Hello everyone! Time for a new author interview and time to discover a new unforgettable historical fiction novel. Join me, welcome Deborah Swift at FLY HIGH! and check out her just released The Gilded Lily. I'm sure you'll love it!Hello and welcome at FLY HIGH, Deborah. It’s a great pleasure to have thechance to present you and your new spellbinding novel, The GildedLily to my readers, who are always so interested in historical fiction.Could you start telling us something about your heroine, Ella?
I think Ella is an unusual heroine because she is selfish,ambitious and stubborn, not a combination that would usually attract a reader.Yet I hope she is still loveable in some ways because the reader can see thatSadie loves and relies on her. And I think we appreciate that underneath she isstill insecure and unsure of herself moving in a society she does not trulyunderstand.
Is she inspired by any other literary heroineyou admire?
I admired the way some of Charles II’s mistresses came fromnowhere to be very influential at court. Women like Nell Gwyn and Moll Daviswho were actresses or courtesans who used their physical beauty and charm tomove upwards in society. Like them Ella is always hoping to be noticed bysomeone important!
London in 1660 was the stage of great changes after yearsof darkness: Charles II was restored on the throne after many years of Puritanrule. What were the most exciting aspects of those years you discovered whileresearching?
I think what struck me the most was the precariousness oflife in those times. I researched the sort of penalties you would be given forstealing your employer’s goods. At this time if you stole things worth morethan twelve pence from the person who employed you it was considered treason –so the penalty was death by burning. Public entertainment was often to watch ahanging or pelt a man with stones in the pillory. The era was characterized byviolence and death lurked around each corner –death by disease such as theplague, or by mysterious witchcraft, or by the law.Yet still at this time therewas great optimism that a new era had begun, and the times of dark Puritanrepression were over.
How difficult was life for a woman at thattime?
A woman in the 17th century was generally either a servantor a wife, in other words a possession. In some ways the lower classes weremuch less restricted than the upper classes, in that they could move about thecity more freely as tradespeople such as milk girls or ribbon sellers, and manyworked in crafts such as wig-making, button carving, or stocking knitting.
Sisterhood is one of the themes in yourstory. How did you explore it throughElla and Sadie?
I was interested in how people with the same background canfare very differently because of the stories they tell themselves about who orwhat they are. I thought it would be interesting to have one girl rely on herlooks and the other on her skill and then contrast their journeys. I was alsointerested in the fact that sisters can be quite cruel to each other, yetunderneath there is still a strong bond. This is why I chose the tag-line, Beauty is skin deep. Blood runs deeper.
What is the most important ingredient in your book?Mystery? Romance? Adventure?
The book is a character-driven adventure, that I hopebuilds into a page-turner. It examines the nature of stories – how we rely uponthem to make sense of the world. And yes, there is a little romance in theretoo!
If you could be one of the characters in your book, whowould you like to be? Why?
Actually I think I’d like to be Sadie. Although she hasprobably the hardest time in the book, there are people who genuinely care forher. And if I were her I could listen to the apprentice, Dennis telling mestories from his chapbooks.
Who did you have in mind while depicting Jay Whitgift? Doyou have any muse?
If I had to use one sentence I would say Jay Whitgift as acharacter is a cross between Johnny Depp in the Libertine and Bill Sykes fromOliver Twist. In other words, he ishard-edged and ruthless, and his good-looking exterior hides a few secrets.
What is the most intriguing side of writing historicalfiction? And what is instead the hardest aspect?
The research is both the most intriguing and the hardest. Istrive for historical accuracy, but also want to tell an engaging story.
What do you think of historical accuracy in this kind offiction?
Without historical accuracy the book would have a veryunstable foundation. Of course I might make errors, but they are unintentional.Some readers wish to be educated as well as entertained, and a faithfulrendering of the period is what they expect and what I strive for.
When you are not writing, what do you like doing?
I love to walk in the country, do yoga or tai chi or sitand read a good book! J
What are you up to at present or in the next future?
My next novel due out next year is called A Divided Inheritance and is set in Jacobean England and Golden AgeSpain. It is about a woman who travels to Seville in search of her cousin andbecomes apprenticed to a Master swordsman. Very exciting!
Very exciting indeed! Thanks Deborah for taking the time to answer my questions and being my guest. My best wishes for everything in your life and your career.
The book
Winter, 1661. Inher short life Sadie Appleby has never left rural Westmorland. But one nightshe is rudely awoken by her older and bolder sister, Ella. She has robbed heremployer and is on the run. Together the girls flee their home and head forLondon, hoping to lose themselves in the teeming city. But the dead man'srelatives are in pursuit, and soon a game of cat and mouse ensues amongst thefreezing warren that is London in winter. Ella is soon seduced by the glitterand glamour of city life and sets her sights on the flamboyant man-about-town,Jay Whitgift, owner of a beauty parlour for the wives of the London gentry. Butnothing in the capital is what it seems, least of all Jay Whitgift. Soon a rifthas formed between Ella and Sadie, and the sisters are threatened by a menacemore sinister than even the law. Set in a brilliantly realised RestorationLondon, The Gilded Lily is a novel about beauty and desire, about the storieswe tell ourselves, and about how sisterhood can be both a burden and a savinggrace.
The author
Deborah Swift usedto work in the theatre and at the BBC as a set and costume designer, beforestudying for an MA in Creative Writing in 2007. She lives in a beautiful areaof Lancashire near the Lake District National Park. Her first novel The Lady’sSlipper, about conflict arising over the rare orchid of that name, was publishedin 2010.Discover more about Deborah reading her blog, The Riddle of Writing. Check out her books at amazon.com .
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