Patricia Bracewell
Dear Winter,
Thank you for your excellent question, and I do not mind answering it at all. My interest in Emma was piqued originally by the fact that the Encomium Emmae Reginae, the book that she commissioned late in her life, makes no mention of the 15 years of her marriage to Aethelred. I wanted to write into that silence, to imagine what those years would have been like for her, and so those 15 years became the focus of my trilogy. But for me, the most intriguing mystery about Emma was how, at the end of Aethelred's reign, her marriage to Cnut came about. What went on there? How much choice did she have? What was the emotional impact? Was she the instigator, or was it Cnut, or was it someone else? History does not give us any answers, so as a novelist I get to make the call. How much fun is that? When you look closely at the years 1012-1017, there is plenty of drama (family drama, political drama, emotional drama) to fill this final book of the trilogy. Just keeping all the balls in the air is proving a real challenge! I'm so pleased that you are enjoying my books. I'm trying to make the last one the best.
Thank you for your excellent question, and I do not mind answering it at all. My interest in Emma was piqued originally by the fact that the Encomium Emmae Reginae, the book that she commissioned late in her life, makes no mention of the 15 years of her marriage to Aethelred. I wanted to write into that silence, to imagine what those years would have been like for her, and so those 15 years became the focus of my trilogy. But for me, the most intriguing mystery about Emma was how, at the end of Aethelred's reign, her marriage to Cnut came about. What went on there? How much choice did she have? What was the emotional impact? Was she the instigator, or was it Cnut, or was it someone else? History does not give us any answers, so as a novelist I get to make the call. How much fun is that? When you look closely at the years 1012-1017, there is plenty of drama (family drama, political drama, emotional drama) to fill this final book of the trilogy. Just keeping all the balls in the air is proving a real challenge! I'm so pleased that you are enjoying my books. I'm trying to make the last one the best.
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