Elizabeth Seymour controversy

There's controversy over my book cover! Not about it being my book cover, of course, but over the identity of the sitter.

Victorian scholars identified the portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger as a likeness of Catherine Howard. Historian Antonia Fraser has argued that this image is far more likely to be Elizabeth Seymour, sister of Jane Seymour. The sitter wears widow's apparel. Catherine Howard would have had no reason to be dressed as a widow; but Elizabeth Seymour would, as her first husband had died in 1534 and her sister Queen Jane in 1537. The portrait has long been associated with King Henry's tragic young Queen and various people and places contest it to be a picture of Katherine Howard. The gift shop at the Tower of London depicts the picture as being Katherine Howard on its souvenirs. The National Portrait Gallery, which exhibits the painting at Montacute House in Somerset, remains undecided about the sitter's identity.

^{I like the picture, and love it as my cover. It was painted in 1541 and my story is set in 1543. Perhaps the garb is a little rich for my heroine, but the style of Alina and her mother's gowns would be modelled on such as this, with wide sleeves, stiff collars and blackwork at the neck and sleeves. Cheaper velvets, perhaps, and not so extravagantly cut and embroidered, but certainly of this style.
Those of you who remember their dates will know that Katherine married Henry in July 1540. By Nov 1541 she was in the Tower on suspicion of immoral conduct. My feeling is that the sitter looks older than Katherine ever got to be, and that if she had been painted as Queen of England there would have been more jewellery etc on show in the picture. Not a great deal is known about Elizabeth, though she was at court for some time. She was lady in waiting to both Anne Boleyn and her sister Jane Seymour, and married to Cromwell's son. There's a brief biography of her on Wikipedia.}

Populist versus literary historicals

Interesting points in the BBC Radio 4 Front Row discussion on historical fiction follow. (Swot that I am, I took notes!)
The field is littered with terms like literary historical versus generalist historical, down to populist historical usaully written by amateurs.

Novelists “explore and explain the past.” Sarah Dunant is a trained historian and says as a novelist her job is to tell you really good stories and as a historian to be as truthful to the facts as it is possible for her to know.

Tristram Hunt, academic historian and non-fiction author, is bored and appalled by the rise of historical fiction and the relentless focus on detail which provides the authenticity.
Prof Margaret MacMillan is gloomy about the profession abandoning the field to amateurs. Amateurs are not trained to weigh evidence. They often write without informing themselves about the period and produce, for example, 14th century heroines who sound like 20th century feminists, which is simply not correct.
Antonia Fraser thinks we shouldn’t write with hindsight, ie Henry VIII thought each marriage was going to work, though we know otherwise.
Sarah Dunant doesn’t write about real people. She reads around the pressures, politics, dress and culture and creates composite characters who are not real but might have experienced thoughts and feelings akin to the real characters of history.
Philippa Gregory does the research for the bare bones of history and her fiction breathes life into the bones.
More later.

Historical novels

I listened to Front Row on BBC 4 last night courtesy of the Listen Again feature and enjoyed 30 minutes of discussion about historical novels.
Interesting to hear the different views put forward. Novelists claim to explore and explain the past, while Tristram Hunt is tired of the relentless detail that fills most historical novels.
Phillippa Gregory, Antonia Fraser and others talk about how they see their work. Some cannot write without the facts ..."I never invent anything," while others are prepared to look at the facts and make a stab at interpreting them. Others, unnamed, the narrator said disparagingly, happily change the dates of battles and other facts without a qualm if it will make a better story! An intriguing listen.

I recommended Lisa McMann yesterday. Today I popped over to read through her advice once more and lo and behold the thing is unobtainable. I guess Nathan recommended her and people flew to her site and crashed it. I'll wait a few days and see if it recovers.

The pic? Looking out from the formal gardens at Cragside. That's the road that takes us home.