Alison Weir: I’ve been writing historical novels for fun since the 1960s, and this one was no exception. I first wrote it eight years ago, while I was researching Eleanor of Aquitaine. It was then called Light After the Darkness, and was more “faction” than fiction. Historical novels weren’t selling very well at that time, so I just put the manuscript away when I finished it. I rewrote the whole thing a couple of years ago and was delighted when it was accepted for publication. Lady Jane Grey was born into times of extreme danger. Child of a scheming father and a ruthless mother, for whom she was merely a pawn in a dynastic power game with the highest stakes, she lived a life in thrall to political machinations and lethal religious fervour. RC: It must have felt liberating to be able to do away with footnotes for once. But fiction, especially historical fiction, has its own constraints, and I wonder if you found yourself bumping up against them. There are, I know, a few fussy writers who insist on the facts and the gaps in availability of historical data to be left as empty and dark as a question mark. However, this book, does offer a glow in that abyss. John Man speculates fairly well when he has to deal with gaps in history. His fillers, however, are more based on reason and logic. He does wonderful justice too – makes for interesting reading. Yet, it is all in the third person.

Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir | Goodreads Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir | Goodreads

Hrm. I think I would've enjoyed this more if it had been a straightforward history textbook instead of an attempt at prose. The multiple POVs are mutually indistinguishable, Jane at age 4 sounding the same as her mother as the queen as the duke and so on. The dialogue all sounds scripted, and the emotions are overwrought and rarely wring true. of the blood. . .I think i might have mentioned once or twice that i am a tudorphile. As such, i have read (and own) many of Alison Weir’s excellent histories. So i was rather excited to hear of her debut novel Innocent Traitor (which may sound like a Nora Roberts title but is actually the story of the rather tragic nine day reign of Lady Jane Grey). The story is told from multiple points of view from various members of the Tudor court (the prologue, told from Jane's point of view, waiting in the Tower of London for her pardon from Queen Mary tells how Doyle, Martin (21 January 2015). "Alison Weir: 'I loved fairy tales from infancy' ". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 22 January 2015 . Retrieved 19 February 2019. AW: Because I knew it well, I was aware that it had all the elements of a compelling and poignant tale, and I needed a story that was not too long. Above all, I’ve always found Jane an intriguing character, for she was not always a sympathetic heroine, but a feisty and dogmatic teenager who could be uncomfortably candid, outspoken, and uncompromising. I wanted the challenge of writing about her in such a way as to excite my readers’ compassion, rather than having them pity her only on account of her youth and her being used as the tool of ambitious men. AW: I was trying to portray Henry VIII as Jane would have seen him on this occasion, and for this I relied on the many descriptions we have of him as a sociable, affable, and witty man who was concerned to put others at their ease. He was not always the monster of popular caricature, nor the buffoon played by Charles Laughton!The child of a scheming father and a ruthless mother, for whom she is merely a pawn in a dynastic game with the highest stakes, Jane Grey was born during the harrowingly turbulent period between Anne Boleyn’s beheading and the demise of Jane’s infamous great-uncle, King Henry VIII. With the premature passing of Jane’ s adolescent cousin, and Henry’s successor, King Edward VI, comes a struggle for supremacy fueled by political machinations and lethal religious fervor. Alison Weir explores Jane's life, from her birth to her early death, in her first work of fiction, Innocent Traitor. There were some speculative additions to fill in parts of history which remain unknown, and yet Weir's choices are still probable. AW: The whole experience was liberating, not just being able to do away with footnotes. I loved the freedom of being so creative. Yet it’s true that writing historical fiction does have its constraints. I was very aware that it is important to get the language spoken by the characters right, and spent a lot of time modifying original quotations–which I used wherever possible–so that they did not sound incongruous in a twenty-firstcentury text. I also found that it is generally better to show the reader– through actions and conversations–what is happening, rather than relying on narrative skills to tell the story. One problem I encountered was that, in every respect, the historical Jane comes across at every stage of her life as much older than her years, and I feared that portraying her in this way–which was essential if the book was to make sense–would stretch my readers’ credulity to the limit. So I had others talk about her precocity and her formidable intelligence, and endeavored to show that in Tudor England, children were treated as miniature adults and expected to behave accordingly.

Innocent Traitor - Historical Novel Society Innocent Traitor - Historical Novel Society

The story starts with her birth in 1537. The daughter of Lady Frances Brandon and Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Jane is seen as a burden by her parents, both of whom resent her for being a girl instead of a boy, and is regularly beaten by her mother.Una specie di martire al contrario, se è vero che le sarebbe bastato abiurare e riprendere la fede dei suoi nonni, ma non lo fece. AW: It was easier to write fiction from the point of view of having seriously researched the subject and knowing the story well. But I was aware of the need to make this book sound very different from my nonfiction works, and to this end I chose to write in the first person and the present tense, because no history book could ever be written in that way. As a historian, it was vital for me to make the novel as factually accurate as possible, and I used everything that could be inferred from historical sources to make my characters come alive. Yet it was some while before I felt comfortable about coming down off the fence and letting my imagination rip! Roger Ascham was so impressed with Jane's intelligence that he set up correspondence between her and many learned men, in England and Europe. A staunch Protestant, she would correspond and debate with them on various subjects including theology. Edward VI died on July 6 1553 and the unwilling Jane's famously short reign as Queen began on July 10th, ending on July 19th when Mary I was named the true monarch and Jane was charged with treason. Her sad life ended on Tower Green in Tower of London on 12th February 1554.