In the history of writing, the very earliest languages were translated over thousands of years from words to pictures and from sounds to symbols. We know that the roots of writing are firmly embedded in the modern Middle East and North Africa and that despite changing empires and dynasties, some of the written word is still remarkably similar to its ancient ancestors.
However, having established its beginnings, how do we chart its progress? When did writing evolve from basic storytelling to factual documentation? At what point was its potential realised? The answer, of course, is more subjective and speculative than objective and definitive. From the records we have, no one knows when these monumental changes occurred and as Anglo-Irish author J.G. Farrell put it: “History leaves so much out.” Thankfully, the trends are slightly easier to spot.
Back in ancient Greece, for example, we know that poetry was order of the day — well, for 300 years actually — and although this progressed through to the Roman Empire, its themes shifted from thoughts of purity and philosophy to bloody battles and victory. From that period on, the pendulum of literature was set to swing from love, through history, to tragedy.
For almost every piece of fiction that has been penned over the centuries, this “rule of three” still holds true. The greatest example of all is William Shakespeare.
Although the Bard’s plays have traditionally been categorised as comedies, historical or tragedies, every single comedy has a love interest at its heart. For Shakespeare’s sake, let’s agree that “comedy” here equates to “love”. After all, as Juliet whispers to her beloved Romeo in the famous balcony scene: “What’s in a name?”
When it comes to the writing of history rather than history of writing, we need to reassess. Shakespeare would probably be the first to admit that not all of his plays were historically accurate. There were certainly elements of truth but he used plenty of artistic licence as well.
In modern literature, writers of successful novels set in the past need to be far more astute. Not only must the plot and the characters hold up to scrutiny, every detail of the period setting must be perfect. Even the definition can cause problems: The Historical Novel Society defines the genre as works “written at least 50 years after the events described”. To the vast majority of authors, this is probably not their primary concern.
And at the 2016 Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, some of the most illustrious, respected and popular authors of historical fiction and nonfiction will be there to back that up.
In the name of both meticulous research and personal homage, Rachel Billington, the author of “Glory: A Story of Gallipoli”, describes how she walked over the same ground as her grandfather and his men before they were killed in action. Her grandmother’s diaries gave a heartfelt and ultimately harrowing account of the time when her grandfather left home to the time he died and the emotions she recorded for posterity.
Joining Billington at the festival, Helen Dunmore also chose to set her novel, “The Lie”, around the terrifying theatre of the First World War. “The Times” newspaper described one of her strongest resources as her imagination and another as her ability to investigate.
“Dunmore has done her research and expertly so,” said “Scotland on Sunday” — a point proven by her admission that she uses many small and specialist libraries depending on what she is researching — in one case, collections about gardens at the time of the First World War.
Echoing the age-old sentiment of writing what you know, Katie Hickman, herself the daughter of an ambassador, traced memoirs, letters and diaries that spanned more than three centuries of the wives of British diplomats across the world in the highly acclaimed “Daughters of Britannia”. Through years of passionate research we learn about some of the service’s most intrepid but least heralded participants.
In “Courtesans”, Hickman directs her attention to a small but remarkable group of women in the 19th century who rose from obscurity to positions of great power and wealth. It is an extraordinary story in its own nonfiction right, but Hickman has told the tale so well that she is widely acknowledged as master — or mistress — of putting humanity into history.
Victoria Hislop joins the Lit Fest’s line-up of history in the making. Hislop is slightly different in her approach to her subject matter; until she went on holiday to Greece, she had no particular affinity with the nation or its people. Since then, however, her passion for the country is all-consuming, including her writing. Her most recent book, “The Thread”, charts the story of a friendship and love spanning nearly a hundred years.
In a fairly candid interview about where she spent her spare money, she confessed that all of it went into Greek language lessons and she now speaks well enough to give equally candid interviews on television in Greece. Hislop, who is married to team captain Ian Hislop on the BBC’s “Have I Got News for You”, travels to Greece most months and is working on plans to adapt her bestselling book, “The Island”, into a 26-part mini series.
One of the world’s most respected and dedicated military historians, Antony Beevor, will be at the festival. He is an author and former British Army officer who, during his research, has documented not only strategic victories and tragic losses but also hideous and brutal acts of warfare over the centuries. His no-holds-barred account of the past has not only shown him to be a trustworthy source but a potential enemy, according to Russian authorities who have removed his books from several school libraries and threatened him with five years in jail if he visits the country for his depiction of the Red Army in “Berlin”.
John Man is another “tell-it-like-it-is” author, even though some of his subjects are more than 2,000 years older than Beevor’s. With titles such as “Genghis Khan: Life, Death and Resurrection”, “Attila the Hun”, “Kublai Khan: The Mongol King Who Remade China”, “Ninja: 1,000 Years of the Shadow Warrior” and “Samurai”, we can begin to see a common thread. Not only is Man an obsessive historian, he has a fascination for the East, China and Mongolia in particular. And it is thanks to his fascination and frequent travels that we are given first-hand accounts of his subject matter, the passion that he feels for his protagonists and the intensity he seeks for the truth.
James Waterson shares a similar passion in a similar area at a similar time. He has travelled and worked in the Middle East, the United States and China for a number of years but now calls Dubai “the office”.
He was inspired to write “Defending Heaven”, a history of the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties by an after-dinner chat with Jung Chang at the 2009 edition of the festival. To fund his writing “habit”, Waterson has worked as an actor in Chinese movies, a radio host, an oil rig worker, has been the voice of Chinese Steel, a nurse and a peasant farmer. Other books by him include “Ismaili Assassins”, “The Knights of Islam” and “Sacred Swords: 1097–1291”. Despite such an adventurous (i.e., hectic) existence, Waterson has been scrupulous in his research and passionate in his writing. Historyofwar.org described his treatment of “Defending Heaven — China’s Mongol Wars 1209-1370” as “an excellent job of guiding us through this prolonged and complex period of warfare”.
In Gavin Mortimer, we face something of a dilemma as to whether he should appear as a historian — not because he doesn’t fit the description, but because he fits so many others as well. He has written award-winning books on the elite British services in the Second World War, which certainly qualifies him as a military historian, but then he has also written nonfiction titles as diverse as “The History of Cricket in 100 Objects”, and “The Great Swim”, which makes him a sports historian. Add to that more than a dozen books for children. Mortimer is hard to define.
Finally, in John Julius Norwich, we have a man who is as invaluable as he is indefinable. In his 86th year, he visits the festival as one of the most authoritative historians in Europe. His works on Sicily, the Mediterranean and Byzantium are regarded as the defining sources through the ages. While he insists his writing is “a history, not a guidebook”, his love of the subject matter gives each “history” a very personal — but not biased — account. Norwich, known also as 2nd Viscount Norwich, has written and presented about 30 historical documentaries for the BBC and is a well known radio broadcaster in the UK. His own personal history has often caught the public eye and courted media attention, with the adjective “infamous” invariably appearing more frequently than any other.
The writing of history carries with it a huge burden of responsibility. A record of what is accepted to be a true account must be fair, honest and as accurate as possible. Often, the further back we go, the more difficult it becomes to establish the entire truth. There are a host of conflicting opinions as to how valid these accounts can be. Gaetano Salvemini, a historian and scientist, said: “The historian has before him a jigsaw puzzle from which many pieces have disappeared. These gaps can be filled only by his imagination.” A sentiment echoed by Ken Burns, who believes “people tend to forget that the word ‘history’ contains the word ‘story’.”
On the side of the history keepers, George E. Wilson comments: “For me there is no greater subject than history. How a man can study it and not be forced to become a philosopher, I cannot tell.” No less a man than the sage Confucius tells us that we should “study the past if you would define the future.” And finally a compromise of sorts from Louis Gottschalk: “The amazing thing since so many variables enter into historical judgments, is not that historians disagree but that they agree as often as they do.”
Isobel Abulhoul is the founder and festival director of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.
