Isolde Martyn is best-selling author of historical fiction, much of it centred on the Wars of the Roses.
She has gone on to write five more novels, including two new works: Mistress to the Crown and The Devil in Ermine. Your interest with the Wars of the Roses began with history degree that specialized in Yorkist England. How did that interest transition into writing historical fiction? Well, actually, my fascination with the Wars of the Roses began when I was fourteen years old and read about the woman spy that King Edward IV sent to Calais.
I decided to one day write a novel about her. Getting to a uni that specialised in that era became part of the plan to become a historical novelist. The Wars of the Roses is a popular era for novelists and other media, with the new show The White Queen beginning to air. Why do youthink this period is particularly attractive for writers and readers of historical fiction? With Margery Neville, my lady spy, there would be insufficient material for a historian to write a biography centred on her but she was just perfect for a novelist.
No historian has written a biography of Buckingham although he played a massive role in the events of , so writing a historical novel about him let me do the research, which I love, as well as the joy of plumping out his personality. Most of your novels, such as Mistress to the Crown and The Lady and the Unicorn, feature strong female protagonists, while your latest work, The Devil in Ermine, focuses on a male character.
Do you find it a different experience to create male and female main characters? I think the writing in each instance was dictated by the historical context and social limitations on that character rather than a deliberate consciousness of gender.
