by Patricia Bracewell
Publisher: Viking
Release: February 5, 2015
978-0525427278
448 pages
Short note from Wisteria:
Amazing! I first read Shadow of the Crown (The Emma of Normandy Trilogy #1) when it was first released.
I became fascinated with Emma of Normandy and her dominant and sagacious personality. Recently I was asked by Viking Publishers to share a Guest Post by the author, Patricia Bracewell. Please see below. I also have a link she has shared all readers to her Online Book Club for this novel.
I wanted to share my enthusiasm for The Price of Blood immediately. This is a vibrant drama that pulls from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles a portrayal of Emma of Normandy from A.D. 1006-A.D.1012. As the author notes, her presence was there when Vikings ravaged the English realm. This is the second book in the trilogy and sadly, my anxiety will have to wait for the last book. Perhaps, a bit of meditation will help. In the meantime, I might have to re-read both books. The Price of Blood begins with Emma the Queen of King AEthelred. She has little power in her own right, as women are considered pawns in a chess game. However, she hopes that the alliances she creates with the strong clergy and others will serve to enhance her power. It is for her children that she is most worried. Her marriage to Aethelred was arranged, her worth valued by her ability to produce sons. Her tenacity, patience and keen wisdom are tested, for she also is in love with a prince. A prince who the king believes would like nothing better than to unseat him. I most highly recommend this second book in the trilogy.
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Loving Research (for
Bookworm’s Dinner)
by Patricia Bracewell
"I’m going to share with
you a little secret about researching a historical novel: Novelists LOVE the
research. We swoon over it, bathe in it, and struggle to tear ourselves away
from it long enough to write our books. There. Now you know.
My own research process, I
regret to admit, is helter-skelter.
Most of it is done at my desk or in a university library taking notes on
whatever academic tome is open in front of me. Often there are several books
open at once, scattered on the table and even on the floor when I run out of
room.
Sometimes I’ve been more
creative: I’ve taken a summer course in Anglo-Saxon history at Cambridge
University; I’ve exchanged e-mails with a thatcher in England; I’ve gazed
across a tea table at an eminent historian of Anglo-Saxon textiles and whispered,
“Let’s talk about medieval women’s undergarments.”
I was very shy about
approaching experts to ask for help when I first began my research. I’m less so
now. Having a novel published in four languages has done wonders for my
self-confidence.
Some of my research is
done on the internet: consulting databases of articles about the Anglo-Saxons;
studying Old English charters; or exploring the histories of places that I want
to use as settings – whether towns, villages, ancient pathways or stone
circles.
The facts about people’s
lives, though, are not so easy to come by a thousand years on. For example, we
know the names of King Æthelred’s children, but not much more than that. The
dates of their births are historical guesses, not facts. The eldest son,
Athelstan, left a will, and every single thing that we know about him is
contained in that 2-page list of bequests. It isn’t much.
Academics are willing to
speculate a bit about the activities of the historical figures of England’s 11th
century, based on whatever tiny hints they can glean from the historical record
– the chronicles, the charters, the wills, even the Norse sagas. Information in
such documents, though, is often contradictory, leaving even the historians puzzled
about what actually happened. And then there’s the when and the how and the why
to try to establish. That’s where a novelist can give her imagination free
reign while an academic has to be more guarded. For the fiction writer, that’s
where the fun comes in.
Researching
Emma’s life during the years covered by my trilogy, especially in Shadow on the Crown and The Price of Blood, was difficult because
there is almost no record of her at all in those years. Her name is mentioned a
few times in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and she signs several charters,
indicating that she was at court beside the king on those occasions. One
charter in 1012 is a grant of land from the king to Emma, so historians
conjecture that she gave birth to a son at about that time. But where was she
the rest of the time and what was she doing? Because there was no other direct
reference to Emma, all I could do was bury myself in the history of and make
some conjectures of my own based on what I was able to learn about a queen’s
duties and Emma’s later career.
Frequently
the vagueness of historical records forced me to invent. For instance, the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle claimed that the Danes attacked London several times in
1009, and that the Londoners always repelled them. But there was no description
of what, exactly, happened when the Danes attacked. I had to make it up based
on my imagination and what I could learn of the military tactics of the time.
Sometimes
I’ve discovered a tiny bit of information that I find really intriguing, and
then I spend a lot of mental effort trying to figure out how to use it in my
story. I wanted to use that gift of property from the king to Emma in 1012 that
I mentioned above, but I couldn’t make it work. It just didn’t fit anywhere. The
information that the thatcher sent me resulted in a terrific scene, but it was
cut in a late draft. When I was at Gladstone’s Library in Wales a few months
ago I learned something fascinating about Swein Forkbeard (not saying what),
and now I’m trying desperately to find a way to include it in the next book. I
guess you could call that the heartbreak of research – all those lovely bits
that don’t make it into the novel. Research – much as we love it, sometimes we
have to let it go."
(by Patricia Bracewell courtesy of Meredith Burks, Viking Press)
Just fyi Pat will be tweeting out interesting #AngloSaxonFact throughout February. You can follow her at @PatBracewell.
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View all my review on Goodreads
Disclosure: This book was sent to me for review and possible post by Henry Holt and Company. This is my unbiased personal review.
© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2015]. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner] with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
