New books and research

My book from Nicola Cornick arrived today - Whisper of Scandal. As it looks like being a wet weekend, I'm going to enjoy curling up in my conservatory to read that. When I'm not chasing around with buckets, trying to catch the drips...

It was a bumper post today. I also got Hedgerow Medicine by Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal - the first of the books I bought with the Amazon token. It's a fascinating read. It lists fifty British herbs and their uses in medicine. Not only that, but it gives instructions on how and when to harvest, store and create recipes. I've been wanting to get a book on herbal remedies for ages, because several times I've found my characters needing to treat ailments or wounds. I've spent hours searching websites, looking for information on the herbs they would have available. Now I've got all the information I need in one book.

I've been hooked on historical fiction ever since I read my first Rosemary Sutcliffe book, but it's only since I started to write it myself that I fully appreciated how much research is needed. Not so much into the events surrounding the chosen time period - although that's important too - but the everyday details. Like what my characters would eat, what utensils they would use, what they would wear etc. When I was writing the first draft of my post-Roman Britain story I kept stumbling over niggling details that weren't vital to the plot, but were really difficult to find out. I've now read so much about the archaeology of Roman and post-Roman Britain that I wonder if I shouldn't go the whole hog and do an archaeology degree.

Of course, now I've completed that ms I've decided to set my next novel in twelfth-century England and Wales. So I've got to start my research from scratch. It's a good thing I enjoy it!