Interview with Elizabeth Chadwick
by Agnes A. Rose
Elizabeth Chadwick was born in Bury (Lancashire). When she was three
years old she moved with her family to Scotland where she spent her childhood. Aged
ten, she came to Nottingham and she has lived there ever since. She says of herself
that she was born a storyteller. She remembers that before she could read and
write, she would open her picture books at her favourite illustrations and make
up some new tales. But she did not write anything down until she was fifteen. Her
first foray into historical fiction, a work of fiction about the Holy Land in
the twelfth century, led her to realise she wanted to write historical fiction
for a living. After years of writing and rejections she was finally published
in 1989. The novel was titled The Wild
Hunt and won a Betty Trask Award. Elizabeth Chadwick has gone on to become
one of Britain's foremost historical novelists and has been called by The Historical Novel Society “the best writer of medieval fiction currently around”.
She is published internationally and her work has been translated into many
languages. The author is renowned for her extensive research into the medieval
period and particularly so in the area of the Marshal and Bigod families. Her novels about the 13th century
magnate William Marshal, The Greatest Knight (2005) and The Scarlet Lion (2006), have brought her international
acclaim. Recently her trilogy about Eleanor of Aquitaine has been published in
Poland.
Agnes A. Rose: Thank you so much that you accepted my invitation to take part in this
interview. I am very honored that I can host you on my blog and talk to you. You
create stories set in the era of the Middle Ages. Why? What is special in this
epoch that you decided to write about it?
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| Published by SPHERE (4 Dec. 2008) |
Elizabeth Chadwick: It’s pure chance that it came to be the Middle Ages. I became
interested in the period after I watched a couple of historical dramas on the
television. The first was “The Six Wives of Henry VIII”, starring Keith
Michelle and I began writing a Tudor story. I was 14 at the time and it was the
school holidays. When school began again, I put the book away. The next year the
BBC put on a children's historical adventure series that was titled “Desert
Crusader”. It was dubbed from French. The original was titled “Thibaud ou les
Croisades” and you can find episodes these days on YouTube under that title. I
fell in love with the hero and began writing my own form of fan fiction.
However, the story developed a brand-new life of its own and became very from
the character in the TV programme. Writing the book in between my school
lessons made me realise that I wanted to write historical fiction for a living.
I was only 16 years old, but I knew my career path. I wanted my story to feel
as real as possible and that meant doing the research. The more I researched,
the more interested, I became in the medieval period and the more I wanted to
write about it. It was never ending circle, one interest feeding from the
other.
AAR: Before
you published “The Wild Hunt”, you couldn’t find a literary agent. Your books
were rejected for many years. What were you feeling at that time? Were you
furious because you knew that you were writing well but no one wanted to
appreciate your work?
EC: Not in
the least. I knew it was what I was meant to do and that at some point I would
get there. Basically, I was serving my apprenticeship and those hours at the
typewriter and in front of the screen had to be done. I never saw rejection as
a personal thing. It just made me all the more determined that the next book I
wrote would be so good that people wouldn't be able to refuse it. Even though it
happened many times, it never put me off. I had been telling myself stories of
one kind or another since small childhood so it was actually a part of who I
was. Even if I was never published, I would still be writing stories. You need
to be lucky to be published, but you also need to be good enough and the times
I was being rejected, I was still learning my craft, but had not reached a high
enough standard. Toward the end of my apprenticeship. If that is what you want
to call it, I was recognising that I was becoming as good as the published
novelists out there. I began winning competitions and I had faith that I would
succeed. So no, I never felt furious. If I wasn't being published, then I
wasn't good enough. I recognised that reality without beating myself up about
it. It just gave me the determination to be better.
AAR: After having published “The Wild Hunt”, you wrote the continuation of
that story. What motivated you to take on this challenge?
EC: My
motivation was that I was interested in the family I had written about and
wanted to continue their story for a while at least. The main drive to me is
the writing and being curious about history and about the people who lived in
that history, whether real or imaginary.
AAR: I
must admit that I have been interested in the history of England for many years.
I am still discovering something new in it. I also write and read a lot about
the United Kingdom’s history. Three years ago I wrote an article about William
Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke. I know that in your literary output you have
also books related to this character. Could you tell us something more about
them? What motivated you to write about William Marshal and his family?
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| The Polish edition of "The Greatest Knight" Published by AURUM PRESS (2010) Translated by Anna Krawczyk-Łaskarzewska |
EC: William
Marshal was the fourth son of John FitzGilbert,
who was the Royal Marshal at a time of great upheaval in England. He was of the
middle rank of the aristocracy. But William was destined for greater things. He
was nearly hanged as a small boy when he was a hostage during a siege. However,
the king could not bring himself to do the deed and William was later returned
to his family. He grew up to become an expert in the military arts, with a
particular talent for the tournament when he made a name for himself.
He entered service with the Angevin kings, first as a tutor and Marshal
to King Henry II’s eldest son, also called Henry. When young Henry died
rebelling against his father, William swore to take the young man's cloak to
Jerusalem and lay it on the tomb of the holy sepulchre. Having achieved his
goal, he returned and continued to serve Henry II.
Following Henry's death, William entered the patronage of Richard the
Lionheart, who granted him a hand in marriage of a young heiress, Isabelle de
Clare. William now became a magnate of the realm and when Richard went on
crusade he left William as one of the co-governors of the country. Following
Richard's death, William also served King John and was one of the senior barons
involved in issuing Magna Carta. For a while, he was also Regent of England for
the young King Henry III.
His lifetime was one of high drama. He was a great fighter, sportsmen,
statesman and politician. In his domestic life he was father to 10 children,
five boys and five girls and his marriage seems to have been a long and loving
partnership of 30 years. I have written several books about him. “The Greatest Knight”
covers the part of his life as a young knight and leaves him in 1194 with his
wife and the beginnings of his family and looking to expand his horizons. Its
sequel “The Scarlet Lion” takes him through the rest of his life when he became
a great politician and statesman and took on his wife's Irish lands. There is a
prequel to these two novels titled “A Place Beyond Courage” that tells the story
of his father John FitzGilbert. “The Time of Singing” is the story of a family
related to the Marshals, the Bigods, and its sequel “To Defy A King” is the
story of William Marshal's daughter Mahelt, who married into this family. My
most recent novel in the UK is “Templar Silks”, a stand-alone novel covering
the time that William spent on pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
As far as what prompted me to write the Marshal stories – it is always
about interest and curiosity with me. I go delving and then I want to know
more. Originally I was just going to write about William Marshal because I felt
he had a really interesting life that would translate well into the medium of
the novel, but I discovered when I began researching that it went far beyond
that and I had enough material for several novels and a passion to keep me
interested for the rest of my life. I have been studying the marshals now for 15
years, and I'm still learning new things every day. I have a deep admiration
for William Marshal. He was a man of his time, certainly, and operated within
the norms of that society, but underlying that is a powerful integrity of which
I feel there isn't enough in the world today.
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| The Polish edition of "Daughters of The Graal" Published by AURUM PRESS (2009) Translated by Anna Krawczyk-Łaskarzewska |
AAR: Apart from the trilogy about Eleanor of
Aquitaine and “The Greatest Knight”, your Polish readers can also read
“Daughters of The Grail”. Could you tell us something more about this book?
What prompted you to write this story?
EC: I was
commissioned to write “Daughters of The Grail” by a film producer who had
written a treatment and wanted it fleshing out into a novel. The film never got
made but the book went on to be published around the world. It’s a sort of
medieval “Da Vinci Code” with a slight fantasy element and covers the story of
the persecution of the Cathars, among them the descendants of a certain
bloodline.
AAR: Now let’s talk about your trilogy related to Eleanor of Aquitaine that
has been published in Poland recently. It is said that Eleanor was the most
prominent woman of 12th century Europe. She was recognized by Time
magazine as one of the most influential and powerful women of the past
millennium. Do you think that the Queen deserved to be called “the most
influential woman of the millennium”?
EC: I think
she was an amazing woman. Strong, forthright, resilient, very intelligent. I
think there must be very many women of that period who have the same qualities,
but Eleanor has been the one to stand in the spotlight. Yes, she deserves it
for all that she was, but she could be part of a much greater chorus of women.
AAR: What most surprised you while working on the
trilogy?
EC: What
really astonished me was how difficult it was to find a decent biography of
Eleanor. There are numerous works an interested reader can study about her, but
many are highly unreliable. They state opinions as facts and are very loose in
their interpretations. Given that the only representation of Eleanor is her
tomb effigy, a stylized stained glass window and a grey-haired lady in the Fécamp
Psalter who may or may not be Eleanor, it’s astonishing to find her biographers
calling her a black-haired, black-eyed beauty with a curvaceous figure that
never ran to fat in old age. Or a saucy hot-blooded blonde, or a humorous
green-eyed red-head. None of these can be taken as accurate because there is no
existing physical description of Eleanor from her own lifetime. Basically most
of her biographers cannot be trusted. I did find a couple of books that were
grounded and gave good information but overall it was difficult to find decent
factual works about her that didn’t leap off a cliff into flights of fantasy. I
know I am writing fiction, but I like to have a strong grounding in a factual
historical background and it was hard despite – or perhaps because of the
numerous nonfiction works that have been written about Eleanor.
AAR: How
much time did it take you to prepare to write the story of Eleanor of
Aquitaine? Did you have any problems with researching?
EC: I have
been writing medieval fiction for several decades, so I already had a base line
awareness. Writing the William Marshal novels I had become familiar with
Eleanor too, so I already had some research under my belt. I always research as
I write, so probably the intensive research took about 18 months, but I already
had a strong background awareness. My problems as above mentioned is that many
of her biographers could not be trusted. I tried as much as possible to go back
to primary source research, but that in itself is a difficult project. I can
get by in Latin and Old French but I do prefer to read works in translation.
AAR: If
you could travel back in time and meet Eleanor of Aquitaine, what would you
like to tell her? How do you generally imagine meeting such the powerful Queen?
EC: I would
tell her to run away from Henry II! What I would say from the research I have
done is that anyone striving to know Eleanor better should read a book called “Inventing
Eleanor” by Michael Evans, which shows how much has been made up about her down
the centuries and how the image we have of her today (especially if we read
some of her popular biographies) is nothing like the person who inhabited the
12th century.
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| Here is the Polish edition of the historical trilogy about Eleonor of Aquitaine: The Summer Queen, The Winter Crown & The Autumn Throne. They were published in 2017/2018 by PRÓSZYŃSKI I S-KA Translated by Magdalena Moltzan-Małkowska |
AAR: It is said that Richard the Lionheart was the most beloved child of
Eleanor of Aquitaine. Could you tell us how you perceive this King? Have you
written a novel about him? If not, do you have such a plan?
EC: No, I
haven’t written about Richard the Lionheart nor do I plan to. My good friend
Sharon Penman has written two excellent novels about him – “Lionheart” and “A
King’s Ransom”, should anyone want to read a work of fiction about him. I would
say that he was Eleanor’s favourite, but this was partly because from birth he
was the son destined to inherit the maternal lands. He was raised to be her
heir and so she was bound to gravitate to him. His skill was warfare. He was
also an accomplished musician in his quieter moments and politically
astute. A complex and interesting man.
AAR: During the Second Crusade where the first Eleanor’s husband, Louis VII
of France, took part in, there were some rumors that the Queen was having a
love affair with her uncle, Raymond of Poitiers. What do you think? Were there
definitely just rumors, or maybe Eleanor really became the main character of
the moral scandal?
EC: I don’t
think she had an affair with her uncle. When you look at the evidence for and
against in depth, it mostly emerges on the negative side. Some writers have
suggested it happened, but I suspect it’s the sensationalism that draws them
rather than admitting to the probable more prosaic truth. I have written a full
blog about why I don’t think for one minute that they had an affair. Here’s the
url. http://elizabethchadwick.com/blog/eleanor-of-aquitaine-raymond-of-poitiers-and-the-incident-at-antioch/
AAR: As I mentioned above you live in Nottingham. According to the legend,
Robin Hood was supposed to live near this place. He is also very strongly
associated with two sons of Eleanor, Richard the Lionheart and John Lackland. I
must admit that I have been fascinated by Robin of Sherwood since my childhood.
Although I have read and written about him a lot, he is still a mystery to me. Could
you tell us what the truth is? Did the Eleanor’s sons really have anything to
do with Robin Hood?
EC: No, I
don’t think they did. Indeed, I do not believe that Robin Hood was every actually
around so early. He’s a product of the ballads of the later Middle Ages and as such
is a fictional character. He may be an amalgam of several outlaw types rife in
the 14th century onwards but in actuality the myth has grown out of
itself and become the life that never was. Hollywood and modern fiction writers
are the main instigators of Robin Hood in the late 12th and early 13th
centuries I’m afraid.
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| Published by SPHERE (7 Sept. 2006) |
AAR: Let’s
go back to your books for a moment. So far you have written a lot of novels. Do
you have your favourite story among them; the one you love more than others?
EC: For me
that would be a bit like asking a mother if she had a favourite child! Each
book I write always has something unique about it that makes it special to me. My
first published novel “The Wild Hunt” was the one that won a major UK award and
that obtained me representation by a top London literary agency. “Lords of The
White Castle” was my first attempt at biographical fiction and has been a bestseller,
“The Greatest Knight” was a New York Times bestseller and started me on my
journey with William Marshal. My Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy has led me to
think in very different ways about a great Medieval queen and who she might
have been really under all the glitter and dust we have sprinkled over her
life. Every book has taught me something unique about the people and their life
and times as I research. So the answer has to be no they are all my favourites.
AAR: And
what about the protagonists? Is there the one that you like most and you always
smile when you are thinking about him or her?
EC: It’s the
same answer as the previous one but with a couple of exceptions. John Marshal
in my novel “A Place Beyond Courage” has always stayed with me because I feel
history has written him a bad deal – or rather our modern interpretation of
history and our laziness in not actually pausing to lift the sheets and look
under the surface has given us a simplistic view of a complex man striving to
survive in very difficult times. And of course, the great William Marshal. A
legend in his own lifetime, and even more of one today. But underneath it all a
flesh and blood man with flaws and merits, passions, preferences and dislikes.
I’d like to have been in a position to have known him in his own lifetime.
AAR: Is
there anything, any era or a character, you would like to write about, but you
think that the right time has not come to do it?
EC: Yes,
many, but I’m not going to tell you. That’s something that creatively stays
under my hat until I’m ready!
AAR: How
important are your readers to you? Do you have a good contact with them? How
much do they help you while writing?
EC: If I
didn’t have readers I wouldn’t have a job! I get on very well with my readers,
many of whom have become good friends. I have an open Facebook author group for
news and features and feedback – it’s not all about promotion. I share my research with my readers and daily
doings. We’re all people with all our particular interests and skills and it’s
good to socialize while doing the day job. https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethChadwickAuthor/?fref=ts
AAR: You told me that there is a chance of publishing your next book in
Poland. Could you tell us something more about it if it is not a secret?
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| Published by SPHERE (13 Sept. 2012) |
EC: I think “Lady
of the English” is soon to be published in Poland. It’s about two women and the
struggle for the English crown in the 12th century. Matilda,
daughter of the king, has had her throne usurped (as she sees it) by her cousin
Stephen and she is determined to have it back for herself and her heirs. She is
helped by her stepmother, who is actually Matilda’s own age and with a gentler
personality, but nevertheless a steely determination to see that justice
prevails.
AAR: Finally,
I would like to ask you about your next project? Are you working on a new
novel?
EC: I have
just begun one, but since it is the very early stages and has not yet gone to
contract, again I cannot say, beyond the fact that it is set in the 13th
century and stars two very charismatic protagonists!
AAR: Elizabeth,
thank you so much for this nice conversation. It was a great pleasure for me to
be able to talk to you. Is there anything you would like to add or tell your
Polish readers?
EC: Just
thank you for reading my books and I hope you all continue to enjoy them! And
thank you for interviewing me and asking such varied questions!
If you want to read this interview in Polish, please click here.
