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For discussions of historical fiction. Threads that do not relate to historical fiction should be started in the Chat forum or elsewhere on the forum, depending on the topic.
annis
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Post by annis » Sat December 6th, 2008, 5:18 pm

I was hooked on historical fiction very early in my reading career through reading Rosemary Sutcliff's wonderful books for children, consequently my first love is ancient and early medieval history, though I read and enjoy historical fiction from a wide ange of periods. However I still have a soft spot for the ancient Greeks, Romans, Persians, Saxons and Vikings and will always be tempted by a book which features any of them.

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michellemoran
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Post by michellemoran » Sat December 6th, 2008, 7:08 pm

EC: What happened to you at Hampton Court. I'm dying to know know!
I second that!!

I think my fascination with ancient Egypt came from traveling to Egypt and from visiting some of the greatest ancient Egyptian artifact collections around the world. I know my fascination with Rome came from my father, who studied ancient Rome, taught about it and even wrote about it.

My love of all things Medieval is a bit more complicated. I suspect it comes from all of the fairy tales my mother used to read to me and the many castles I've visited in France, Spain and England. Later in life, that love was cemented by my undergrad and graduate school studies. The literature was just as good as the architecture!

Great question!
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Telynor
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Post by Telynor » Sat December 6th, 2008, 8:15 pm

Oh goodness, it's hard to say. I think for me it was the Egyptians, then the Tudors, and after that, anything I could get my hands on. That urge to read whatever takes my fancy has been growing quite a bit lately, I've even started to be interested in American history, which is pretty weird for me.

Annie
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Post by Annie » Sat December 6th, 2008, 8:20 pm

The strange happening at Hampton Court. It was the first year the palace had been opened after WW2. I was with my aunt and mother we were approaching a great door in a sort of cloister when I stopped dead in my tracks and refused to go further. My mother was so cross she simply dragged me past the door with me screaming my head off. What was I feeling - terror and cold, I was icy cold.

Jump six years and I am on a school trip. The guide explained that the door lead to the Royal Chapel and was where Katherine Howard, trying to see the King, was dragged away screaming to the Tower.

I hasten to add that I don't think I was the Queen, but I beleive I was there and witnessed a dreadful scene.

Annie.

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michellemoran
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Post by michellemoran » Sat December 6th, 2008, 8:40 pm

Chills! What a story Annie!
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Leo62
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Post by Leo62 » Sat December 6th, 2008, 9:33 pm

[quote=""Annie""]The strange happening at Hampton Court. It was the first year the palace had been opened after WW2. I was with my aunt and mother we were approaching a great door in a sort of cloister when I stopped dead in my tracks and refused to go further. My mother was so cross she simply dragged me past the door with me screaming my head off. What was I feeling - terror and cold, I was icy cold.

Jump six years and I am on a school trip. The guide explained that the door lead to the Royal Chapel and was where Katherine Howard, trying to see the King, was dragged away screaming to the Tower.

I hasten to add that I don't think I was the Queen, but I beleive I was there and witnessed a dreadful scene.

Annie.[/quote]
Wow that's quite a story! :eek: There must be a timeslip novel in there somewhere... ;)

I'll read about any period in history but I do have my favourites. I think my interest in history in general comes from my mother, who was a history teacher. She had a particular interest in WW1 and although I found it boring at the time I must have soaked it up cos I came back to it for my first novel!

There are particular eras that draw me and I still can't quite figure out why. The first half of the 20th century - up to end of ww2, particularly the interwar period - is fascinating to me. It's partly the surface stuff like the clothes, but also something to do with the changeover from victorian to modern, the sense of a society in flux, that particularly appeals.

I think that's also why I like the "Romantic" period - late 18th and early 19th centuries. Anything to do with the French Revolution or Blake or the Romantic poets really appeals to me. By the same token, anything "baroque" tends to bore the pants off me.

And I've always loved anything medieval (anything pre-Tudor really) and anything ancient greek. I think that has to do with childhood reading - TH White, Anya Seton and Mary Renault must take the blame...

I do sometimes wonder if past life or ancestral stuff connects us to particular periods - but I don't think this is a question that can be definitively answered, at least for me. And if you write about a period, I do have a sense that it might be better not to know...ya need the mystery I think :cool:

Ash
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Post by Ash » Sat December 6th, 2008, 11:43 pm

I have wondered about past lives. It would explain to me why a HSer I know has wanted to be a vet since she was four, why another friend knew she wanted to study Mayan culture since grade school, and why I knew I wanted to help people with disabilities by the time I was five. Reincarnation is something that always made sense to me; it wouldn't surprise me in the least to find out after I am gone that its indeed true, and I get to come back as someone else entirely! (or not)

I have also gotten feelings of being home in certain places: Wales was a big one for me, and I was in tears when we were leaving.

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AuntiePam
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Post by AuntiePam » Sun December 7th, 2008, 2:47 am

I think my fascination began when I realized that the world didn't begin when I was born, and that people's lives didn't stop just because I wasn't watching them.

I wish there was a novel (or at least a few paragraphs somewhere) for every person who ever lived. All those untold stories -- people who lived through events from the history books! (I love reading obituaries.)

Historical fiction gives me my voyeur fix in a way that contemporary fiction doesn't. I don't know why.

My preference is for the Middle Ages to WWII, American and European, and is probably influenced by the costume dramas from the 30's and 40's. Idealized and romantic.
Last edited by AuntiePam on Sun December 7th, 2008, 2:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Didn't answer the question in the OP

chuck
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Post by chuck » Sun December 7th, 2008, 3:10 am

Interesting question.....Like Donroc....I too was influenced by films, Valley of the Kings, Quo Vadis, Knights of the Round table, Robin Hood, The Crusades, Ivanhoe,The Black Rose,later era films, Captain Blood, Captains from Castile, Northwest Passage,on an on.....These films led me to research NF and then find the related HF....... Today anything related to late Rome, Romano/Britain, the Celts, Saxons, Vikings, Normans, Crusades,the Plantagenets up to the Tudors...American History....1607 thru 1898......I prefer the 1607-1789.... Based on this forum readers suggestions and mentions I've been known to stretch and try new eras.....

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Carine
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Currently reading: Jonkvrouw - Jean-Claude Van Ryckeghem
Interest in HF: I love history
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Preferred HF: Medieval, Tudor and Ancient Egyptian
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Post by Carine » Sun December 7th, 2008, 10:19 am

My interests go mainly to the Middle Ages and Ancient Egypt. But I'm not really sure wether I can give it a reason ! I think like other people here the series and films I watched since I was a child together with my parents, who loved historical movies but were not so much into reading HF, they did read but not HF.
I do know my mother telling me that as a child, when I saw a church, I wanted to visit it !!??

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