Joanna Hickson is full of Tudor. She is Tudored up. When it comes to Talking Tudor she talks the Tudor talk (and probably walks the Tudor walk. It’s difficult to tell from today’s evidence. She was mainly standing and talking; walking was kept to a sensible minimum). However, the Tudors she was talking about were not necessarily the Tudors you might think. Not the Tudor with the six mother-in-laws. Other more obscure Tudors. Dare I say: more interestingly obscure Tudors?
I think I do dare to say that. At least I do now.
We’re all of us mostly familiar with the escapades of King Richard III. He got a Shakespeare written about him back in the day and while it’s not perhaps the most flattering portrayal there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
What I hadn’t realised until today is that I wasn’t any where near as familiar with his Bosworth Field sparring partner, Henry VII, and his circuitous journey to the throne. He was sort-of step-grandson to Henry V; his grandmother being Henry V’s widow, Catherine of Valois, and his father Owen Tudor, was a Welsh squire to the late royal’s court who married Catherine in secret and fathered up to five children with her.
That said his actual claim to the throne was through his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, being great-granddaughter to John of Gaunt, third son to Edward III. Royalty was complicated back then.
Joanna Hickson’s background is less convoluted: she was born in England but spent her childhood in Australia, returning when she was thirteen. Her speaking voice still suggests a pleasing antipodean twang around the vowels. She spent 25 years producing and presenting news and art programming for BBC TV and radio. Inspired by Shakespeare’s history plays she began researching Catherine of Valois who became the inspiration for her first two novels: “The Agincourt Bride” and “The Tudor Bride”.
During the course of her 45 minute talk her passion for and knowledge of the early Tudor dynasty was obviously comprehensive. She led a rapt audience at Swindon Central Library on a lucid and entertaining tour from Henry V’s untimely death from dysentery to Henry VII’s return to Britain after a decade’s long exile to Brittany and his ascension to the crown on Bosworth Field via many byzantine twists and turns.
It was also interesting to hear about how a writer of historical fiction deals with gaps, controversies and grey areas in the lore (for example an archive of 15th century records that might have revealed the true fate of Henry VII’s father were damaged in a flood and are currently unavailable for her to view) and the choices they make to fill those gaps. But then as Joanna Hickson was keen to emphasise in her talk she’s a “15th Century Girl” and filling in those gaps was part of the fun.
After all, as she said: history is a story. And the beauty is in the telling.
‘First of the Tudors’, ‘Red Rose, White Rose’, ‘The Agincourt Bride’ and ‘The Tudor Bride’ by Joanna Hickson are available from all good book retailers and quite a few of the online ones as well. Should you wish she can be easily found on Facebook and The Twitter.
