Interview with historical fiction author, Anne Easter Smith

Historical fiction author, Anne Easter Smith's main goal in writing her novels is to serve readers looking for accuracy in historical fact, but also engage those who are looking for a good story with strong characters, a little romance, and lots of period detail.  She achieved all of that and more in her three novels, "A Rose for the Crown", a novel set during England's War of the Roses that focuses on Richard, Duke of Gloucester and eventual King Richard III of England and his relationship with the fictional Kate Haute, "Daughter of York", the story of Margaret, sister of King Edward IV and King Richard III and her days as the Duchess of Burgundy, and "The King's Grace", a novel on Perkin Warbeck and the lost princes in the Tower seen through the eyes of Grace Plantagenet, an illegitimate daughter of King Edward IV.

Smith spent her childhood in England, Germany, and Egypt as the daughter of a British army colonel.  She became interested in history while attending boarding school.  Smith also found herself interested in the works of William Shakespeare particularly the historical Richard III who was portrayed so villainously by Shakespeare. 

She worked as a secretary in London and Paris for some time, but eventually came to New York City with her flatmate for a short visit.  The short visited turned into a very permanent stay.  She eventually settled in Plattsburg, New York and that is where she began professionally writing.  She became the Features/Arts Editor for the daily newspaper in the area and wrote about all different topics.  This prepared Smith for her career as an author. 

Smith is not only a successful author, but a folksinger as well who performs in various music festivals, clubs, restaurants, and public radio.  She enjoys biking, canoeing, cross-country skiing, and sailing with her husband.  She also has two children.  Smith also is a member of the Richard III Society and the Historical Novels Society.  Her next novel, "Queen By Right" will be available in May 2011.

Why are you drawn to writing about the period of the War of the Roses? How did you become interested in that particular time period?
Smith: If you don’t mind a tiny correction: It is the Wars of the Roses, for some reason. The singular version is a movie with Michael Douglas! It is now being referred to as The Cousins’ War, which is quite correct, because it was a fight for the crown that had nothing to do with the common people. But I’m a traditionalist, and so the Wars of the Roses it is for me! My interest was in Richard III, who happened to be born and became king during that period, and not particularly in the Wars of the Roses per se. But once I became immersed in his story, I was hooked! It is one of the most complicated political periods in English history, and it’s quite a challenge to get the historical side into the books without leaving my readers cross-eyed!

Your first novel, "A Rose for the Crown" is about Richard, Duke of Gloucester's relationship with Kate Haute and the three illegitimate children they have together. How did you come up with this story?
Smith: When I was about 21, my godmother gave me a copy of Josephine Tey’s "Daughter of Time", a mystery about the princes in the Tower and whether Richard III was guilty of doing away with them or not. By the time I had been convinced by Tey that he was not guilty, I was intrigued why his reputation had been so sullied through the centuries, and why I had been taught at school that Richard was one of our Bad Kings. I started reading lots of books about him, including Paul Murray Kendall’s biography, Richard III, which paints Richard in a much better light. Once I joined the Richard III Society and began getting their scholarly quarterly magazines, I discovered Richard had these illegitimate children but that no one has ever found out with whom he had them. That got me thinking that perhaps the mother of those children might be a fascinating way to tell Richard’s story. Of course, we don’t know if the children were a product of only one mother, but I like to think Richard of Gloucester--a rather serious young man whose motto was “loyalty binds me” -- might have found someone to love before he married Anne Neville, as we know two of his bastards were born earlier than that date.

How would you describe the relationship between Richard and Kate?
Smith: At first it is young, passionate love, carried on clandestinely at Kate’s request. But once she becomes the mother of his children, Kate will give him confidence and solace with her down-to-earth common sense and loyalty. Kate is a feisty, outspoken young woman and Richard counts on her to speak her mind, and he trusts her with his deepest, darkest thoughts. I have always felt Richard’s love for Anne was more brotherly than passionate, although I do believe they were as happy as they could be in an arranged marriage. There are many Ricardian novelists before and after me who would disagree with my theory, but by the time I had finished "A Rose for the Crown", I really believed there was a woman like Kate in Richard’s life!

Your following novel, "Daughter of York" is the story of Margaret, the sister of King Edward IV who eventually becomes Duchess of Burgundy. She is often mentioned in Wars of the Roses based novels, but her story is rarely told. Why did you decide to tell her story?
Smith: Ah, so now you will find out the secret to my life as a novelist; it was entirely unintentional! I wrote Richard’s story because he had been a fascination for me all my adult life. It took me four years and it was an exercise in stick-to-it-ness. Could I write a book like the ones I have enjoyed all my life? Could I do all the research necessary when I had never done research before? How did one go about writing a book without any formal writing education? etc. etc. I did not set about writing a novel in order to publish it. I wanted to prove something to myself. When I met my agent at a party in NYC, I was astonished that she was interested in my half-finished book. Well, I did send it to her and she did get us a contract with Simon & Schuster, but when she called to tell me, she said it was a two-book deal and I must come up with a proposal for another book in 24 hours. Yikes! I had never anticipated writing another book, and all I knew about Richard and the period was poured from my heart into "A Rose for the Crown". Who could I write about now? My agent reminded me that I had mentioned how much Margaret had intrigued me during my research. And so I wrote a one-paragraph proposal about her (which was all that I knew at the time). I also knew this was the first time Margaret would be the protagonist in a historical novel, which was tempting. I was sucked in, and boy, am I glad to have got to know this astonishing woman.

How would you best describe Margaret as a woman?
Smith: If Margaret had been a man, she would have made a great king. She was known for her intelligence and love of books, and one of her “claims to fame” was that she took William Caxton into her household so that he could translate secular books into English. He learned the art of printing while he was in Bruges and went back to London and set up the first printing press there. His first printed book was dedicated to Margaret. What made me love Margaret even more was that she was apparently very tall for the time, and being six feet myself, there is a lot of me in Margaret in the book! Sadly, she never had children although she was a devoted and much beloved stepmother to Charles the Bold of Burgundy’s only child, Mary.

Your most recent novel, "The King's Grace" tells the story of Grace Plantagenet, the illegitimate daughter of King Edward IV and her journey to discover the secrets behind the lost Princes in the Tower. Why did you decide to write the story seen through the eyes of Grace?
Smith: As with "A Rose for the Crown", I find it quite freeing to conjure up a protagonist from my imagination. Yes, we know that Grace existed through one line that mentions her in one of the contemporary chronicles. But nowhere else is she recorded and so I had to make up her backstory and place her in (Queen) Elizabeth Woodville’s household, where she could be my eyes and ears at the court of Henry VII and be almost invisible. The book is mainly a vehicle to tell the tragic story of Perkin Warbeck, a pretender to Henry’s crown.

Why do you think the story of Perkin Warbeck who could have been Richard, Duke of York is so compelling to readers?
Smith: Because it is still a mystery to this day. Until someone finds and definitively identifies the bodies of the princes in the Tower, we will never know if this man who said he was one of them and came back to haunt Henry Tudor for nine years was really Richard or an imposter. It means that anyone’s plausible theory about whether he was or was not Richard is as good as the next one! I came up with my theory based on information found about a secret boy Margaret kept at one of her palaces in Burgundy for seven years.

Your next novel is "Queen By Right"which will be released in May 2011. Can you tell us what the novel will be about?
Smith: Cecily Neville married Richard, duke of York in 1428, and it was Richard’s claim to the throne that led to the Wars of the Roses. "Queen By Right" is in the editing stage right now but will be out in May. I loved writing this story, although I had to do a ton of research on an earlier period than the Wars of the Roses because Cecily was in her 40s when the war began and my book covers her early years. She lived to be 80 even after having given birth to 13 children. I thought Margaret was my favorite protagonist until I got to know her mother! Hers and Richard of York’s marriage was a love story for the ages.

You write about the period of Richard III and give him a sympathetic portrayal. Why do you believe he was not the villain history has made him out to be?
Smith: As I mentioned earlier, because I have read so much about this man and have come to believe he was no better or worse than other men born into the nobility in medieval times. I believe Shakespeare has a lot of the blame (inadvertent or not) for blackening Richard’s name. He used early Tudor historians’ accounts, including Sir Thomas More’s “Historie of King Richard the Third,” on which to base his play. Who can blame him? He was living under a Tudor monarchy--the royal house that had taken Richard’s crown a hundred years before, and you know how many heads rolled during the Tudors’ reign. Shakespeare was merely reinforcing the Tudor propaganda that they were right to take this crookback monster’s crown. But if you study the records from Richard’s own time -- foreign ambassadors, letters, chronicles etc. -- you will discover that Richard was not a hunchback and many of the murders that Shakespeare laid at Richard’s door were actually ordered by Edward IV, his brother. But Shakespeare was the media of his time and thousands flocked to see his plays in London and believed what they heard--rather like our TV biopics today.

What other figures of the War of the Roses interest you?
Smith: Certainly Richard, earl of Warwick was a fascinating man--Warwick the Kingmaker, he was called. He was Cecily Neville’s nephew and very powerful. He helped put Cecily’s oldest son Edward on the throne as the first Yorkist king and then when Edward eschewed his counsel, he turned his coat and joined with Queen Margaret of Anjou to put her husband, the weak Henry VI, back on the throne. He was killed at the Battle of Barnet in 1471 fighting for the Lancastrians.

What other time periods in history are you drawn to and would like to write about?
Smith:I started a novel in the style of Georgette Heyer, all of whose books I had read by age 19, and loved the Regency period and the Napoleonic era before it. Then there is Charles II’s reign (late 1600s) and the 14th century, but I have never been drawn to write about the Tudors. Personally, I am sick and tired of them--and they killed my Richard!

Where have you traveled for inspiration and research for your novels?
Smith: I try to walk as much territory as my characters would have, and so my travels have taken me all over England, to Belgium--Bruges, Brussels, Ghent, Binche, Mechelen, to Lisbon, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. And I took a nostalgic trip back to Normandy, where I used to spend all my summer holidays as a teen, and specifically to Rouen to walk in Joan of Arc’s famous footsteps for my newest book, "Queen By Right".

What authors from the past and present have inspired you?
Smith: I am a huge Charles Dickens fan. His language and gift for storytelling is unmatched in English literature. I look to Jane Austen for characters, however. Those historical fiction authors I have enjoyed and drawn inspiration from are Anya Seton, Edward Rutherfurd, Ken Follett and Sharon Kay Penman. I hope you noticed that they all also produce rather large books!

For fun, if you were living in the time period of the Wars of the Roses, would you have been a Yorkist or a Lancastrian?
Smith: After reading the interview, I don’t think there is any doubt that I would be raising the White Rose banner and fighting in murrey and blue!

*A huge thanks to Anne Easter Smith for this interesting interview*

"Queen By Right" will be available in May 2011

For more information on Anne Easter Smith: http://www.anneeastersmith.com/Home_Page.html