Historical vs Contemporary Fiction

Friend and fellow author Tony Riches is well known for Tudor historical fiction. He is a specialist in the history of the Wars of the Roses and the lives of the Tudors with Frances – Tudor Countess (Book 5 of the Elizabethan Series) being the latest. But Tony has also written a contemporary novel and today reflects on a few of the differences.

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The Challenges of Writing Historical v Contemporary Fiction, by Tony Riches, Author of Frances – Tudor Countess

Frances – Tudor Countess is my fourteenth historical novel – and I’ve only written one contemporary novel, (‘The Shell’, set in Mombasa and inspired by an incident there while on holiday there with my wife.)

Apart from the obvious challenges of researching details of historical lives, places and events, I often come up against conflicting information, particularly to do with dates. Pope Gregory XIII and his advisors realised Leap years caused problems, and ‘corrected’ the Julian calendar’s drift against the solar year.

It’s difficult to be sure which calendar historians have used, and later writers compound mistakes by repeating uncorrected dates. Authors of medieval fiction have to learn to navigate this, but it’s quite easy to be ‘out’ by a year.

The problem with names is lack of variety. The Tudors liked the name Robert so much it took a bit of creativity to make it clear to readers of Frances – Tudor Countess which ‘Robert’ is speaking. There was also a trend to name daughters after the queen, so there are a lot of women named Katherine or Elizabeth.

Another challenge is the time taken to send a simple message or travel any distance. Contemporary authors never have to work out how long it takes to ride a horse from York to Westminster, and use a smart phone to move the story along. In my new book Frances and her family end up in a remote part of Ireland, so such details required care to ensure the story remains authentic and realistic.

Finally there is the issue of language, particularly at the Elizabethan court, where they would switch between English, Latin, Spanish and French. I decided to avoid the use of ‘old English’, but sometimes it helps to create a sense of the place and time to include a little Latin or French – a challenge for my audiobook narrators.

The solution was historical ‘detective work’, tracing where Frances lived, who she would have been with, and searching for clues to her personality and ‘voice’ from biographies of her contemporaries. 

When I set out on this ‘journey’ to tell the story of the Tudors I had no idea how much I would learn about fascinating women such as Frances Walsingham, who witnessed the key events of the Elizabethan era first-hand, yet is so little known – until now.

Frances – Tudor Countess is new from Amazon in eBook and Paperback, and an audiobook edition will be produced later this year. In the US, you can find it here; in the UK, you can find it here.

Many thanks, Tony. I’m currently in the midst of reading Tony’s excellent story based on the life of Henry VII (Henry – Book 3 of the Tudor Trilogy) and I’ve also read many of his other novels. Tony has the knack of transporting readers into the past combined with great character development and fast-paced story telling.

Frances – Tudor Countess by Tony Riches

“A thrilling portrait of a remarkable woman who witnessed the key events
of Elizabethan England.” 

Frances Walsingham is the only surviving child of Queen Elizabeth’s ‘spymaster’ Sir Francis Walsingham. Better educated than most men, her father arranges her marriage to warrior poet Sir Philip Sidney.

After Philip Sidney is killed in battle, Frances becomes Countess of Essex, and is banished from court after her husband Sir Robert Devereaux’s rebellion against the queen.

Can she marry for love, if it means turning her back on her faith and all she knows?

Based on extensive historical research, this is the story of Frances, Countess of Essex and Clanricarde.

For more information about Tony’s books please visit his website tonyriches.com and his blog, The Writing Desk and find him on  Facebook, Twitter @tonyriches and Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tonyriches.bsky.social.  You can find out more about his research on his popular podcast series, ‘Stories of the Tudors’.

FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION  FOLLOW A WRITER OF HISTORY. There’s a SUBSCRIBE function on the right hand side of the page. 

M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel THAT WAS THEN is a contemporary thriller. Mary’s other novels, THE ADMIRAL’S WIFE, PARIS IN RUINS, TIME AND REGRET, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads or on her website www.mktod.com.