An Interview with E.C.Fremantle

I was sent a proof of Elizabeth Fremantle’s debut novel Queen's Gambit several years ago . I fell in love with the narrative style and the characterisations. I felt, instinctively, that here was a writer I needed to keep an eye on! 




I did! I read each book.  I’ve just read her sixth novel, The Honey and The Sting, published last month and my enthusiasm and admiration for her work has not diminuished.

But I found my head full of questions after I finished this recent book. It saw a slight departure in style from the previous books where she took a figure from history and weaved a fiction around the facts. Here was a Jacobean thriller. But more than that I started to wonder about the person behind the pen. Being a nothing ventured, nothing gained type of person I contacted Elizabeth via her website cheekily asking if I could interview her for this blog. Reader, she agreed! So I am utterly thrilled to share with you her responses to my questions.

 The Honey and the Sting sees a departure from your previous style of taking a defined character from history and developing a fiction around them. I imagine that may place constraints upon a fiction because the facts need to be accurate. So was there a greater freedom in the writing of this novel and what was the motivation for The Honey and the Sting?

I had wanted to write a thriller which focussed on the theme of revenge, as I was inspired by the revenge drama of the period, in which women were inevitably cast as the agents of moral collapse.  Initially I set out to weave the story of Felton and Buckingham with that of Frances Coke, who was Buckinghams sister-in-law. Frances was an heiress who was forcibly married to Buckingham’s mad brother, in order that Buckingham could access her lands and titles for his own family. When she had a son he hounded her on a charge of adultery, insisting the child was not his brother’s, and she was forced into hiding as a result.

I had written two full drafts of this novel, when I realised I had run into problems that simply couldn’t be fixed if I kept the two strands of real life story. I was unable to make the complicated time scheme work, whilst retaining the pace my thriller plot required. So at that late stage I decided the only way to fix it was to abandon one of the threads and replace it with a fictional narrative. This was how Frances became my three fictional sisters, Hester, Melis and Hope.

 I’ve always admired the depth of you research and the way your narrative envelopes the reader so you feel you are in that era, the sights, sounds and smells are palpable.  In what way did the research differ in this novel compared to the previous books, if indeed it did?!

Historical fiction requires a certain amount of scene setting and I tend to approach this by using all the senses to bring a scene to life. This novel did arise from the eighteen months I spent living in a remote rural setting and immersing myself in the sounds, sights and smells of the countryside. 

 Women feature predominantly in your books as strong and independent. But during the periods in which you write these traits weren’t always appreciated! What is it about these times, and the place of women in them, that interest you so much?

I mention above about women being cast as the agents of moral collapse in Jacobean drama and I have always been interested in the way women were perceived during this period in history. The Stuart period came after an unprecedented fifty years of female rule in the aftermath of the Reformation, which heralded great social change and cultural flourishing. It was a time when female voices began to emerge in literature. Women were making themselves heard. I have always been interested in these voices from the past and what they can say about our culture now. Let’s not forget that many women living now, live under similar restrictions to their Tudor and Stuart sisters.

I find your books very much character driven, The Honey and the Sting is no exception and the multi narration emphasises that. I found myself marvelling at how you create each character’s voice and sustain it throughout their chapters. I wondered whether you write chronologically or deal with one character at a time?

I always write chronologically. I spend a long time developing the characters so I know them very well, their foibles and the ways in which they might be likely to react to the situations they will face, by the time I start writing. I feel it is important for the plot and pace to write in sequence – both of which are very important in thriller writing. 

 Following on from that question, and particularly if you do write one character at a time, how did you go about plotting the novel?

This novel, as I have mentioned above, did not unfold easily. Making the plot work required several drafts and many many changes. I don’t usually write like this. More often I have an outline that I stick to. This one simply refused to behave!
 

 I also find it interesting that Hester was written in the first person but the other characters in the third. I think I realise why!  I don’t want to offer any spoilers, suffice to ask whether it was a decision from the outset?

Actually it was a decision that came very late in the process. As the primary voice of the novel, I felt that I wanted the reader to see the narrative through her eyes and the first person seemed the way to achieve this. Hope’s voice had, at one point, also been in the first person but it didn’t quite work. I tend to experiment a great deal with the tense of my voices and often make changes.

 I felt at times that Felton wavered in his loyalties. It seemed possible that he might follow a different path from the one he did follow in terms of his relationship with the sisters. Again I’m trying not to give anything away for potential readers. But I was wondering whether there was ever a temptation to have him follow a slightly different route?

In fact Felton, who I greatly enjoyed writing, never veered off my original plan for him. I had a very clear sense of who he was and what his trajectory would be from the outset. At times I was tempted to make the story entirely his.

 How do you write? By that, I mean do you have any strict routines, superstitions or rituals that you adhere to?

I find that working to a daily world-count of 1,500 works best for me. There is a pleasing regularity to this discipline. I write every day and am at my desk for most of the day, though a little less on weekends. I’ve discovered that discipline is the only way I can produce good work. It sounds horribly boring but it is the case.

I know that being an avid reader is almost compulsory for a writer, so a question I always ask is whether you can remember the first book you read that moved you to tears (if any have)?

I’m afraid that when I read I become too caught up in analysing the writer’s technique to lose myself in emotion. I have sometimes found myself crying when writing scenes that are heart-rending. For example a scene in which one of my characters was forcibly separated from her child had me in tears. It must be because I have to feel what my characters are living through to make them seem authentic on the page.

 And finally, having enjoyed this novel so much, something else I am always bound to ask is when we can expect another one!?

Now I’m writing a novel set in Rome in 1611 – so a departure for me. It is called A Lesson in Perspective and is about the painter Artemisia Gentileschi, who was an extraordinarily gifted painter with a fascinating and complex story, which touches on all the themes that interest me about women and voice. An exhibition of her work was meant to open at the National Gallery  in the spring but was postponed because of COVID and will now open in October. Fingers crossed it will not be postponed again.

Boundless thanks to Elizabeth for these fascinating insights and the time she has so generously given to answering my questions. 

Elizabeth's books in order are as follows:-

Queen's Gambit focuses on the life of Catherine Parr

Sisters of Treason looks at the younger sisters of Lady Jane Grey

Watch the Lady is about Penelope Devereux

The Girl in the Glass Tower is the story of Lady Arbella Stuart

The Poison Bed features the Earl and Countess of Somerset

The Honey and the Sting is a Jacobean thriller 

I doubt that anyone who enjoys historical fiction can fail to be completely absorbed by these books.