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Writing historical fiction

15 January 2007

'I worked my way towards this and that, and then wrote something that had an historical element - and I had this sense of coming home. Looking back, I could see all sorts of aspects of my life and education feeding into it. It wasn't a conscious thing - just one of those things that you discover, like the first time a natural tennis player is handed a racquet.

I never set out to write historical fiction: it's just that history keeps being what I want to write about. For fiction writers history is a place separate from the mundane present but almost present in it, where we can explore fundamental desires and fears, slither about in historical time and real space, and play with different voices, long sentences, rich language and - okay, let's be honest - great frocks.'

Emma Darwin, author of Mathematics of Love, in Writers' ForumBritish writers' magazine which is highly recommended for all writers. It features wide range of news and articles which help writers to improve their work and get published: www.writers-forum.com