Guest Blog - Jennifer Antill

Turning two young revolutionaries into one. A way to make the facts fit the story.

Historical novels come in many different forms. Some are close to fantasy, with plots and backgrounds that might give a nod to history, but in fact are as realistic as Game of Thrones.  Others try as far as possible to reflect what ‘really’ happened.

My books are set in the romantic, tumultous world of Russia in the first third of the 19^th century.  I like to make them as lifelike and truthful as possible.  Generally, my fictional heroes, heroines and villains play out their parts against real historical events,

So, in my first novel, Small Acts of Kindness published in 2002, my characters experience their triumphs and disasters during the turmoil of a revolution in Saint Petersburg in 1825. In my second book, Fortune’s Price, the action moves forward to 1830 and the story proceeds during the panic and horror of the cholera epidemic and the uprising in Poland that took place in that year.

Mostly my characters are fictional, but sometimes I do include real people. When I do, I try not to invent too much about their lives.  It seems to me disrespectful to their memories to mess about with reality too much. I read one book about 17^th Century England, in which a famous historical character is described doing things here in England at a time when it is well known that he was on the high seas, having been captured by barbary pirates. This seemed very silly to me!

In the case of famous people, such as Napoleon (who features in my work in progress, Children of the Flames) there are of course many contemporary personal accounts that describe him and recall his actual words. Such memoirs really can bring individuals to life.  But what the research reveals, and what they reveal about themselves, does sometimes get in the way of the story I had hoped to write.

In my first novel, for example, having read his memoirs, I wanted to include the young revolutionary, Alexander Murav’ev, as the close friend and mentor of my fictional hero, Vasily. But the plot demanded that this friend have a love interest and, indeed, a fiancé.  Reading more deeply, I learned that young Alexander didn’t marry until after his release from exile in Siberia many years after the event. I didn’t feel I should ignore this. What to do?  In the end I decided to create a fictional character in whom I merged Alexander’s story with that of his fellow revolutionary and Chevalier Guards officer, Count Ivan Annenkov, who was much the same age. Ivan was engaged to be married when the uprising happened, and his fiancé, Pauline, travelled to be with him in exile. They married in the distant Siberian settlement of Chita, and went on to live a happy life together.

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So, the fictional character, Mikhael, came to incorporate the stories of two real people, I sometimes say that Mikhail has the top half of Alexander and the bottom half of Ivan.

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Jennifer Antill’s third book Children of the Flames set in 1812 will be published in 2027.