Gallows Wake: The Sixth Voyage of Jesamiah Acorne by Helen Hollick  Earlier this month, Gallows Wake dropped anchor at Scriblerus as part of a blog tour. In a guest blog, Helen considered the question: What makes a good hero, a good heroine or even a good (bad?) villain? (Link below.) This is my review of this gripping adventure... Gallows Wake is the sixth of the Sea Witch voyages. Set early in the seventeenth century, they follow the adventures of adventurer and one-time pirate, Jesamiah Acorne, and the white witch, Tiola Oldstagh. They’re an exciting blend of historical fact, fantasy, and swash buckling, with a strong dash of romance thrown in. Gallows Wake is a story with its origins in the past: a woman hung for a crime she did not commit; old enmities snapping at Jesamiah’s heels; the aftermath of a raid by Barbary pirates and Jesamiah’s daring rescue mission. The writer has a keen sense of the nearness of the past: Tiola in Lisbon is aware of “the presence of the past...

In this guest blog, Helen Hollick asks what makes a good hero, a good heroine or even a good (bad?) villain? Cliché? Stereotype? Or something original?   Is the clichéd, stereotypical hero, heroine or villain expected by readers? Do they want the familiar, the predictable? Do readers want novels to be like run-of-the-mill TV dramas where there is more action and dialogue, rather then delving into the intricacies of characterisation? We rather expect the TV cop to have some sort of ongoing personal or family problem or trauma; we expect the hero of an exciting drama to be the good guy; and the baddie of that Regency Costume saga to be the nasty one who takes all the money and leaves the nice family destitute. We expect one of the TV soap couples, supposedly happily married for years, to have an affair. We know the young girl bunking school will become pregnant...etc.  But are these clichés or merely tried and tested (albeit trotted-out) plots? Possibly, but a good author o...