An Interview with Elizabeth Chadwick.

Hi, this is Jo, thrilled to welcome Elizabeth Chadwick to the Word Wenches. Those of us who love medieval novels will be familiar with Elizabeth's detailed, exciting stories.

Jo: Welcome, Elizabeth. Living in England is a huge advantage to a writerof historicals set there. (One reason I'm heading back there.)  Do you live in a very medieval area, or will you disappoint us and confess to a modern flat?

Elizabeth: I live in a 1930's detached house in a village a few miles outside of Nottingham.

Jo: We lived in Nottingham for a few years once. Enjoyed it.

Elizabeth:  Nottingham is on the map for its famous medieval outlaw RobinHood, but due to aggressive rebuilding programmes in the middle of the last century, the city itself doesn't have very much that's medieval. The castle is mostly Georgian (the Medieval one burned down) and only the

gatehouse remains and a few artistic bits of rubble.

Jo: Yes, that does disappoint tourists.

E: The city is built on sandstone and does have an extensive underground cave system, which I featured in Shields of Pride.  Visitors can still see a medieval tannery cave as part of a tour of the underground system.

Nottingham is also supposed to have the oldest pub in England - The Trip to Jerusalem which purports to go back to crusader times, although the claim is disputed.  We have the remains of Sherwood Forest on the doorstep too in the north of the county. Not so far  from where I live is the historic town of Newark where King John died.  I do my weekly shop there and always pass under the shadow of the castle on my way.  Newark has a much older feel than Nottingham and is more picturesque.

Jo: That sounds lovely. (Picture of Newark Castle on the left.)When did you first get the idea of writing historical fiction, and how difficult was it to get from there to your first published book?

E: The seeds were sown when I was around eight years old and we were taught history at school by a particularly enlightened teacher.  She would put the lesson on the blackboard for us to copy out, but once that was done, the dressing up box would come out and we would make up little plays to reinforce what we'd just written down with pupils being chosen to take the parts.  I really loved this aspect of the lesson.  It put me there in the moment.

Jo: That sounds wonderful.

E: The year she taught us, we'd just reached Scottish medieval history, so the plays made the resonances particularly strong.  The next year, we had a different teacher and a different era, and the history didn't quite stick the same.

Jo: What a shame. To show that Elizabeth keeps up the good work, here's a picture of her, her son, and a friend at a Robin Hood pageant. She says on her web page "The photograph right shows myself, my son Simon and my friend Eileen Lewis at The Robin Hood Pageant in Nottingham. My dress is an exact copy of the Herjolfsnes bog dress, discovered in Greenland and dating to the reign of Henry III, possibly earlier. "

E: Then, as a teenager, I fell in love with a guy on an adventure TV programme about the crusades and I so wanted more of him that I began writing and researching my own story. I'd never written anything down before, but I had been telling stories verbally to myself from being three years old, so I was familiar with the structure and pattern of the craft of tale telling. I was also a voracious reader, so I'd absorbed a lot of the 'how to' that way also.   enjoyed my first attempt at novel writing so much that I decided, aged 15, that this was what I wanted to do for a career if I could ever manage it.  The full story is here on my blog.  See what you think of my teenage crush!

Click here.

Jo: What a wonderful story. I was still living in England then. I wonder how I missed that program. So how did the writing career go?

E: My first book was published 17 years later. 

Jo: Faster than me. My first attempt at about 15 was a fairly short medieval romance and I wasn't driven to such intense research. Then I was published 25 years later.

E: Given that I was only 15 when I wrote the first one, I guess part of that time I was becoming an adult.  My perspectives weren't mature when I started out.  I received my share of rejection letters in my teens and twenties, but I was never going to stop writing. It was part of who I was.

Jo: How did you handle rejections?

E: I always saw them as a stepping stone, not a stumbling block.  So what if this one wasn't good enough.  The next one would knock their socks off.  Finally, at 32, I got the call from a leading UK literary agent.  It had been a long apprenticeship, but that first novel won an award and is still in print now, so I guess it was worth the distance.

Jo: You fell in love with the middle ages. Have you every wanted to write in some other time or place?

E:  If I ever changed historical periods, I would probably go earlier.  Arthurian times from a purely Saxon perspective would be  interesting.  I read a lot of Regency novels when I was younger.  I devoured everything that Jane Aiken Hodge wrote, but the research I would need to do to bring myself up to scratch would be daunting.  I've been writing medieval since I was fifteen, so that's a few decades of study under the belt. Occasionally I write contemporary stories for magazines, but they are very much a sideline.

Jo: Is there any other type of fiction you might consider if you absolutely couldn't write the above?

E: I would probably head into fantasy, timeslip or paranormal.  I feel quite at home reading these genres and they frequently have historical elements.  If you banned those as well, I would write erotica.

Jo: It seems to me that though you write medieval women extremely well, you are drawn to tell stories about the medieval warrior. Would you agree? And if so, why?

E: I have to say that it's been  part of my chemistry since birth.  I may be a happily married woman but I empathise well with men.  As a child I was the typical tomboy.  I hated playing with dollies and doing the nurturing thing.  My Christmas present when I was six, was a cowboy outfit and a pairof pistols.  My favourite toys were Lego building bricks and cars.  My Cindy doll was loved, but she was always having exciting adventures.  No shopping and boyfriend stuff for her!  My heroes were the Lone Ranger, William Tell, and Champion the Wonder Horse.  When I played pretend, I usually took a male role.  This wasn't because I thought boys had more fun as opposed to girls, it was that I just felt easy in the role and it suited my interests.

So, when it comes to writing men, I am comfortable.  It's second nature.  And since I write the kind of guys I'm interested in - but trying to stay true to their life and times - it generally translates into the kind of guys my readers are interested in too.

Jo: Your first American publication will be out on September 1st. This is great news for all your fans over here. This is The Greatest Knight, a novel about William Marshal. (I'm glad they've used the British cover, because it's lovely.) I share your admiration for him. When did you first become aware of him? Did you always want to tell his story?

E: I probably became aware of him properly when writing The Champion because he appeared in that novel and it was set in his period.  My novels before that had slightly earlier timelines.  Once I started writing in the later 12th century, he kept cropping up again and again and I began to become very interested in his tale. At the time I was still writing imaginary protagonists and not quite confident enough in myself to tackle something as ambitious as his amazing life story - that was what 'real' novelists did!  I kept waiting for a big name to tackle him and in the meantime I dipped my toe in the water of biographical fiction with Lords of the White Castle.  I discovered that the research wasn't as difficult as I thought, and I loved writing about people who had actually lived.  There was still no sign of anyone writing a big William Marshal novel, so I came to the conclusion it just might have to be me.  I got the go ahead to write two stand alone novels about William's life and embarked on one of the most fascinating journeys of my writing career.

Jo: For those not yet aware of William Marshal, tell us briefly why his story is so compelling.

E: He was the younger son of a court official and destined for the ranks of the ordinary household knights who fuelled greater men's retinues.  But William Marshal was no ordinary hearth knight.  Having narrowly escaped hanging when taken hostage as a little boy, he went on to save the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine and in reward she appointed him tutor in chivalry to her eldest son.  William was a jousting champion par excellence and there was no one to touch his skills. When his lord died, William took the young man's cloak to Jerusalem to lay on the tomb of the Holy Sepulchre.  On his return he served King Henry II faithfully and was the only man ever to unhorse Richard the Lionheart.

William married Isabelle de Clare, a great heiress twenty years younger than him.  I won't go too far into spoilerdom for those who haven't read the novels, but William's career continued to scale great heights despite difficulties with King John, and eventually William ended up saving England from disaster, but at a price.  It was a long way to travel from his minor Wiltshire birthplace to having the responsibility for an entire country on his shoulders.  He is one of England's truly great heroes and his tomb can still be visited at the Temple Church in London.

Jo: Here's a photo of Elizabeth laying flowers at his tomb. I visited his tomb there a few years ago, and paused to pay homage. I gather it's roped off now because of the number of tourists visiting for the Temple Church's connection to The Da Vinci Code.

Of course you do meticulous research, Elizabeth, but you also have a psychic link to the past. Can you tell us a little about that?

E: I am not psychic myself beyond the occasional glimmer, but a close friend, Alison, is.  She has the ability to tune into the people of the past and see their lives as you would see a movie, but with full sensory and emotional input.  Thus she will get smells and tastes, sounds, feelings, motivations. She will see what the people looked like and their personal traits. Obviously we have to factor in margins of error in case her subconscious is interfering - although she does her best to avoid this.  Also if she is tired or unwell the tuning is sometimes off kilter.  I get the work checked out by someone with a degree in medieval cultural studies and she tells me that what is coming through is medieval mindset - not modern.

Jo: This is completely fascinating. I'd love to do this with some of my characters.

E:  We have well over a thousand pages of notes now, going back about five years, and

digital recordings going back around three years.  The sheer amount of data we have amassed builds up into something that speaks for itself.  You can find out a bit more about Alison's skills at my web page here and also at Alison's blog. 

Jo: How often do you do this?

E: About once a fortnight; normally for about two hours at a stretch.  Alison never knows what I am going to ask her (unless of course she sees it in the future - joking!). The questions could be about anything.  One week I might ask her about William Marshal's favourite horse or the best time he had in the year 1190.  Another time I might ask her to take a look at an incident that illustrates the dynamics of the relationship between William and the Young King and I might ask her to see it from both

perspectives i.e. William's and the Young King's.  That way I get a fully  rounded view and can decide from which viewpoint to tell the story and know what the other person is thinking.  It's a wonderful, wonderful resource.

Jo: Do you think many people have that ability? Is it perhaps something that draws a person to write historical fiction? By that I mean that this latent ability expresses itself in the desire to visit and envision one or more periods of the past.

E: I think a lot of people have a certain amount of ability but that often it isn't used and so it withers, or it is used but isn't trained, so it is haphazard.  I think too that some people have more ability than others.  I said on my website it's like being a runner. Everyone can be trained to run faster than they do now, but only those with the right kind of fast twitch muscle are going to find themselves in the final at the Olympic games.

So it is with this ability.  Some are better developed to begin with. Alison  has the necessary fast twitch muscle.  I don't.  Also there are different types of skills - in the same way that a high jumper is not necessarily a top class sprinter. Some psychics will be able to do a similar sort of thing to Alison, and some will work in other areas.  As I say, I am not aware of having much ability myself, but who knows.  I have an open mind.

Jo: This has been wonderful, Elizabeth, and I know our readers will have many questions. I understand you're offering a copy of The Greatest Knight to one of the people who posts a question. What do they have to do to win?

E: I thought it would be useful all round if I asked the World Wenches Blog readers to ask a question they'd like to see on my Living The History Blog - doesn't have to be about William Marshal specifically.  I'll then post another Q and A session later this year.

Jo: What a great idea. But remember, everyone, The Greatest Knight will be on bookstore shelves any day. It is a wonderfully told novel about a fascinating man. Read what Roberta Gellis had to say about it. "'A fine book, beautifully written with marvellously drawn characters and historically accurate in its main events. A poignant tale of the tragedy wrought by religious fanaticism and the triumph of the human spirit.'  Thank you for this interview, Elizabeth.

E: Many thanks to the Word Wenches for having me!

Jo: So, when this interview goes up I'll be on the road again, somewhere between Quebec City and St. John, New Brunswick, so I may not be able to check in as often as I'd like, but Elizabeth will be here to respond to questions. I'm sure you have many, especially about the middle ages.

 

Some readers don't want to read medieval books. If you're one, why is that? if medievals are your favorites, why is that? Do you have a question about medieval life you've always wanted to have answered? Try it here.

And it's not that long before the re-publication of my first novel, the classic Regency romance, Lord Wraybourne's Betrothed.

Cheers,

Jo :)

Comments

[Binnie Syril Braunstein]

Jo -

Thanks for the lovely interview with Elizabeth Chadwick. Eliabeth - you have been one of my favorite historical authors ever since I had the privelege of reading The Wild Hunt. In addition to plot, character, setting and history, I was most impressed at being able to lose myself in your words, and to discover a sense of the grittiness of everyday life in medieval times.

Best -

Binnie Syril Braunstein

[Jo Beverley]

This is Jo in New Brunswick, heading off soon. As I'm on the road and Elizabeth is in England, the responses may not be on the usual pattern, but over two days it'll all work out.

Talk to you when I can,

Jo :)

[MJ]

Jo: Thanks for the great interview. Safe travels!

Elizabeth: I'm so happy your books will be published here in the U.S. I love everything about the medieval time period! I have a couple of questions that I can't get a good sense of living here in Texas and having never been to Britain. Distances ARE much bigger here in Texas!

If you could give me your best guess: with time being of the essence (and commanded by Eleanor of Aquitaine to make all haste), approximately how long would it take a retinue of knights accompanying a young lady to travel from Shrewsbury to London in 1153? Would she be riding astride or in a litter? (I believe sidesaddles came into being much later.)

Thanks!

[Anne Stuart]

Fascinating. I love the medieval period myself, though my stuff isn't meticulously researched because history tends to be a framework rather than an integral part.
Have you ever tried to tap into your own psychic ability to reach your characters (I'm a firm believer that everyone has some kind of psychic ability)? Do you think you might be too close?
And do you wonder why you have such a particular attachment to the medieval period (apart from the incredible hotness of Thibaud). I sometimes wonder whether I lived a past life then.

[Karenmc]

Wonderful interview.I’m so glad that The Greatest Knight is being released in the U.S. In researching my family history, I’ve discovered that we’re descended from William Marshal and Isabelle de Clare through all of their daughters. That makes the history come to life for me, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the book.

[Christie Ridgway]

Wow, fascinating about using the psychic. Do you always ask about a specific person, or can you be more general, as in asking your friend what a typical day would be like for a serf or someone whose job was to work in the kitchens?

[margaret]

Lovely interview and wonderful insights into historical writing. Karenmc and I are related, for I too am a descendant of William and Isabella.

Nottingham is fantastic, how fortunate you are to live there. The exhibitions at the Castle are quite good, and the caves are so interesting. And so convenient to the Trip to Jerusalem! I've enjoyed the German Christmas market and the ice skating in town, very festive.

Congratulations, Elizabeth, on the US release. I've always enjoyed your work!

[Susan/DC]

Whenever I go to the UK (which isn't nearly often enough), one of the first things I do is go to a bookstore to look for books by Elizabeth Chadwick to add to my library. I love the detailed sense of daily life that permeates each of the books, peopled by characters who are 3-dimensional and fully realized, spanning enough time for the characters to grow and change and readers to get to know them.

IIRC, it's in The Champion where Monday, the heroine, meets Isabelle and tells her a trick to avoid having more children. It's a sign of Ms. Chadwick's skill that I liked The Champion so much, as usually I avoid books with very young heroines. But both Monday and Alexander are quite young at the beginning, and each is so compelling that I was too swiftly caught up in the story to care that one of my usual hot buttons was breached. Ms. Chadwick is a gifted storyteller, and each of her books has been a gift to me, the reader.

[Stephanie]

What a great interview! I've admired Ms. Chadwick's works since The Wild Hunt/The Running Vixen in the early '90s. I'm so glad she's being published in the U.S. again--I've been ordering her books from Canada to get my fix!

[Pat Potter]

Great Interview. You certainly have piqued my interest in William Marshal. I'm off to Amazon to order.

[JudiDW]

What a thrill to hear from Elizabeth Chadwick! I bought every one of her books in print when I lived in England, and have to import them via friends now that I am back in the US. I always think the word "evocative" particularly apt for Elizabeth's writing--just a few words in and I am already tasting, smelling, feeling the medieval atmosphere.

I am wondering what Elizabeth's next project is now that the Marshall series is finished.

[Elizabeth Chadwick]

Hello all,
Sorry to be slow in responding. I got caught up in completing the day's word count and before I knew it, it was late!
Binnie, thanks for your lovely comment re The Wild Hunt, It has a special place in my heart as the book that finally kicked open a publisher's door!

MJ ummm....I'll have to think about your question! The lady would ride astride for quickness and side saddle if she was being formal. The side saddle of the 12thC was totally different to what we have now. It was like a chair with a platform for the feet and made the going a lot slower. Shrewsbury to London is 153 miles. So travelling at a rate of 25 miles a day, you're looking at 6 days. These are just rough figures, but within the realms of probability. A useful tip is to have Google Maps on your PC. Type in 'Get Directions' and adjust the mode to 'walking' rather than 'car'. That way you get the older routes and a good approximate mileage!

Anne, I think you are right re everyone having psychic ability, but I do think it is more developed in some than others. I have had occasional things happen while writing (such as ornaments flying off my bookshelf when writing a particular scene in a novel about William Marshal's father), but generally speaking my abilities are only slight - unlike Alison who sees the past in full technicolour for the asking! I'm sure I have lived before in that period. I've recently read Michael Newton's fascinating books Journey of Souls and Destiny of Souls and they make a lot of sense re some of the things I've experienced.

Karen, How wonderful to be descended from the great man - and via his daughters! I've just handed in a novel about his eldest daughter Mahelt - what a girl she was! But then with parents like William and Isabelle, it's to be expected. Anne Boleyn and thus Elizabeth I also descend from William Marshal, as does George Washington.

Christie - Alison has to home in on a specific person, but once there she can hop over to someone in the vicinity. It's as if she needs a landing beacon, and then she move out and start exploring. I will often say things to her like 'Go to William Marshal and Isabelle when they were having a really happy time.' Or 'Go to their children when they are playing.' She will then come to land at a particular incident. Then we go from there. So to get to a serf or a servant, I would ask Alison to find a known person and then expand it from there.
Margaret, thanks for your comments on Nottingham. I guess living so close I do tend to take it for granted, but when I think about it, there is a lot for the visitor to see and do.

Susan - I know what you mean about young heroines and it is a dilemma. Once you begin writing about real characters, you often find that the heroines are indeed very young by our standards. I guess back then, you became an adult much earlier - not so much in a physical sense, but as in expected to take your place in adult society much earlier. I think it is one of the challenges for a writer - to bring the past to a modern audience, while maintaining that sense of historical integrity.
Stephanie - Yes. Yay! It does look as if I finally have a USA publisher and they are hoping to gradually put out the other novels if sales go well. Fingers crossed, and glad you've been able to at least obtain them in Canada.

Pat, I do hope you enjoy The Greatest Knight. William Marshal was quite some man. :-)

Judi - thanks for your kind words.
My most recent novel, just handed in, is To Defy a King, the story of William's daughter Mahelt - due for pub Spring 2010. The new WIP, tentatively titled Lady of the English, is about the Empress Matilda and her mother in law Queen Adeliza (who was only the same age as Matilda, two young women of 23 when the novel opens). It's going to be their lives fairly up close and personal, which I don't think anyone has really tackled before.

[Patricia Barraclough]

I have enjoyed historical novels, romances and otherwise. It is the sense of time and place that I love. I just finished Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. The length of the books (they are looong) allows him to go into great detail on daily life, politics, and events. The first romances I read were medieval and they are still my favorites. The uncertainty of life and the necessity to grow up much too young present such great challenges for the characters. I much prefer books that have lots of detail in them. I enjoy learning and this is certainly a pleasant way to do it.
You are so right about developing our psychic talents. I saw things at an early age and was punished and ridiculed for it. I certainly didn't make any effort to nurture it. It is still there, but most likely not what it could have been. It would be fantastic to be able to put myself back in time to see what it really was like.
Question: What tended to be the true status of bastard children of nobles? They have been depicted as being ignored, acknowledged, having rights or being outcasts.

[Elizabeth Chadwick]

Pat, thanks for your comment. I think my favourite author when I want to get a flavour of the life and times is probably Sharon Kay Penman. Here Be Dragons remains one of my favourite novels ever!
To answer your question quickly here, although I will develop it more on my blog, bastard children had different statuses in medieval society depending on which century and their parentage - particularly that of their mothers where the aristocracy was concerned. Henry I made huge use of his 20 or so illegitimate sons and daughters to bind others to him in affinity through marriage and kinship ties. Your examples in the question are all right depending on circumstances :-)

[Teresa]

Thanks for the great interview with Elizabeth, Jo :) She has long been one of my fave authors and I'm thrilled that a US publisher has finally picked her up (so to speak *g*).

Won't enter the contest, as I already have a copy of the book *g*.

[Jo Beverley]

Thank you everyone, especually Elizabeth! I'm afraid I had a trick internet day yesterday and most of today and couldn't contribute.

It's been very interesting. I'll post an official thank you to Elizabeth -- with munificent gift, of course -- on Sunday

Jo, in Nova Scotia.

[Jo Beverley]

Here I am, bearing gift!

Of course we don't let reality hinder us at all, so I thought I'd buy Pembroke Castle for Elizabeth, it having such strong connection to The Greatest Knight. In slight need of renovation.
http://www.pembroke-castle.co.uk/castle/about

There are pictures there
and Sherrie will post one in the announcements.

Enjoy, Elizabeth! And thank you again,

Jo

[Laura]

Fascinating interview! Great choice, Jo.

I have not read any Elizabeth Chadwick novels yet - but will be on the hunt now!

Laura

[Laura]

And am now halfway through "The Greatest Knight" - a great read!

Laura