Woman Friday, Desert Island Castaway - Anita Seymour

Today I'm at Peeking Between the Pages Blog where Darlene is reviewing The Gilded Lily.
Whilst I am off on my blog tour my Desert Island Guest for today is Anita Seymour, historical novelist and another fan of the 17th century.


Anita says on her website:
"The realities of everyday habits shape the actions of my characters, but although restricting, these are the details I find fascinating – for instance how long it took to travel between London and Exeter in a box coach without suspension, and where accidents were frequent on ill-made up roads that in parts became knee deep in mud during winter rain. In fact I find the research is the most exciting part and less arduous than actually writing the story. If I cannot obtain a definitive answer from more than one source, I leave it out. This can sometimes constrain my plot choices, but it’s all part of the challenge of writing a credible as well as an exciting story.

Getting inside my character’s heads is also vital. In the 17th Century, attitudes were very different to today. Education was not available to everyone, and we now disapprove of prejudice, chauvinism and religious fanaticism, but in the 1640’s, views were very different. My characters have to be true to their own time, I have to allow them to hold views we would dismiss now. Maybe they are bigoted, politically backwards and administer whippings to their misbehaving children – even their wife! I cannot pass judgment on them, or apologize for their beliefs. Not everyone was a free thinker ahead of their time.

Writing historical fiction is complicated and challenging, but my spirit lives in the past and I cannot imagine myself writing anything else."

Here are Anita's choices: 
"The Classic has got to be Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice - it's the best romantic love story ever written and can stand being read repeatedly with no loss of interest.

The Contemporary: The Distant Hours by Kate Morton - her narrative is so detailed, I enjoyed it the first time, but also sure I will find more in it on a second, third and fourth reading

The Non-Fiction: Courtiers: The Secret History of the Georgian Court by Lucy Worsley - so by the time I am rescued I will be an expert on the early Georgian court and thus writing my next biographic novel will be easy. 

Royalist Rebel looks wonderful and is coming soon from Pen and Sword. For details of her other books, check out Anita's Blog: http://thedisorganisedauthor.blogspot.com

Anita also writes as Anita Davison, Trencarrow Secret and her other books can be found here