Q&A: debut novelist Lucy Barker

The novel is set in the Victorian era. How did you research it, and what do you think makes a good historical novel?

I have a Masters in Victorian Studies so I've got a good foundation in terms of the period. That said, I still had a lot to learn about seances which were so different to seances being held today. I immersed myself in diaries and accounts written by mediums of the time like Georgiana Houghton and Elizabeth d'Esperance. These gave me such a rich resource to make my seances realistic you'd probably not be surprised to know that there was scant information available on how the tricks were done, so that's where my imagination came in.

A good historical novel is just like any novel: it needs to be compelling with great characters, an authentic setting and a storyline that satisfies. Yes, you need to be historically accurate, but I think it's so important that you wear your research lightly. One of my favourite reads of recent years is The Smallest Man by Frances Quinn which is set in the English Civil War - I was so held by this brilliantly told story and character, that I didn't realise how much I'd absorbed the historical facts until I got to the end. That's great historical fiction.