When I write a history story I have to decide when the action is going to take place – and also where to set it. I also have to decide what is going to happen based on the setting. Then how it happens. And why it happens. But – for me – writing historical fiction always has to begin with the character.
The who.
That who is usually a real person who lived through a period of history that fascinates me. That’s my character.
Once I have the who, the where and when look after themselves. That’s my setting. I need to set the book in the time and place that person lived. If you are basing your story on a real person this is the easy part.
Now – with more research in books, online and in film, maybe – I can find out what they did. Along with how they did what they did, I have a plot or a storyline.
And, finally, why. What motivated my historical figure to do what they did?
That’s my WRITING CHALLENGE for all you young Time Tunnellers.
Can you think up a good idea for a story based on a real historical figure that you are interested in?
Now ask yourself the questions:
Who do you want to write about from history?
When did they live?
And where were they when they made their contribution to history?
What did they do in that time and place that so interests you?
How did they go about it?
And – very importantly – why?
For me this is the starting point for every book I write. Some answers come easier than others, but, if you keep going and research deeply into your who, where, when, what, how and why, then you should have a decent story on your hands.
Tom Palmer is the author of over 60 children's books, including award-winning historical fiction for young people.
Like the post on William Shakespeare, Part 1 - Stratford, this week's Time Tunnellers post will offer another interactive and fun classroom jumping quiz.
Use masking take to mark out a long line on the floor.
Invite as many volunteers to participate as you can fit on the line. They should stand on it.
Explain: A jumping quiz works in the following way.
There are ten statements which you (as the teacher) will read out.
The statements will either be true or false.
Pupils should think about their answer (which may well be a guess), but not give anything away.
Then you say 'Ready, steady, JUMP!' On the command, pupils should jump forwards for 'true', and backwards for 'false'. You can then reveal the answer.
As there are ten statements, pupils can keep track of their own scores on their fingers.
Apart from being fun and interactive, jumping quizzes are great for engagement: even those watching can participate by deciding on an answer and awarding themselves points if they were right.
In addition, cheating is all but impossible: you can't turn yourself around in mid-air, can you!
So without further ado, here are ten questions based on our video!
1. William Shakespeare moved to Liverpool to work in the theatre. (FALSE - London)
2. Some of the earliest references to Shakespeare's plays were in theatre owner Philip Henslowe's Diary. (TRUE)
3. Henslowe owned the Globe Theatre. (FALSE, he owned the Rose Theatre)
4. The Rose Theatre was on the North bank of the Thames. (FALSE, the South Bank)
5. Another playwright, Robert Black, was jealous of Shakespeare. (FALSE, Robert Greene)
6. Greene called Shakespeare and 'upstart swan'. (FALSE, 'upstart crow')
7. Shakespeare was a shareholder in the Globe Theatre. (TRUE)
8. Shakespeare was well known and popular in his own time. (TRUE)
9. Plays were also performed at inn courtyards. (TRUE)
10. Shakespeare's brother is buried in Salisbury cathedral. (FALSE, Southwark Cathedral)
TIE BREAKER QUESTIONS (in case of a draw between top scorers):
A. Queen Elizabeth I often attended theatres. (FALSE, she saw their performances at court, in her palaces)
B. Shakespeare's portrait hangs in the National Gallery in London. (FALSE, Portrait Gallery)
Barbara Henderson is one of the regular Time Tunnellers and an award-winning author of eleven books, eight of them historical adventures for children.
Haworth 1847. When Mother and her beloved twin brothers are taken by the Haworth ‘miasma’, to keep her family from the workhouse, Kate, 15, takes a job at the Parsonage, home to the Brontë family. Kate dreams of being a writer. Poverty and gender stand in her way and Luke Feather who wants to marry her, believes writing a waste of time. When Charlotte Brontë discovers Kate’s passion for books and writing, an important friendship develops. Kate begins to embrace Charlotte’s radical ideas of equality and is thrilled when she spots clues that the Brontë sisters are writing stories. But how can Kate achieve her ambitions to write, while locked into the daily struggle to survive in Haworth?
I have also written since childhood and have been fascinated by the Brontës’ ever since I first visited their home, The Parsonage in Haworth, Yorkshire and saw one of the tiny books displayed under a magnifying glass. Patrick Brontë, their father, was the Reverend in the church which they could see from their bedroom windows. Sadly the children lost their mother and two older sisters in early childhood. The four remaining children became very close and their writing was the centre of their lives together.
I have read the Brontë novels and have always loved nineteenth century fiction. But in 2016 a new biography of Charlotte Brontë was published by Claire Harman. In this book she writes how a new servant comes to work at the Parsonage, Martha Brown. Martha is strong and very willing – but she is only eleven years old!
The Bronte Parsonage (Photo: Miriam Halahmy)
“I am just going to write because I cannot help it.”
Charlotte Brontë wrote these passionate words as a teenage girl. By that time, together with her sisters and brother, Emily, Anne and Branwell, she had been writing since childhood. These were the famous little books written in very tiny script, so that adults couldn’t spy on their imaginary worlds. It is estimated that Charlotte wrote about 100,000 words before she started Jane Eyre, her most famous novel.
Charlotte's little book - 1830 - aged 14 years (Photo: Miriam Halahmy)
Now here comes the mystery of fiction. This sentence triggered a What If in my mind. What if a girl – Kate, fifteen years, very poor, – comes to work at the Parsonage. Kate has a secret ambition to write, and she is gifted. And what if Kate comes to the attention of Charlotte Brontë? That was enough to send me into a spin. I immediately began reading everything about the Brontës I could lay my hands on and started writing scenes and characters. This was a very exciting idea and I was determined to write the book. But I needed some help. I was awarded an Art Council Grant to research and write the book. Ann Dinsdale, Principal Curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum opened the archives for me.
Researching in the Bronte Parsonage Museum archives (Photos: Miriam Halahmy)
Haworth is such a gift to a novelist. The old village is untouched in many places. It is really possible to walk down the steep cobbled Main Street and imagine walking in the footsteps of the famous novelist family. In the Parsonage you can enter their rooms, the kitchen, Patrick’s study and even see the dining table where the sisters wrote their novels. I would stand for ages, imagining scenes for my book and taking photos.
Main Street, Haworth (Photo: Miriam Halahmy)
The sisters' dining table (Photo: Miriam Halahmy)
We also know that the sisters and Branwell walked all over the moors above the village. I walked in their footsteps in snow, sunshine and rain, with the wind wuthering and the larks rising above me on fine days. I’ve seen heather in bloom, the dew ponds left behind from the old quarries and the remains of the three Withins farms. Top Withins might have been the setting for Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
At the ruins of Top Withins (Photo: Miriam Halahmy)
I spent a year researching my book and then a year writing it. It's been a wonderful journey and now I have all the pleasure of taking my book out into the world. It is proudly on display in the Parsonage Museum bookshop and I have been invited to speak in schools and universities. I hope that my story of a poor girl who comes under the influence of Charlotte Brontë, will encourage a whole new generation of readers to explore the writing and the radical ideas of the Brontë sisters, as much as they have inspired me.
On the shelves at The Bronte Parsonage bookstore (Photo: Miriam Halahmy)
Miriam Halahmy has published eleven novels, three collections of poetry, short stories, articles and book reviews. She has been writing 'since she could hold a pencil' and the most important thing she did as a child was reading. Miriam was a teacher for twenty five years and continues to enjoy meeting young people to talk about her lifelong love of literature and her personal commitment to writing. Her books have been published in America, translated into several languages, adapted for the stage and she has been twice nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Miriam has been fascinated by the Brontë family since childhood and her latest novel, The Bronte Girl, has allowed her to immerse herself in the work and lives of the most famous literary family in the world.
Bob Johns paused on the stairs and cocked his head to one side. He could hear his father’s snores. He smiled to himself and stepped carefully down into the hall of 129 Jervis Road, the small, terraced house in Portsmouth where he’d spent the first 14 years of his life.
Outside, he pulled the front door quietly shut behind him and sat on the steps to put his shoes on before plunging his hands into his pockets, turning up his jacket collar and hurrying off past the Royal Navy dockyards. Did he look back? If he did it would have been the last time Bob Johns ever saw home.
Bob Johns
Fast forward a couple of years, to the early hours of 6 June 1944 and Bob Johns was taking a deep breath before leaping into the night sky above Normandy, one of the first… I was going to say men to take part in D-day but Bob Johns was not a man, he was a boy. Bob Johns was 16, and he shouldn’t have been there.
His story is one of so many found within the history of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Europe 80 years ago, the day of days for so many young men and the end of days for plenty among them.
I have read and written plenty about D-day – including a podcast, Wars That Shaped The World – and been interested in it since I was a teenager and persuaded my parents to drive us from our home in Belgium so I could go and walk the ground, see Pegasus Bridge, Omaha beach, St Mere Eglise and all the other places that fill the history books.
Yet for all that I only came across the story of Bob Johns this week, stumbled over it while looking up something else. It’s why history fascinates me – there is always something new to learn, to discover to understand. History is always alive.
I can’t remember if we stopped in Ranville on that teenage trip or subsequent visits. Ranville, a small Norman village, occupies a footnote in history – it was the first village or town in France to be liberated. Among the men of the 6th Airborne Division who drove the Germans out at 2.30am was the boy Bob.
He's still there in Ranville, laid to rest forever in the war cemetery outside the village. On his white marble tombstone, the curved top matching all the other 2,417 graves, is carved the winged badge of the Parachute Regiment, the date of his death and his age, 16. It’s an age that places him exactly between my two daughters.
Bob's grave
There is an inscription on it, requested by his parents, Henry and Daisy… ‘He died as he lived, fearlessly.’
He was the second of Henry and Daisy’s five children to be killed in the war. His eldest brother, William, had been lost at sea in 1940 when his submarine was sunk in the Atlantic.
Perhaps that’s where the impulse came from for Bob to run off and join the army. When he turned up at the recruiting office, the sergeant must have had his suspicions, although Bob was tall and broad for his age – but nevertheless his age was only 14. The sergeant looked the other way and Bob was in.
By January 1944 he had sailed through the parachute training school. “He loved being a paratrooper,” his commanding officer, Jack Watson, was to recall after the war. “He was a very big chap and very capable. He was always ready to help people and really was fearless.”
He jumped into Normandy not long after the clock had hurried past midnight on 6 June to signal the beginning of D-day. Bob and his company were to spend 11 days on the frontline around Ranville and after a brief break were back in action in the bloody battle for Normandy. Some veterans have described this as the time of their lives, and from what we know of Bob this does sound like the time of his young life.
Back home, that was not how his parents saw it. When he’d disappeared, they searched with mounting desperation for their son. Not a single friend knew where he’d gone, or if they did they didn’t let on. The local recruitment office said they’d not seen him (he must have joined up away from Portsmouth). Henry and Daisy filled an ‘Under-age enlistment’ form and waited for the army to send him home to his mum and dad. Except this was not a priority within the armed forces – there was a war on.
At last, the Military Police picked up his trail. He was tracked down to his unit, the 13th (South Lancs) battalion of the Parachute regiment. Two MPs were dispatched across the Channel to find Bob – he was two young to fight. He should not be in Normandy.
On 23 July 1944, Bob was two days from turning 17. He’d no idea the net was closing in on him. He had a war to fight, a war he’d been fighting for six weeks. His platoon was dug in at the Le Mesnil crossroads. At 10am firing broke out. This is how his battalion’s war diary recorded what happened.
“At 1140hrs an OR [other rank] of the Anti-Rank Platoon was shot dead by a sniper from the area 146725. In retaliation we attacked [the sniper’s position] with mortars and PIATs at 1400hrs.”
That was it – the OR was Bob Johns, shot dead by a German sniper. Coincidentally, I read of the death of my great uncle Ronnie in the First World War in the same way; a brief sentence in a war diary that ends with him being shot by a sniper.
A few days later the two MPs arrived in Normandy with orders to take Bob Johns home to his mum and dad. They were too late. Instead of their son Harry and Daisy received a telegram… their boy Bob was dead for king and country, aged 16.
Robin Scott-Elliot has been a sports journalist for 25 years with the BBC, ITV, the Sunday Times, the Independent and the ‘i’, covering every sport you can think of and a few you probably can’t. He threw that all away to move home to Scotland and chase his dream of writing books instead of football reports. Once there his daughters persuaded him to write a story for them and that is how his career as a children's author began. Finding Treasure Island is his latest book and is published by Cranachan.
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