SHELF LIFE
JO HARKIN
The author of a new literary historical novel picks five books that inspired her with the vast imaginative possibilities of fiction
© J Robaczynski
My new novel is The Pretender, which is based on the real life figure of Lambert Simnel, a mysterious boy in 15th-century England who was groomed by shadowy political operators to overthrow King Henry VIII and put an end to the Tudor Dynasty before it even got started.
I should say that I hadn’t actually meant to write a historical novel. I was planning a sci-fi. But then Lambert appeared – without any fanfare, in a footnote of a book I was reading. He only got a couple of lines, but I was intrigued. I Googled him. I started wondering how he felt about the absurd and dramatic events of his life. I wanted to know what he got up to after his invasion failed and he disappeared from recorded history. My fate was sealed. I had to write his story.
I write on and off all day, with breaks. Currently I’m researching, which can be a slog. I sit down and work until I start to flag. I realise I’m thirsty, hungry, my neck hurts and my eyes are tired. This happens after about fifteen minutes. So I get up and make a drink and take a ten-minute break. I pick up my phone, scroll the feeds, then check the time. It’s been an hour. I hurry back to my laptop, feeling very ashamed of myself. And the cycle starts again.