Sharon Kay Penman's Blog, page 33

A quiz and The Last Kingdom

We often post fun quizzes on Facebook, along the lines of “Which medieval monarch would you have liked to be?” or “Which one of Henry VIII’s wives are you?” This one is somewhat different; if you take the quiz, they will tell you what your educational level is based on your answers. I scored 40 of 50, and they said that was a Master’s Degree level; I do have a law degree, so I guess that is close enough. In honesty, though, I would not have done as well if the questions had not been multiple choice! But here is the link for any interested in giving it a try. http://definition.org/can-guess-highe...
Also, I’d love to hear reviews from British readers who have seen the start of Season Two of Bernard Cornwell’s The Last Kingdom. Do you like it so far? Is it being shown Down Under at the same time as in the UK? And does anyone know when it will be shown in the US? I miss Uhtred!

Terror in London

I was horrified to learn of the terrorist attack in London today. My heart goes out to the victims and their families; ironically, it occurred on the anniversary of a terrible terrorist attack on the citizens of Brussels. There are people in our world who are truly evil. Please pray for the dead and wounded in London and for us all.

One of history's most consequential divorces

Happy St Patrick’s Day to everyone. I hope all of you who were in the path of Tuesday’s storm stayed warm and safe and dry. It was not bad where I live; I ended up with a lot of tree branches on my front lawn, but the snow was washed away by the heavy rains that followed it and I never had to break out the lanterns and blankets. The injuries people suffered seem to have occurred after the storm: falling on the ice, car crashes, being careless with snow blowers, etc. How many more days till Spring?
Looking back, on the 11th of March in 1152, Eleanor of Aquitaine and the French king, Louis, were divorced and she returned to Aquitaine to start a memorable second act. It is interesting to imagine how different European history would have been had they remained married and she never wed Henry. Of course the thought of no Plantagenet dynasty always gives me a chill, for if I’d not stumbled onto Richard III’s remarkable history, I might still have been trapped as a tax lawyer!

INTERVIEW WITH MARGARET GEORGE

I have a new blog up; see link below. It is an interview with Margaret George about her new novel, just published this week. It is a surprising and thought-provoking re-appraisal of one of history's most notorious figures, the Roman emperor, Nero, and I highly recommend it. Also, there is still time to enter the book drawing for Priscilla Royal’s new medieval mystery, The Proud Sinner; you need only post a comment on my blog interview with her and you’re in!
http://sharonkaypenman.com/blog/?p=672

INTERVIEW WITH MARGARET GEORGE

I am delighted to post this interview with one of my favorite historical novelists, Margaret George.  Her legion of fans will be just as delighted and new readers will soon realize what they’ve been missing, for as this interview vividly demonstrates, she is as amusing as she is eloquent.  I do not think there is a single soul who will not laugh aloud when they read her quip about “Michael Corleone meets  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.”    So…..here we go.

SKP:  Welcome,  Margaret.  Of course the first question is why Nero?  Why did you want to write about him?  What gave you the idea in the first place?

MG:  I am very interested in ancient coinage, and Nero’s coins are known as the finest, artistically, that Rome every produced.  They are also startlingly honest, in that he allows himself to be portrayed as his looks change from golden boy to the familiar double-chinned emperor.

That got me thinking about him, and feeling that he may be the classic example of the kid who wants to be an artist (actor, writer, painter, musician) but his parents say he has to go to law school or take over the family insurance business.

In his case, the family business was being emperor.

So there was always this tension within him of being pulled in two directions.  I can’t think of any other emperor that had that stress.  I wanted to explore this dichotomy, which was played out for very high stakes.

SKP:  Before we go any farther we must address the stereotype:  Nero fiddled while Rome burned.  That’s what most people know of him. What is the real story?

MG:  If you want a flip answer, it’s that the fiddle wasn’t invented then, so he couldn’t have played it.  But seriously, the rumor that he started the fire in Rome, and performed his epic poem about the fall of Troy while watching it, got started early.  The truth is that he wasn’t even there when the fire started, that his own palace burned down, and that he valiantly led fire relief efforts.  But his later appropriation of large tracts of land in the middle of the burnt-out city started a rumor that he had burnt Rome so he could build his new palace.  It was easy to attach the singing to the story.  This has dogged him ever since.  As you know, it’s hard to prove a negative.  And there were no surveillance cameras then.

SKP: But back to his split personality, how did he handle that?

MG:  Badly.  He was only sixteen when he became emperor, and like any teenager, wanted to be free to ‘do his own thing.’  So from the beginning he was all about breaking boundaries and trying to exert his own will and pursue his own calling.  Also like a teenager, he sought validation in those the establishment didn’t approve of—in this case, the common people vs. the senatorial class.  So not only was he at odds with his station in life vs. his true calling as an artist, he was smack in the middle of class warfare as well.

SKP:  So he saw himself as an artist.  But how good was he really?  Didn’t the emperor always have an appreciative audience, and win all the contests?

MG:  His longing to find out how good he really was—as all real artists do—was thwarted by exactly what you say.  He would always be applauded, always win the prize, because he was the emperor.  All we can go by, in searching for any facts, is that after his death his compositions were gathered in a book called “The Master’s Book” and people still played them.  Since he was dead they didn’t have to flatter him anymore, so that would be evidence they were pretty good.

His architectural designs and surviving building structures are quite amazing and have done much to salvage his reputation and indicate that maybe he wasn’t off base in his famous last words, “What an artist the world is losing!”

SKP:  What was the biggest challenge in writing this book?

MG:  The biggest one was finding—or imagining—his motivation for doing some of the things that shocked the world.  He did kill his mother—but were there reasons for it?  Solid reasons that would explain why he had no other choice?  Why did he want to race chariots?  Why did he ‘marry’ a eunuch?  Things like that.  He wasn’t your ordinary guy.

SKP:  How do you reconcile these different sides of him?

MG:  I think of him as “Michael Corleone meets ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.’ Michael Corleone in “Godfather I” thinks he is different from his Mafia family, but when the chips are down discovers not only is he not different, he can do what they do and do it better.  So how can Nero or Michael Corleone come to terms with this?  In my novel I give Nero three sides, not just two, and he thinks of them as different entities:  the first, the daylight Nero that is dutiful and Roman ; the second Nero, the artist who performs; and the third Nero, who does ‘unspeakable deeds’ but necessary for the first two to survive. He has the illusion that the third Nero can be put in mothballs and stowed away, but that isn’t the case.  If the first two Neros are to survive in Rome, the third Nero can’t be put out to pasture.

SKP:  What did you enjoy most about this project?

MG:  The extraordinary range of subjects I had to study in order to write it:  the history of the first five emperors, architecture, the cult of the cithara players, athletic games, mythology, early Christianity, and chariot racing.

And, of course, I enjoyed very much meeting the man who’s been called “the greatest showman of them all”, “the Elvis of the ancient world”, and “the first mass market pop star.”  And having the opportunity to liberate Nero from the burdens of misunderstanding and stereotypes that have plagued him, and to let the real one speak for himself.

SKP:  This book begins when Nero is very young and takes him through the first ten years of his reign, but it ends just as he meets the challenge of the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD.  Do you plan to continue the story, or just leave the reader in suspense?

MG:  For the first time, I am doing a biographical novel in two parts.  So the conclusion, of equal length, will cover the last four years of his life, a very tumultuous time, that brought about the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and rang the curtain down on that extraordinary family.  The title of the second is still in progress but it will have the name “Nero” in it for sure.  And obviously, he can’t be ‘the young Nero’ although, actually, he is still pretty young.

SKP:    I think your decision to “let him speak for himself” was inspired, for you’ve given him a very intriguing voice.   I was fascinated to meet your Nero and I am sure that our readers will feel the same way.   Thank you so much for doing this interview, Margaret.   I hope you will come back after you publish the second half of Nero’s story.

March 10, 2017

INTERVIEW WITH MARGARET GEORGE

I am delighted to post this interview with one of my favorite historical novelists, Margaret George.  Her legion of fans will be just as delighted and new readers will soon realize what they’ve been missing, for as this interview vividly demonstrates, she is as amusing as she is eloquent.  I do not think there is … Continue reading INTERVIEW WITH MARGARET GEORGE →

The post INTERVIEW WITH MARGARET GEORGE appeared first on Sharon Kay Penman.

Margaret George's new novel

I hope to be able to post an interview with Margaret George about her new novel, the Confessions of Young Nero in the next day or so. Margaret is her usual articulate self and I know you all will enjoy reading it. Meanwhile, I want to remind everyone that there is still time to enter the book drawing for Priscilla Royal’s new mystery, The Proud Sinner; just post a comment on my current blog, as easy as that. And now I wanted to share with you Margaret’s own description of her Nero novel. I am also including the link to her Goodreads page.
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Dear Reader,
I’m delighted to bring you my novel about the most fascinating of all Roman emperors—Nero! Despite the challenges, I believe I’ve come as close as possible in revealing the human being behind the legend, painting an accurate psychological portrait of the man who was said to have “fiddled while Rome burned” (he didn’t), sang, played the cithara, and raced chariots (he did), murdered his mother (he did), was debauched and cruel (he wasn’t), and was an extravagant genius (he was). The man he was—unique, conflicted, and dramatic—is eager to tell his story and set the record straight.
In my earlier books, I touched down in Rome in The Memoirs of Cleopatra around a hundred years before Nero, and have gone farther back in time with Helen of Troy but this is the first time I’ve written about the Roman Empire and the same cast of characters as I, Claudius. Many of them may be already familiar to you. Certainly, there are a lot of household names there—Caesar, Caligula, Claudius, Livia, Messalina—and now you can meet them again.
To track down the real Nero, I’ve spent a decade meeting academics, reading, and haunting museums, as well as getting into the mind-set of ancient Romans by attending a gladiator training school on the Appian Way in Rome itself. I am now a certified gladiatrix! (But I wouldn’t stand a chance against Spartacus.)
Along the way I traveled with Nero himself. I hope that you’ll take the journey with me and meet him in The Confessions of Young Nero.

With much appreciation to my dear readers,

Margaret George
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
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A great king

My favorite English king was born on this date—March 5th, 1133, in the beautiful city of Le Mans, christened in its magnificent cathedral, named Henry after his grandfather. He would prove to be a great king, but a flawed husband and father, and as he lay dying at Chinon Castle, forced to make a humiliating peace by Richard and the French king, shattered by the betrayal of the one son who had most reason to be loyal, his favorite child, John, he must have wondered how it had ever have come to that, wondered how so much bright promise could have ended so bitterly. But on his birthday, I prefer to focus on that beginning. Here are two scenes from When Christ and His Saints Slept. The first one takes place in the stables of the castle at Le Mans, where Maude had gone to demand that her unfaithful husband, the young Count of Anjou, not humiliate her while her brothers were visiting. On her way back to the hall, she became dizzy and was assisted by her cousin Stephen; hey, where would a story be without a seasoning of irony? Page 49
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“I want no daughters,” she said, “not ever.”
Stephen was puzzled by her vehemence. “Matilda recently confided that she might be with child again, and if so, we both hope for a lass this time. Why would you want to deny your-self the pleasure a daughter would bring?”
“Because,” Maude said, “daughters are but pawns, utterly powerless---“
She broke off so abruptly that Stephen knew she’d had another pang. “Is it common to have these pains?”
“The midwife assured me that they come and go in the days before the birthing begins. But the ones I’ve had today have been different, in my back, and I—“ Maude’s mouth contorted, and then an alarmed expression crossed her face. “Jesu!” she cried. “My water has broken!”
Stephen jumped to his feet. “We’d best get you inside straightaway.”
“No…you go in and tell them.” Maude was looking everywhere but at Stephen’s face. “I….I will follow in a moment or so.:
“Maude, that makes no sense!” He stared at her in utter bafflement and had his answer, then, in her crimson cheeks, averted eyes, and sodden skirts. God save the lass, she was em-barrassed! “Sweet cousin, listen. You must come with me. You cannot have your baby in a stable. This is Le Mans, not Bethlehem.”
As he hoped, that won him a flicker of a smile, and she held out her hands, let him help her to her feet. “Take me in, Stephen,” she said. “I doubt you’d make a good midwife…”
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The next scene is on page 52. Maude has given birth to her son, and she and Geoffrey are enjoying a rare moment of marital peace.
* * *
Maude was finding it harder and harder to stay awake, but she was not yet ready to relinquish her son, even for a few hours. “I suppose you still want to name him Fulk, after your father,” she said drowsily.
Geoffrey looked at her, then at the baby. “Well…no,” he said, and Maude’s lashes fluttered upward in surprise. “I know we’ve been quarreling over names, but I’ve changed my mind. You can name him, Maude. I think you’ve earned the right.”
Maude did, too. “Thank you,” she said, and smiled sleepily at her husband and son. The baby chose that moment to open his eyes, and startled them both by letting out a loud, piercing wail. They looked so nonplussed that the midwife and wet nurse started to laugh. And it was then that Minna opened the door and ushered Robert, Ranulf, Stephen, and Matilda into the bedchamber.
Maude was not a woman to find humor in chaos. But for once she did not care about decorum or dignity. Cradling her screaming little son, she said happily, “Come closer so you can hear over his shrieks. I want to present Henry, England’s future king.”
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St David's Day

For all who are lucky enough to have Welsh blood or who love Wales, today is St David’s day, the patron saint of that beautiful country. And ironically, it was also the day in 1244 when Gruffydd, the eldest son of Llywelyn Fawr, died trying to escape from English captivity in the Tower of London. He’d knotted sheets together and tried to climb down, a dizzying distance of ninety feet. Like most of Gruffydd’s plans, it did not go well.
Falls the Shadow, page 206
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When it happened, it was without warning. The ripping noise the rope made as it gave way was muffled by the wind. There was a sudden slackness, and then Gruffydd was falling, plunging backward into blackness. There was a moment or two of awareness, but mercifully no more than that. The last sound he heard was a man’s scream, but he never knew if the scream came from him or from Owain.
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The Young King

February 28, 1155 was the birthdate of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine’s second son, named Henry after his sire. He would go down in history as The Young King although he never truly ruled in his own right, yoked to his father’s will until his untimely death at age 28. At the time of his son’s birth, Henry had been king for barely two months. He and Eleanor had sailed for England in a December gale so violent that sensible men would have stayed in port. I doubt that Eleanor appreciated Henry’s insistence upon crossing the Channel during such a nasty storm, especially since she was seven months pregnant at the time. But Henry prevailed, as he usually did, and even passed on this lunacy gene to his third son, Richard.
I have not had a chance yet to read the new biography of the Young King by the British historian Matthew Strickland. I have long been an admirer of Strickland’s research and have other books of his in my library, but I’ve had to delay reading his biography until after I finish The Land Beyond the Sea. I was somewhat surprised that he even attempted it, for I doubted that there would be enough extant material about the Young King to justify a biography. This was the case when Dr Judith Everhard decided to do a biography about Hal’s brother Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany, and she eventually had to widen the scope of her book, resulting in the magnificent Brittany and the Angevins, which I highly recommend. I am curious if any of my readers have read the Strickland biography of the Young King and if so, what did you think of it?