Alison Weir is the biggest-selling female historian in the UK. At the age of fifteen she was already subsumed in the research of what would later become her first published books, and when she isn’t on tour with her most recent release she still writes until 2am most nights. At the same time, she still found the time to personally respond to emails and agreed to meet me with only two days notice, staying behind after a book signing despite the fact that her friends were waiting for her and her visit to York was a brief one. In spite of all her achievements, her astounding intelligence and her tenacious work ethic, in person she is not in the least bit intimidating.
It is perhaps this innate down to earth-ness that makes Weir’s books so very readable. Although she’s been researching and writing about history since she was fourteen, as both a historian and a historical novelist, Alison’s books appeal to all, from secondary school children to university professors. She approaches her writing in much the same way, whether history or fiction.
“Empathising with the character is important, and does occur when writing in such depth is a priority. However I always try to remain as objective as possible. If a new piece of evidence comes to light it must be acknowledged.” Unsurprisingly, she sees writing fiction as the more liberating of the two, and it seems she sees it as a welcome change from the rigors of strict academia.
“It is a very liberating mode to write in sources for figures where they are virtually non-existent. The styles are very different, requiring a different mindset and a different way of thinking altogether.”
Weir is somewhat adept at altering her mindset to suit changes in her life. As a student she missed out on a place on an A-level History course – ironically because her fascination with Tudor history stopped her from revising for her exams – but blagged herself a place using the manuscripts of biographies she’d already written. Since then she’s trained as a teacher and opened a private school for disabled children, researching and writing the entire time. Her first book, Britain’s Royal Families was published in 1989.
Despite the fact that her novels have sold astoundingly well in the UK and America, Weir admits that at first she struggled to break away from writing straight history, saying that the first paragraph of Innocent Traitor, “read like the beginning of a history book. It really was a quite spectacular learning curve. I had to go right back to square one, and learn a bit of humility!”
Further attempts were more successful and saw Weir acquiring an increased emotional involvement with her characters. “None of my early writing was at all objective, but then I learned not to be romantic or emotional about history. Innocent Traitor wasn’t like that at all. I felt like I was Mrs Ellen, who’s a very motherly figure. My daughter was the same age as Lady Jane Grey when I was writing, and so the last scenes in the book were almost unbearable for me. When my publishers asked for more I told them that I didn’t think I could go there again.”
Female characters are a prevalent feature in Weir’s books, and one that she defends strongly against academic allegations of increasingly feminised, ‘gossipy’ history. “Until very recently, history was just men writing about other men, which is all very well but there are hundreds of other stories that also deserve to be known.
“My publishers would like me to write about women more, because women writing about women is a big area of interest, but the women I write about really do have to be genuinely fascinating, that is very important.”
After speaking with Weir one is left with the impression that if anybody is well qualified in recognising a fascinating woman, it is undoubtedly she.