Me on Influences & History
My Influences
Stories fascinated me when I was a boy, particularly those that offered adventure and escapism. I’d plough through the yarns of C.S. Lewis, Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl, then try my hand at storytelling with semi-illustrated tales of my own. I quickly found the sense of escapism was heightened when writing my own stuff. I think that’s why historical fiction works so well for me, spiriting me away to a long-lost time and place.
There are three authors who have chiefly shaped and influenced my adult writing style and reading interests: Valerio Massimo Manfredi for his passionately-told stories of Alexander, Troy and Rome, Sam Barone for his wonderfully detailed and absorbing tales of early antiquity and the dawn of the Bronze Age city-states, and David Gemmell for his unerring ability to create life from words (his characters positively leap from the page and sear themselves into your mind) while offering simple, earnest lessons in morality to boot.
There are three authors who have chiefly shaped and influenced my adult writing style and reading interests: Valerio Massimo Manfredi for his passionately-told stories of Alexander, Troy and Rome, Sam Barone for his wonderfully detailed and absorbing tales of early antiquity and the dawn of the Bronze Age city-states, and David Gemmell for his unerring ability to create life from words (his characters positively leap from the page and sear themselves into your mind) while offering simple, earnest lessons in morality to boot.
When it comes to the all-important research side of things, I have to doff my cap to John Julius Norwich for his enchanting ‘Byzantium’ trilogy. This was a watershed read for me, showing me that a historical narrative could flow like fiction and underlining just how rich in storytelling potential history is. It was this wry, humourous, sometimes grisly and ultimately fatalistic series (read back to back in the space of a few weeks) that drew me away from the Roman high period and towards the late Eastern Roman Empire and its heir, the Byzantine Empire.
And if my eyes are tired, I can rely on the excellent Osprey catalogue to refresh them. They always come with consistently excellent illustrations ranging from legionaries and equites to Goths, Persian guards and Byzantine Varangians. Add to that the meticulous detail on everything from a legionary’s bootlaces to a Hun’s drinking habits, and my tales cannot fail to become ever more engaging. That’s all I can ask for really: to write of those worlds and immerse myself in the past . . . and hopefully spirit my readers to that place also.