Book Tuesday: Historical Fiction

Lance Greenfield

This week, I am delighted that my fellow author and blogger, Lance Greenfield, has agreed to be my guest on Book Tuesday and share his thoughts on his favourite genre.

Take it away Lance!

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Thanks for the invitation Mello-Elo. I hope that I can live up to your expectations and those of your followers.

My favourite genre since the age of eight has always been historical fiction. At the time, this was seen by my friends, family and teachers as a strange choice. They all knew that I just tolerated history lessons at school.

That was until I read The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff. This book suddenly brought the Roman occupation of Britain to life for me. Before I read this wonderful work, it was just names and dates and Latin names for familiar places. It was so dry. Suddenly, these characters were alive, having real conversations and living through amazing escapades.

I became hooked! Since then, I have enjoyed tremendous books by Nigel Tranter, John Prebble, Conn Igguden, Simon Scarrow, Ruth Downie and many others.

Many years later, re-reading Sutcliff’s classic is no less exciting for me. My view is that The Eagle of the Ninth should be compulsory reading in primary school as it really does bring Roman Britain to life. It is an exciting adventure that could possibly have been reality. And it is certainly tinged with historic facts.

Hadrian’s Wall

This book had an amazing positive effect on my life in that it gave me an enormous appetite for books, not just historical fiction. However, it did have a slightly negative effect on my life. I was always in trouble with my history teacher for doubting what he told me. After all, when he was teaching me current affairs, he counselled me not to believe everything that I read in the papers or heard on the radio. My challenge was always that the contemporary commentators, or historians, that he expected me to believe with no questions, were no less than the journalists of their time. Why couldn’t the historical fiction of which I was so fond be nearer to the truth than their history text books?

Eagle of the Ninth is a fantastic read. Whatever your age, if you haven’t read this book already, read it now!