Alison Weir Quotes

'Britain's Royal Families' became my first published book, in 1989, from The Bodley Head, and the rest of the story is - dare I say it? - history!
At school, up to the age of sixteen, I found history boring, for we were studying the Industrial Revolution, which was all about Acts, Trade Unions and the factory system, and I wanted to know about people, because it is people who make history.
History was a hobby for about, oh, 20 years before I got into print.
I feel very strongly that where the facts exist, a historical novelist should use them if they're writing about a person who really lived, because a lot of people come to history through historical novels. I did. And a lot of people want their history that way.
I love reading about the supernatural, and time-slip novels, and the mistress of both is Barbara Erskine.
If people really want to know and learn from history, why do they want bad history? Why don't they want good history? Wouldn't you rather know the truth, rather than the legend?
In 1965, when I was fourteen, I read my first adult novel; it was a historical novel about Katherine of Aragon, and I could not put it down. When I finished it, I had to find out the true facts behind the story and if people really carried on like that in those days. So I began to read proper history books, and found that they did!
It gives me a huge buzz when people say they've enjoyed my books, because this grew out of a hobby, and it's an absolute passion, and it's lovely when I get feedback.
Many people have told me that my books read like novels. Perhaps this is because, when I write, I feel I am really there, so strong is my feeling for my subject. On occasion, I have been so moved by the events I have been describing that I have felt like crying.
The first Elizabeth film was an absolute travesty historically. It really was sloppy. Things like 'The Other Boleyn Girl' and 'The Tudors,' people's perception is distorted because of these. It matters to me as a historian, because I spend my life trying to get it right.
When I started researching history in the 1960s, a lot of women about whom I've subsequently written were actually footnotes to history. There was a perception that women weren't important. And it's true. Women were seen historically as far inferior to men.

Related Books

Author Profile

Votes :
Rating :
AuthorName
Alison Weir
Profession
Historian
View Profile

Share to your friends..

Related Author

A. J. P. Taylor Alan Bullock Alison Weir Alistair Horne Amanda Foreman Anita Brookner Antony Beevor Arnold J. Toynbee Arthur Bryant Arthur Helps B. H. Liddell Hart C. Northcote Parkinson Cyril Falls E. P. Thompson Edward Gibbon Eric Hobsbawm G. M. Trevelyan Harold Acton Henry James Sumner Maine James Anthony Froude
view more

Popular Topics

Attitude Death Inspirational Life Love Motivational Nature Positive