Stourhead, the mansion and 2,650 acre estate in Wiltshire run by the National Trust, is one of my favourite places for walks, picnics and marvelling at the concentration of wealth in a few hands. It belonged to the Hoare family, who made their money in banking. Henry Hoare bought the manor in 1717 when, we are told, he replaced it with the Palladian house that’s there now. The next Henry Hoare created the landscape gardens, and then there came Richard Colt Hoare, who added the library and picture gallery. It’s a story we hear over and over again. Lord this built such-and-such a house. Bishop that built such-and-such a palace. King so-and-so built a cathedral. And it never fails to irritate me. Did these lords, bishops and kings lay the bricks? Saw the planks? Raise the roof? No, they didn’t. The work was done by hundreds of craftsmen and women who are entirely written out of the picture. According to Richard Holmes in his book Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Hor...

Today’s guest was Bristol writer Mike Manson. Mike has written a number of non-fiction books about Bristol, including Riot! The Bristol Bridge Massacre of 1793 ;   Bristol Beyond the Bridge: The Turbulent Story of Redcliffe, Temple and St Thomas from the Middle Ages to Today , and most recently Vice and Virtue: Discovering the Story of Old Market, Bristol . It was while researching Bristol’s history that Mike realised he wanted to take the stories further, and that to do so he needed to write fiction. His first novel, Where’s My Money , is set around Bristol’s Nelson Street dole office in the 1970s. It was one of the books selected for the BBC television programme The Books That Made Britain . Mike’s second novel is Rules of the Road , a quirky coming of age tale set in 1975 about two young men’s journey across Europe to Greece looking for love and adventure. The book looks back to the days before Rough Guides, and to research it Mike and his wife travelled from Mon...

I'm pleased to welcome Jane Davis to the blog today with some highlights from the Historical Fiction panel at this year's Triskele Litfest. In this extract, the panellists discuss creating characters in historical fiction... At this year’s Triskele Litfest, author Jane Davis chaired a fascinating discussion on historical fiction. The panellists were Jane Dixon-Smith ( The Better of Two Men , third-century Syria); Orna Ross ( Her Secret Rose , the first in a trilogy about the poet WB Yeats); Radhika Swarup ( Where the River Parts , the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947); and Alison Morton ( Aurelia, a Roman-themed alternative history thriller). The panellists revealed why they had chosen to write about their particular eras, and discussed issues around defining historical fiction, language and setting. In this extract from Jane’s transcript of the debate they talk about characterisation:- Chair: I want to ask how you go about blending real-life charac...