richard III died on 22nd August 1485. Consequently, the character I have created must be a complete work of fiction. I have tried to make him believable. He is flawed as we all are, and faces many challenges. But he is fantasy, even as he inhabits an approximation of the real world. This is reinforced by my parallel near-future plot line in which Richard's descendant awaits his coronation, the shadow of the past upon him. This is alternative history, technically a branch of science fiction. So a lot of different genre boxes are ticked.

In this blog I am going to share some of my literary passions, a broad range of genres and forms, structures and styles. Novels are the best thing. They take us to other worlds. They allow us to travel anywhere while sitting still. They make us laugh and cry and examine ourselves and the world around us. And novels have been doing that for a long time. So let's get started...