Today, I'm welcoming a Crooked Cat Books author friend - Kate Braithwaite. She's sharing some fabulous information about her latest book launch that's happening today, her title subject sounding like the one place that very many people wanted to avoid at all costs!
Hello, Kate. Please bring us up-to-date with your brand new historical novel.
Digging
up a story… The road to The Road to Newgate
Stephen
King, in his book On Writing, compares novel writing to excavation. The story
is already there, he says, and the writer must chip carefully away, as if
teasing out a fossil from a stone, to find it.
 |
| Titus Oates - Wikimedia Commons |
In
the case of The Road to Newgate, I’ll admit to a lot of chipping. I’ve taken to
describing it as a story of love, lies and a search for justice in 17th century
England Britain
It’s
an exciting story but complicated, and I chose to tackle it from the point of
view of Roger L’Estrange, the Licenser of Charles II’s Presses and for a long
time the lone voice questioning Titus Oates. L’Estrange was a clever man, but
old and not personally very interesting. I wanted to write a story about a
younger man, someone equally determined and intelligent, but who needed to be
more considerate of others, more emotionally open, and to learn to ask for
help. My first draft, then, was this fictional character’s story, a man called
Nathaniel Thompson, modelled on L’Estrange, investigating a murder and the
truth of Oates’s claims. I had my first attempt in the bag - but it lacked
heart.
From
my research I knew that L’Estrange had a wife called Anne about whom little was
known except that perhaps she enjoyed gambling. She was there in the first
draft but did not have enough input or agency in the story. I started digging
again. The draft that came out of this next burst of activity went in a new
direction. I experimented with the gambling idea, seeing if that might bring
Anne into Titus Oates’ orbit somehow and give her a role in the drama of Nat’s
pursuit of Oates: but that just didn’t ring true. And so I tried again, digging
into the lives of seventeenth century women and giving Anne more realistic
concerns to battle with. Nat is ten years older than she is. What does she know
about her husband’s past? Can she trust him? Can she fulfil her traditional
role by becoming a mother? How can she establish herself as an equal partner in
their marriage?
At
that point the novel had two narrators, telling a much more compelling, linear
story, in alternate chapters. An interesting fossil was emerging. But there was
one more character who needed further attention to really give the emotional
pull that I love to feel when reading, and always want to produce as a writer.
William Smith was a real historical person, caught up in Titus Oates
accusations and someone who had known Oates as a boy.
Reading all about the
Popish Plot and Oates, I found multiple suggestions that his ability to make
connections with prominent Catholics, and therefore claim knowledge of their plots
against Charles II, may have been through a homosexual connection. If William
Smith, a school teacher, was also secretly gay, then he would be vulnerable to
blackmail and likely to lie to his friends about his personal life. By
introducing William as a third narrator, I was able to write some of my favourite
scenes in The Road to Newgate where William and Titus Oates interact. It’s the
personal connection that really puts Oates’s viciousness is on full display. And
while William’s homosexuality is key to the plot, it was his close friendship
with Nathaniel and Anne and their reaction to his secret life, that finally
brought the completed story to life.
Nancy says: That's a fascinating 'How Did that Happen' answer, Kate. It was a turbulent time to write about and read about. I see another addition coming up for my kindle queue!
THE ROAD TO
NEWGATE
What price justice? London
1678. Titus Oates, an unknown preacher, creates panic with wild stories of a
Catholic uprising against Charles II. The murder of a prominent Protestant
magistrate appears to confirm that the Popish Plot is real. Only Nathaniel
Thompson, writer and Licenser of the Presses, instinctively doubts Oates’s
revelations. Even his young wife, Anne, is not so sure. And neither know that
their friend William Smith has personal history with
Titus Oates.
When Nathaniel takes a public
stand, questioning the plot and Oates’s integrity, the consequences threaten
them all.
REVIEWS
"Moved me greatly and
brought tears to my eyes. Gripping, moving and brilliantly captures this tense
and sometimes brutal episode in late seventeenth-century English history."
Andrea Zuvich, author & historian.
"A real pleasure to
read," Denis Bock, author of The Ash Garden & The Communist's
Daughter.
"Meticulously researched, vividly imagined,
and deftly plotted. Rich, resonating and relevant"
Catherine Hokin, author of
Blood & Roses, the story of Margaret of Anjou.
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
 |
| Kate Braithwaite |
Kate Braithwaite was born and
grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her first novel, Charlatan, was longlisted for
the Mslexia New Novel Award and the Historical Novel Society Award. Kate lives
in Pennsylvania with her husband and three children.
Thank you for visiting today, Kate. Very best wishes to you for a brilliant launch of The Road To Newgate and with all of your writing.
There's a Facebook launch today 16th July for The Road To Newgate- you can join in by clicking HERE
Slainthe!
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