The Forum, Millennium Plain, Norwich, NR2 1TF
History is the stories we tell each other, the family legends, the shared memories, and, of course, the secrets.
Authors Susan Fletcher and Kate Worsley explore the crafting of historical fiction and dual timeline novels, from fact-checking to character building, and how to create an atmosphere that’s true of the time. They’ll discuss their latest books, The Night in Question and Foxash, which explore deeply buried secrets, and the consequences of uncovering them.
The discussion will be chaired by author Sarah Bower, and promises to be a fascinating look at the art of the novel, and of what makes us human.
Kate Worsley's first novel, She Rises, won the HWA Debut Crown for Historical Fiction and was shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Prize in the US. She was born in Preston, Lancashire and now lives on the Essex coast.
About Foxash
Worn out by poverty, Lettie Radley and her miner husband Tommy grasp at the offer of their very own smallholding - part of a 1930s Government scheme to put the unemployed back to work on the land. When she comes down to Essex to join him, her new neighbours greet her. Overbearing and unkempt, Jean and Adam Dell are everything that the smart, spirited, aspirational Lettie can't abide.
As Lettie settles in, she's hopeful that her past, and the terrible secret Tommy has come to Foxash to escape, are far behind them. But the Dells have their own secrets. And as the seasons change, and a man comes knocking at the gate, the scene is set for a terrible reckoning.
A wonderfully atmospheric and deeply unsettling novel, full of images so vivid they seem to leap off the page. Worsley's fiction is something to savour.
Susan Fletcher was born in Birmingham and studied English Literature at the University of York. Whilst taking the MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, she began her first novel, Eve Green, which won the Whitbread First Novel Award (2004) and Betty Trask Prize (2005). Since then, she has written seven novels, supplementing her writing through various roles including as a cheesemonger and a warden for an archaeological excavation site near Hadrian’s Wall. She has also been the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Worcester. She lives in Warwickshire.
About The Night in Question
Florence Butterfield has lived an extraordinary life full of travel, passion and adventure. But, at eighty-seven, she suspects there are no more surprises to come her way.
Then, one midsummer's night, something terrible happens - so strange and unexpected that Florence – or Florrie, as her friends call her – is suspicious.
Was this really an accident, or is she living alongside a would-be murderer?
The only clue is a magenta envelope, discarded earlier that day. And Florrie - cheerfully independent but often overlooked - is the only person determined to uncover the truth. As she does, Florrie finds herself looking back on her own life . . . and a long-buried secret becomes ever harder to ignore.