As an full-time author, there aren’t many times where I find myself needing to dress up and present myself to the world as a somewhat polished professional, but this past Tuesday I had not one but two speaking events, including one actually in person!1
I was asked to teach a masterclass to a group of creative writing MA students over at Roehampton University. I was asked to think about and present on how I use archival research not only to research my books but also to find inspiration at the beginning of the writing process.
While on campus, I took a visit to Grove House, which I featured in A Traitor in Whitehall!
Primary source research has always gone hand in hand with my writing. This might be because when I went to university I thought I was going to pursue a career in academia. However, during my second year at college, I realized that despite my love for history, a life in academia wasn’t for me and I pivoted to journalism. There is some beautiful synchronicity there because historians and journalists can often find themselves doing similar things: diving into large pools of information, searching for relevant information, and then distilling it for an audience.
Naturally, when I started writing books, I brought my penchant for research to my writing process. Although I write historical fiction and historical mysteries, I’m a firm believer that ever writer can benefit from becoming familiar with some basic research tools and using them to help flesh out their work.
To that end, here are some of my favorite places to dive into archival work:
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