Reviewed by Jon Day

Historical novelists are more parasitic than most writers of fiction. They hang their stories on the scaffolding of established fact, inhabiting and exploiting gaps in the historical record. In this, writing historical fiction is a bit like performing music. Both activities depend on balancing fidelity to your sources with creative embellishment of them. Too free an interpretation and you might be accused of ignoring the facts or deviating from the score; too constrained and you’ll be writing biography rather than fiction, mechanically reproducing a piece of music rather than performing it.