Historical

The worst thing about how we were taught history at school is that we were taught it like any other subject. We were taught it clinically, like a science, taught to analyse it without being involved. Studying history could have been one of the most involved and involving things we had as kids, the stories are already there! All it takes is a slight grain of imagination for them to jump out of the pages of a history book. Every date contains a million fantastic narratives, every dry fact about a battle has thousands of very human emotions tied to it and every meaningless name listed on a gravestone or cracked and ancient parchment had their own tale and touched more people than we could possibly imagine.

History is the greatest source material and it's one I love to dip into. In particular my current project is revolving around a slightly sensationalised version of one of History's most (in my opinion) intriguing group of people - the Templar Knights. They were arguably the first multinational banking corporation, they were some of the most elite fighters of the period and they wielded enough wealth and power to challenge most governments of the time. At some points shrouded in mystery and ritual but at others really not as exciting as you'd hope, they were a fascinating group that steered the course of Crusades and indeed much of Western History. I'm currently working on a series of novellas revolving around a select group of these Templars and their exploits throughout warring Europe.

Historical novels were the first 'grown up' books I ever got into really reading. Bernard Cornwell's 'Harlequin' series, then 'Sharpe' and the 'Last Kingdom' books were so simply yet beautifully written and you'll see a lot of his influence particularly as I love his narrative style of being easy and free flowing whilst brilliantly story driven. Further I massively loved the David Gemmell 'Lord of the Silver Bow' Troy series as well as Conn Iggulden's 'Wars of the Roses' series, all being of the similar style, books that once you've started you can't put down.