Gerard Hogan
asked
Robert Harris:
As a writer of fiction how much license do you feel you have to bend the historical record to serve the story you are telling?
Robert Harris
I have made it a rule in all my books never directly to contradict the historical record. For example, I would never put historical events in a different sequence, or turn a victory into a defeat. What I do feel is legitimate is to condense and simplify: to dig out the bones of a narrative. And of course I invent scenes to fit in and around the known facts.
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