#2 Here's to spontaneity
On Wildness, Hilary Mantel, My Dog and The Dig
Here’s to spontaneity
Hello again! Sorry, it’s been a while. I had brilliant intentions to write this newsletter regularly and here we are eight months later. Hmm.
So, the thing is I like to plan. I like to take my time and carefully curate my content. But in reality this means I get so tied up getting it right … I don’t get it out.
So I’m trying a new approach.
I was speaking to the wonderful Lindsey Trout Hughes at the London Writers’ Salon last week, explaining why I’m not a fan of New Year Resolutions.
Mainly because I don’t believe people are like i-phones who need to be upgraded regularly. Instead we are all ‘works-in-progress;’ living in a constant state of growth and flux. Sometimes dormant, sometimes unfurling. So it seems arbitary to create list of tasks on a random date each year.
Lindsey told us she didn’t have so much a resolution, but an intent - she wants to be wilder in her writing 2023. Well. Gosh. This really struck a chord. I am a responsible first born child. Mother to three teenagers, haphazard by the very nature of their age. A planner. A fretter. A list-maker. A recovering perfectionist.
So here I am.
Sitting in my kitchen at 8pm, writing a newsletter off the cuff, on things I’ve enjoyed over the last few months. Taking inspiration from Lindsey’s commitment to bring a little wildness in her writing, and channelling my own living embodiment of spontaneity - Luna the cockerpoo - who spends life in a perpetual state of joy and gratitude.
So what if this newsletter is a little rough? A spot of spontaneity never hurt anyone.
Mantel my mentor
Last year we lost Hilary Mantel, a writer I simply adore. Over the last month I’ve listened to the Wolf Hall Trilogy and have been reminded of the dazzling complexity of Hilary’s plotting, characterisation and sheer breadth of her imagination.
Lots of people fondly shared Hilary’s writing advice when she died, and I’ve found myself returning to her quotes again and again as I try and wrestle the first draft of my next novel into some kind of being.
These are some of the quotes which have helped me the most:
“In the Old Testament, God asked the prophet Ezekiel, ‘Can these bones live?’ He answered yes: and so do I. The task of historical fiction is to take the past out of the archive and relocate it in a body.” Hilary’s fourth Reith Lecture
“When we offer historical fiction to the public, we do have responsibilities – to our readers and to our subjects. We shouldn’t condescend to the people of the past, nor distort them into versions of ourselves. We should be wary about the received version. We should not pass on error. We should seek out inconsistencies and gaps and see if we can make creative use of them.” From the Booker long read on Hilary
“Become a magpie. Collect anything that attracts you: images, phrases, little glimpses, footnotes from books… Cut them out if you can, record them on blank postcards, scribble them in a notebook.” From ‘Mantel’s Method’ in Mslexia
“Remember characters don’t know how history turns out. They are living in the present with imperfect information and we must write them that way.” Hilary Mantel
Books
Some stand out books for me in 2022 were*
Still Life by Sarah Winman - love, loss, found families and the power of art sublimely packaged in a novel I’ve gifted to many friends over the last year.
Manningtree Witches by A.K.Blakemore - a poetess by trade, A.K Blakemore’s language dazzles in this story of what happens to women on the margin. I’m not a fan of books which sensationalise violence against women - lots of ‘witch’ books do - but Manningtree Witches was sensitively handled and the female relationships beautifully observed.
Matrix by Lauren Groff - another gorgeous book (I love a bit of lush prose) bringing the 11C right up to date in this immersive tale of Marie of France and what happens when female agency butts up against a misogynistic society. Written as a response to the Trump era, I don’t think historical fiction gets more relevant than this.
* disclaimer - by no means the full list. More to come …
Film
My middle daughter (and fellow history nerd) and I snuggled up with the last of the Christmas chocolates to watch The Dig, an account of the 1939 excavation of Sutton Hoo, an Anglo Saxon burial site which had lain undiscovered for over a millennium, starring Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes.
It’s a beautiful, delicate film, which explores class (Fiennes plays Basil Brown, a self-taught man who undertook the painstaking excavation), mortality (war and illness) but most importantly, how humanity connects us to all those who walked this earth before.
Of course I did a little digging of my own afterwards, and the only disappointment is that the orignal colour photos of the excavation were taken by two trailblazing women, Mercie Lack and Barbara Wagstaff - who have been replaced by a hunky blonde man in the film. Plus Peggy Piggott (played by Lily James) wasn’t some inexperienced slip-of-a-girl, but a post-grad archeologist and published scholar. Gah! Why do we downgrade women’s stories in this way? Harumph, harumph.
TV
I can’t go without giving a shout-out to The English, a six-parter set in the US in 1890, starring Chaske Spencer and Emily Blunt. This series comes with a trauma warning - there’s a lot of violence - but oh my goodness it is one of the most gorgeously shot pieces of television I have ever seen.
The story is full of conflict, yearning and betrayal. It asks fundamental questions about what happens when there are no laws and moral vacuums open up; will you be swept into the maelstrom or stand outside?
Rafe Spall is superb, staying just this side of truly terrifying, Chaske Spencer (Twilight’s werewolf Sam Uley) is compelling as an intelligent man confronting the grief of his own compromise, and Emily Blunt is a powerhouse playing a woman who has lost everything.
This is the American West as you’ve never seen it before. The plot is convoluted - but the final payoff is worth every minute. It’s a piece of TV which has stayed with me (when much doesn’t, I really can’t remember anything) and I absolutely loved it.
Eat
For Christmas day I made this absolutely BANGING salted caramel cake by Mary Berry. Fair warning, it’s is not for anyone watching their sugar intake, but I’m a bit of a fan of an ‘event cake’ and this delivered a swooshingly sweet hit.
If you can make a Victoria Sponge, you can make this. Honestly it’s not a faff. I shoved all the ingredients into a bowl and mixed on medium for two mins. My top tip is use Stork - not butter - it makes the sponge lighter.
The kids loved it.
Until next time
Well that’s it! One evening. Two cups of tea and the joy of sharing thing’s I’ve loved in one great big writing frenzy.
Yours in spontaneity,
Rachel x
If you liked what you’ve read, please consider subscribing, I’ll try and post more than twice a year to make it worth your while …
And I’d love to know if you’ve read, seen or made any of my recommendations, or what you loved in 2022 …
Really liked your choice of Hilary quotes - especially the 'Dem bones' one! I agree that's what we do, give flesh to dry bones of history. Also the idea our characters don't know how things will turn out either! And of course you know I was equally excited about The English. (I also recently blogged on a similar resolution-dissing meditation on the elasticity and overlap of time - something I think all HisFic writers inherently grasp!)
Ooh yes! Here's to wildness, spontaneity and a banging cake!