Douglas
and I met through A Writer of History. If I recall, he had read one of my guest
posts on another blog and, as luck would have it, 'clicked on through' to me.
Our interactions via the comments feature ultimately lead to interactions via
email - I value his encouragement and support. When he volunteered for a reader
interview, I knew his responses would be thoughtful and interesting. So take it
away, Douglas.
Tell
us a little about yourself. I am a three score years and ten male
still in a good marriage longer than a life sentence. Grateful to be born safe
when bombs still dropping in London. Came to a 44 year old mother as a surprise,
or given older brothers, not the daughter she wanted.
I
moved around the UK to live and work ending up in lovely Royal Leamington Spa
Warwickshire. A figures engineer by training so I have read and made up quite a
lot of futuristic fiction.
Sadly
as a child I cannot recall being read to or many books at home. When I started
school other children seemed favoured by teachers as they could read, so there
appeared some advantage in doing so as well. Teen years progressed from historic
fiction in Biggles, Sherlock Holmes and Dennis Wheatley on to straight thrillers
by Alastair Maclean and Ian Fleming, with off putting reading of Dickens and
Shakespeare for school certificates.
Interests
– thinking and dreaming, people watching, trains, boats and planes, social,
economic and war history, computing, taking snaps, health and mental illness and
walking. Reading, one of life’s great pleasures, uses up rest of my waking
hours. Life highlights have been crewing in 10,000 miles of ocean sailing,
piloting a plane, being a delighted passenger with my wife on Concorde, driving
a couple of big steam engines and doing the Tour de Mont Blanc walk.
Please
tell us about your reading habits and preferences. 100+ books a year
– five or six books on the go at any one time picking up any one depending on
mood or where I have left them in the house - unless I have been hooked into a
page turner. Also now, where I have left a pair of spectacles. Most reading
takes place late, running past midnight into early morning.
Prefer
books under 100,000 words each. Up to 2010 for previous 40 years I read mostly
non fiction, four out of every five books, including biographies being works of
fiction about how people wanted to be known. Reading has changed over last four
years to one book out of five being non fiction but this year two books in a
drift back to non fiction. I have a Kindle and can read on PC and iPad, but I do
not like electronic reading. If I read a book electronically, it will have been
a page turner and/or a book I was prepared to pay up to £5 / $8 for as an e book
but not £10/ $17 as paperback. My ideal is a large print hard cover book.
My
youngest son gave me a copy of Lee Child’s Affair in 2011 and said I would get hooked. I have
read all Lee Child’s books finishing with in my view the best , his first
bookKilling Floor. He said he was angry when he wrote Killing Floor so he needs to get angry again. I am still
trying to work out why he hooks me in having tried many of his peers with little
success.
Fiction
reading is mostly adventure and thrillers covering the background history in my
lifetime and my parents lifetime, so anything going back pre 1900 is less
interesting.
How
do you decide which books to buy? What influences your purchases? I
try to get a good idea about a book before I borrow, divert from my wife’s
reading pile, or buy. I often buy books originally loaned from my public library
as I did for a lovely anthology - A
Little Aloud , also Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng. I apply my five “E” tests
to books:
Engrossing
and interesting - being hooked in.
Enjoyment – warm feelings about a
particular book.
Entertainment – the chuckle and laughter
factor.
Emotional – one’s feelings and personal intimate
memories.
Educational – learning about a subject for the first time or in
more detail.
Ease
of reading – I read fiction for pleasure, so books with dull stories or poor
structure are discarded. I will work at a densely written book if content is
good, for example: Zoo Time by
Howard Jacobson. I have a preference for a good pace but do acknowledge history
can be a dry and slow subject. There are far too many good fiction and non
fiction books out there to waste reading time.
Price
is a factor as I am mean on the amount I am prepared to pay for fiction because
I wish to read a lot. 100 new books a year at £10 / $17 or more each is too
much. Generally I read and pass on fiction. Amazon used books for a few pence
plus postage provides a source for most books I buy. On non fiction I am
prepared to pay up to £20 /$34 for new or used books as non fiction books will
usually stay on my shelves and/or clutter up our home.
I
visit charity shops and lookout for a great cover, an author’s name which rings
a bell or good attractive synopsis hooking me in on a back cover or
frontispiece. Some new authors I have found this way include Katherine Webb - Unseen and Half a Forgotten Song. The latter
contains one of my all time jaw dropping scenes. Alastair Campbell - All in the Mind and Daniel Mason - The Piano Tuner.
I
would like to support independent bookshops more, but pricing is an issue and I
buy few new books. I purchase new non fiction books from them even if I can buy
more cheaply on Amazon.
What
do you like about historical fiction? What don’t you like? I like
books with a strong technical background of politics or history. I think this is
because I am a non fiction reader at heart. I am not too enamored with
historical fiction pre 1900 which seems too remote. If a good story I would
prefer a modern setting. I read Ken Follet’s Pillars of the Earth because of the background about Cathedral
building but found his book far too long.
I
think I should try to read more classic historic fiction as when I look at 100
best books of all time lists I struggle to find books I have read. However, my
inclination is weak and not improved by a web site last week which gave low star
rankings to and witty comments about most of the usual 100 best books.
What
types of historical fiction do you prefer? Robert Harris, (25th on
Mary’s 2013 survey ) is a favourite ... books about Cicero and the politics of
Rome rang true of recent UK politics ... he even made Pompeii a great read, even
though I knew the volcano would erupt. The background of aqueduct systems proved
very interesting. I find his recent historical fiction settings are best.
In Fatherland and Archangel he has written a different outcome to
historical events.
I
have a number of Ian
McEwan, Julian
Barnes and Sebastian Faulks books on my shelves - some good - some great
- some awful. Jeffrey
Archer is a good story teller.
I liked his book on Mallory on
Everest and his own Prison Diaries.
Do
you have historical fiction books or authors you would recommend to other
readers? Can you tell us why? My four and five star recommendations
during the last year in rank order below show how historical fiction is a strong
preference for me and meets my “E” factors – sadly all have war as the
historical background. However, I still prefer to read about war in non
fiction.
Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng – WW2
Never Forget - Angela Petch WW2
Gift of Rain - Tan Twan Eng WW2
Unravelled - M K Tod WW1 and 2
Empire of the Sun - J G Ballard WW2
The
self published books at 2 and 4 stand up well against the others. These front
runners are out of a wider fiction field of general fiction by Morpurgo,
McGregor, Holt, Hall, Cain, Campbell, Jacobson, Roteman, Baldassi, Kureishi,
Shan, Silva, Dyer, Lawrenson and Moggach and historic fiction by Webb, Deighton,
Wilson, Bragg, Cornwell, Follett, Goddard, McEwan and many others.
Personal
lifetime historical fiction book highlights ranked by period
Piano
Tuner – Daniel Mason 1880s
War of the Worlds – H G Wells when published futuristic, now to me
historical fiction c1910
Arthur and George – Julian Barnes c1910
The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje WW2
The Reader - Prof Bernhard Schlink WW2
A Robert Harris book WW2 – a hard
choice which one,
A Thousand Splendid Sons - Khaled Hosseini late 1970s and 1980s
The
Sett – Ranulph Fiennes 1980s
All the above include memorable
scenes and continue to give me warm feelings and most I will read again.
In
today’s world, there are so many opportunities to talk and learn about books –
blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, book clubs - can you tell us about your
experiences, where you go to talk or learn about books, why you enjoy
discussions about books? I am a dinosaur as far as Twitter and
Facebook are concerned. Goodreads seem to me to be too female dominated. I limit
my reading to reviews in the national press and on Amazon and I ask friends what
they are reading and for their best book reads. The answers are not always
successful as reading tastes are very personal and some just follow fashion and
the crowd. Some of my best reads have been accidental. The national press in the
UK are promoting some new books very cheaply; also supermarkets virtually give
away new popular books. I have purchased with mixed results. The Book Lovers’
Companion reviews over 250 books and many look to be worth reading. The extracts
from what the critics said are often amusing. I find face to face book club type
discussions a little false often being about reader's own egos.
What
advice do you have for writers of historical fiction?
As
a reader I do look for success in balancing the educational historical factual
background with the writer’s story. I prefer historical facts to be clearly
stated and as far as possible verified and correct, or indicated as supposition
or fantasy variation written for the story. Although as a non fiction reader I
am happy to have chunks of history and fact in solid text I am sure creative
writing classes will preach ‘show rather than tell’ with more dialogue. In my
recent reads list above the authors have balanced the history facts and their
stories very well in all the books particularly those based on war with Japan
where cultural differences came much more into play and also historic Japanese
and Chinese relationships. In Len Deighton’s Winter I thought the excellent WW1 and WW2 history
from the German perspective overshadowed the fiction story lines.
Is
there anything else about reading historical fiction that you’d like to comment
on? Read a wide range of authors and genres in library books to
provide context to historical fiction. Do not be disappointed if you cannot get
on with a particular author. I do not like Hilary Mantel’s books but clearly the
literary establishment does. Try some self published books. Go around the on
line self publisher book shops.
Try and review on Amazon all books you start
and finish because the thought process does often draw out and clarify why you
liked or disliked a book and informs then what you might read in the future. I
always give a review as soon as I start a book and another on completion if I
get that far.
Many thanks, Douglas. I particularly
like your five Es test for books as well as your suggestion for readers to
review the books they read. Reviews are a real gift to writers. And you've given
us some great recommendations to consider - I can see some overlap in our
reading preferences!