Thanks
to Tom for his invitation to pen a blog here today. I should start with a quick
explanation of my preferred genre, Steampunk, which is often characterised as
retro-futurism, or a past that never was. In short, it imagines an alternative
history in which the (usually) Victorian era develops advanced technology while
retaining the aesthetic of the time.
Some
of you may ask why we should spend time on “alternative history”; what is the
point of dwelling on a time that never was? The answer, for me at least, is
political. History is largely in the hands of the privileged few. They write
it, distort it, and present it as fact. Jacob Rees-Mogg’s idiosyncratic, but
widely publicised, take on the Victorians is a particularly vivid example.
This
is hardly a radical new view. In 1984 Orwell wrote “Who controls the
past controls the future: who controls the present controls the
past.”
The
advantage of alternative history is that, while the way that actual history is
presented is easily subverted (for example by the airbrushing from Churchill’s
life accounts of his racist views), alternative history is not so easily
controlled. Under the guise of Steampunk, I can present a colourful, vibrant
alternative to reality which nonetheless reflects reality in many different
ways. I can talk about real (historical) people and real social situations
without the reflex objections of those who absorbed their history through GCSEs
distracting from the issues raised.
In short, Steampunk allows me the freedom to examine the way we are now, and in a manner which may not be possible with “realistic” fiction. In this way my two latest books,Full ThrottleandRise of the Petrol Queen, came into being, inspired by the era of 1920s motor racing, in which the wealthy and titled went racing in expensive cars while the poor didn’t, because they never had the opportunity. And I can do this without complaints that I am taking a political view on the inequality in society today. Because I’m not. I’m showing inequality in my fictional Steampunk society. Which (but don’t tell anyone) is a mirror to our society.
And that is the appeal of Steampunk for me.
Jon Hartless
Jon Hartless was born in the 1970s and has spent much of his life in the Midlands and Worcestershire. His latest novels, a steampunk motor racing adventure examining the gulf between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the dispossessed, started with Full Throttle in August 2017 and continued with Rise of the Petrol Queen in 2019, both published by Accent Press.
John’s Amazon author page is at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jon-Hartless/e/B002DEQ8EI
Thank you for inviting me over to your blog today, Tom.
As I write this, I’m taking a break from writing the fourth
novel in my medieval mystery/crime series, The
Folville Chronicles. Out in 2020, this new novel will be entitled, Outlaw Justice. It follows hot on the
heels of books one-three; The Outlaw’s
Ransom, The Winter Outlaw and Edward’s
Outlaw.
Behind the plot line of Outlaw
Justice – and the whole of The
Folville Chronicle series – sits a huge amount of historical research I did
over twenty-five years ago. When I was in my early twenties I studied for a PhD
in fourteenth century English crime.
The point of my PhD was to discover if the perception that
England’s medieval society was a violent and ruthless place – as presented to
us via the literature of the day (such as the ballads of Robin Hood) – painted
a realistic picture of the criminal activity of the time. Or was it a case that, as with our fiction
today, the storytellers were embellishing the facts around them. Was Medieval
England really as lawless as the stories of outlaws and heroes would have us
believe?
As you can imagine, I spent years reading original court
rolls, fine rolls, gaol delivery rolls, as well as many other legal and
official documents. It was a fascinating – and demanding – time. I was taught
how to read Medieval Latin shorthand so that I could examine more original
documents, and spent many happy hours sat in the Public Record Office in London,
as well as deeply buried in the basement of the University of Leicester library
in the days when it still contained books.
After five years of work, comparing criminal statistics and
records with the literature of the age, I can say that – in the East Midlands
of England in particular – the balladeers were rather kinder than they might
have been. Fourteenth century Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire and
Nottinghamshire were violent places indeed, containing many gangs – often of
noble birth – who were prepared to do anything to stay ahead of a legal system
that couldn’t cope with the level of crime being committed.
Obviously, that is a generalised answer to a complex
question, but it did make me think about those criminal gangs. In some cases
they were set up in a way very similar to the one we associate with the stories
of Robin Hood and his followers today.
It was my research, and the tentative conclusions I
reached, that led me to concentrate my work on the Folville family. This family
of seven brothers from Ashby Folville in Leicestershire seemed to operate more
like the Robin Hood of legend than any of the others. Many of the crimes they
are recorded to have committed read like lines from the ballads themselves.
What if…I wondered…the Folville brothers used the Robin
Hood ballads as a guidebook from which to run their criminal enterprise?
It was that question that led me to using the Folville
family as the focus for what was to become, The
Folville Chronicles. With the exception of my protagonist, Mathilda of
Twyford, and her friend Sarah, the family housekeeper, you’ll find all the
Folville household members and their associates, not just in my novels, but in
the historical documents from the 1320s-1330s; when they ruled Leicestershire
with a fierce pride.
Each of the four books in the series is based on a real
historical event in the Folville’s lives, from their involvement in the murder
of the corrupt Baron of the Exchequer Roger Belers, to the kidnap and ransom of
Sir Richard Willoughby. I’ll say no more, for fear of ruining the read!
Here’s the blurb of Book One- The Outlaw’s Ransom
When
potter’s daughter Mathilda is kidnapped by the notorious Folville brothers as
punishment for her father’s debts, she fears for her life. Although of
noble birth, the Folvilles are infamous throughout the county for using crime
to rule their lands—and for using any means necessary to deliver their
distinctive brand of ‘justice’.
Mathilda
must prove her worth to the Folvilles in order to win her freedom. To do so,
she must go against her instincts and, disguised as the betrothed of Robert de
Folville, undertake a mission that will send her to Bakewell in Derbyshire, and
the home of Nicholas Coterel, one of the most villainous men in England.
With her
life in the hands of more than one dangerous brigand, Mathilda must win the
trust of the Folville’s housekeeper, Sarah, and Robert Folville himself if she
has any chance of survival.
Never have
the teachings gleaned from the tales of Robyn Hode been so useful…
(Although The
Folville Chronicles form a series, they can also be enjoyed as standalone
reads.)
With a background in
history and archaeology, Jennifer Ash should really be sat in a dusty
university library translating Medieval Latin criminal records, and writing
research documents that hardly anyone would want to read. Instead, tucked away
in the South West of England, Jennifer writes stories of medieval crime.
Influenced by a
lifelong love of Robin Hood and medieval ballad literature, Jennifer wrote the
murder mystery/adventure series, The
Folville Chronicles, (The Outlaw’s Ransom, The Winter Outlaw and Edward’s Outlaw, Littwitz Press,
2017-2018) The final novel in the series, Outlaw
Justice, will be published in 2020.
Jennifer also writes as
Jenny Kane. Her work includes the contemporary women’s fiction and romance
novels, Romancing Robin Hood (2nd
edition, Littwitz Press, 2018), Abi’s
Neighbour (HeadlineAccent, 2017),
Another Glass of Champagne (HeadlineAccent, 2016), and the bestsellers, Abi’s House (HeadlineAccent, 2015), and Another Cup of Coffee (HeadlineAccent, 2013).
