'Like going on a journey'

 

“Ihave likened writing a novel to going on a journey, with some notion of thedestination I will arrive at, but not the whole picture - which emergesgradually as a series of revelations, as the journey goes along.”–  Rose Tremain

English author Tremain, born on thisdate in 1943, is a historical novelist and short story writer.  She said she approaches her subjects"from unexpected angles, concentrating her attention on unglamorousoutsiders," an approach that has won her most of historical fiction’smajor awards.

 

Also a long-time professor ofcreative writing (starting in 1988) at her alma mater, the University of EastAnglia, she was the first UAE graduate, first woman, and first writer to benamed Chancellor at the school, a post she held from 2013-2016.

 

She wonBritain’s prestigious Whitbread Prize for Best Novel (Music and Silence) in 1999; the Orange Prize, given to Britain’stop female writer, for The Road Homein 2008; and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for Merivel: A Man of His Time in 2013.   Her 2023 novel, Absolutely & Forever, also has been nominated for the WalterScott Prize.         

  

 Tremain said even though her work is “historical,”there’s a bit of herself in each of her characters, male and female, and shealways goes into her writing with the belief that the day’s output is waitingto be discovered.  “I'm always amazed bywriters who tell me they plan everything at the beginning,” she said.   “I feel their writing days must be verybland.”

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