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Data goes in, fiction comes out. In between, I suspect, are several million steps inside my brain.
This description of the creative process feels almost like how artificial intelligence works — taking massive amounts of data and producing something new. Could writing historical fiction be seen as a kind of human-powered algorithm?
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What I say to readers is that we can never really know what it was like to live in the Roman Empire 2000 years ago — yet my job is to persuade you that I do know.”
This line struck me because it mirrors how science fiction or fantasy writers build believable worlds from scratch. It made me reflect on how storytelling—whether historical or imagined—relies on human emotion and detail to make us believe in it.
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The word to describe that type of interaction is not ‘affair’; it’s rape.”
This draws a powerful parallel to today’s discussions on power dynamics and consent. Can authors responsibly write historical romance without romanticizing abuse?
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“The silence of British voices is such that we can either say nothing and let the Romans do all the talking, or try and speculate on what fits in the gaps, honouring the Britons as best we can,” she observes.
This reflects a broader issue in historiography — how often the perspectives of colonized or oppressed peoples are erased from the narrative. Could this challenge how we teach or interpret empire in classrooms?
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Authors must balance their intensive research with reconstructions of life that aren’t recorded in ancient primary sources.
This raises a question: How much creative liberty is too much when historical facts are sparse? At what point does fiction risk distorting history instead of enhancing it?
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Readers might be surprised to see the universality in modern and ancient conflicts
It’s fascinating how these stories reveal that struggles like corruption, inequality, and violence are not modern issues—they’ve always been part of society. Could these common struggles be what make historical fiction so emotionally relatable?
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Vindolanda
indolanda is a Roman fort in northern England. The preserved writing tablets discovered there provide rare personal insights into Roman military and domestic life in Britain.
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Aquae Sulis
Aquae Sulis was a Roman spa town known for its healing hot springs and religious worship of the goddess Sulis Minerva — a unique hybrid of Roman and Celtic deities.
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Sue Peabody outlines some of the benefits readers derive from historical fiction.
Sue Peabody is a historian who explores how historical fiction allows readers to visualize and emotionally connect to the past, functioning as a metaphorical and immersive experience of history.
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