How Much Actual History Do You Need for a Historical Novel? | Literary Hub

Next to me, carefully pasted in the front of my notebook, is an article reported from the 1826 Tralee assizes by the Morning Post. It describes the trial of "Ann Roche, an old woman of very advanced age" indicted for a serious crime "committed under the delusion of the grossest superstition." The woman claimed she had been trying to "put the fairy out" of a child she described as "fairy struck."

I found this article in 2011, and have spent the last four years plagued by questions of who Ann Roche was and whether she believed her own defense. Did she truly accept the existence (and malice) of the fairies? What had she done and why? I have told my publishers I am writing a novel about her. I have committed myself to her story, and am writing under deadline.