Tuesday, 31 December December Competition. Open to UK residents only - sorry! To win one of five copies of Elizabeth Wein's Rose Under Fire, please answer the following question in the Comments section below: What's the most convincing historical novel you've read where the author had no personal experience of the book's events? Closing date 14th January we are giving you some extra time to recover from the festivities.
Here's one for our Cabinet of Curiosities. I would be very glad to know what this is. Labels: cabinet of curiosities , Katherine Langrish , mayan artefact , Mayan shell. Elizabeth's Code Name Verity, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, was hard-hitting and unusual, winning it rave reviews.
I am not a witness to the horrors that were the concentration camps. I do not even have a family member affected by those horrors. So what gives me any right to tell this story? This seems like a question that those of us who write historical fiction of any kind must ask ourselves over and over again: What do I know? How can I ever know enough? How can I ever do this justice? What would be the point? What did we ask of the living when we were like the dead?
To think of us? To pray for us? Yes, a little, in the beginning. But mainly to do all they could to send us material help, and then, when they had done all they could, oh, above all, to enjoy life to the fullest! Be happy, you who eat, and you who expect alms and receive them. Be happy, you who live in fine apartments, in ugly houses or in hovels. Be happy, you who have loved ones, and you also who sit alone and dream and can weep.
Be happy, you who torture yourself over metaphysical problems, and you who suffer because of money worries. Be happy, you the sick who are being cared for, and you who care for them, and be happy, oh how happy, you who die a death as normal as life, in hospital beds or in your home.
