The Dragon of Handale is the fifth novel in Cassandra Clark's acclaimed mystery series set in the 14th century.
How I came to write a medieval mystery series is something
of a mystery to me. Until the idea for Hangman Blind came to me I was a playwright and author of
contemporary fiction. It had never
occurred to me to write crime and certainly not to write an historical novel of
any kind. Yet, after a very dark period
of my life when both my parents died, things changed. It was a time when I was beginning to feel I
would never smile again, let alone write, but one night I woke myself up,
laughing aloud. Lol?
The cause was a dream where a tough and ribald knight called
Roger de Hutton, a tall, blond, rangy Saxon called Ulf, and a feisty young
woman with no name but clearly a nun, were sitting in Roger’s solar, drinking
wine and having a party. I fumbled for a
pen and notebook as writers do in the middle of the night and wrote down the
dialogue that had made me chuckle into wakefulness. Then I went back to sleep.
Next morning I rolled over onto my notebook and discovered a
little scene that still made me smile. I could feel my face crack. The whole story soon followed and Hildegard
of Meaux, as I discovered the nun was named, set off on her sleuthing
adventures, putting wrongs to right and always getting her man.
Very quickly, and to my astonishment, it turned into a
series set in the reign of Richard II. I
started from the year after the Great Revolt of 1381 (misnamed by the
Victorians as The Peasants’ Revolt) because I was curious to know what happened
to all those thousands of people from all levels of society and every corner of
the kingdom who survived the brutal repression set in motion by Richard’s
uncles, John of Gaunt and the Duke of Gloucester in particular. Where did they
go? How did they survive outside the
law? They are a constant theme
throughout the series because even after Richard’s eventual murder the
rebellion continued until it merged into the Wars of the Roses.
I’ve just started book
7, The Scandal of the Skulls, set during the Merciless Parliament of 1388 –
which was as merciless as they come, with 21-year old Richard being the victim
of his brutish uncle, the duke of Gloucester, who beheaded or otherwise did to death
every one of Richard’s allies within the three terrifying months of that dark spring.
I should say I’m now totally fascinated by Richard II’s
reign as even a cursory glance at the records - the chronicles with their authors’ time-serving prejudices, uncensored
Parliamentary Rolls, city records and so on - show a very different young man to
the one Shakespeare portrays. That
period of English history, too, deserves to be better known. It wasn’t the barbaric witch-burning epoch we
might imagine. Not until Richard’s regicidal cousin Henry Bolingbroke
authorized the first judicial burnings in England were you likely to finish up
at the stake. And then of course, later,
the psycho Tudors really got out their tinder boxes.
As a one-time history tutor for the Open University I discovered
the importance of first-hand accounts and how to sift them to link up the
facts. Secret histories lie in the
archives to be revealed when historians have time to sleuth through the scrolls. I’m passionate about discovering how people
with no real power managed to survive in such extraordinary times. The pressures they were under and the
decisions that meant life or death make a never-ending saga about our ancestors.
But my main characters are fictional. Although you might be reminded of the story
of Abelard and Heloise when you meet the sexy Abbot of Meaux, Hubert de Courcy,
being monastics doesn’t stop Hildegard and Hubert from having a red hot passion
for each another. Of course, as good
Cistercians, they are bound by their vows…aren’t they?
What I love about writing this series is that I have an
excuse to rootle through dusty archives, haunt ancient ruined abbeys and listen
to early music - and call it research. I’m just so glad I had that dream.
Cassandra Clark
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Always so interesting to read about how authors got that first idea for their book.
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