Robert Goddard, multi-million selling author, talks to David Paul Nixon and Lynda Law about how he writes his style of historical-thriller.
'The past is the future. It is an extremely liberating area to wander around in,' says Robert Goddard. He is the multi-million selling author of 18 books such as Sea Change, Caught In Light, Sight Unseen and Never Look Back, books best known for their winding plots that keep the reader guessing. Although Goddard's books tend to be categorised as historical-mystery-thrillers, they don’t always take place in the past. He sets his characters either in the present – where their activities are affected by the past – or within history closer to the present day. 'The truth is that a large number of casual readers will not buy books set more than a hundred years ago, ' he confides. 'One sight of a powdered wig on the cover and they’ve gone.'
Advantages of the past
Why does Goddard have such a close writing relationship with the past? His first example deals with famous figures: 'You can’t be sued for libel because, of course, they’re all dead. Novels set in the present cannot really deal with real issues. They can deal with real issues in the personal realm of emotions. But we all know that Tony Blair is the Prime Minister, not somebody else made up for the purpose of a book. Write a novel about Tony Blair and you could get into problems. You can write about the past period with total freedom.' The key advantage is that you can exploit the unknown, solve unsolved mysteries, and provide an alternate explanation for events that have taken place.
The past also has several dramatic advantages in terms of crime and punishment. For example, a character can be tried and hung in a very short time, increasing the sense of dramatic tension. The lack of forensics technology also holds a certain attraction for him, 'I don’t know about DNA and all that stuff. And you don’t have to.'
There are of course disadvantages to setting work in the past. Goddard acknowledges that recreating old-fashioned forms of language, using accurate slang terms, for example, is very difficult both to reproduce accurately and for readers to understand, and that certain adjustments need to be made. But it’s not this that puts off many writers who are starting out, he says. It's the sheer amount of research required.
Attention to detail
Detail is one of Robert Goddard’s trademarks. He tries to visit every place that he writes about, and is doggedly determined to make sure that authenticity and accuracy are absolute and that they reinforce the suspension of disbelief. 'One book that I did the most meticulous research on was set in the 1920s. I checked out all the weather reports so all the weather was real.' Research is hard work, he admits, and stresses that there are few shortcuts. 'In a novel I set in the 1880s, I had my central character throwing something away into a bin. Then I thought. "Hang on, did they have bins in the 1800s?" None of the history books I could find would tell me this but eventually I did get hold of some photographs, which did show a street scene and there was a bin.' It’s too easy to get things wrong, he states, and you can be sure that someone is going to notice if you do: 'I set a very nice scene in 1931 at Battersea Power Station, then I found out it hadn’t indeed been built until 1934.'
The danger of research is that once you’ve invested your time in it, you might want to get your money’s worth. Novels with a historical setting tend to be longer and indulge in a sumptuous attention to detail. This, Goddard feels, is a bad thing. 'It slows things down terribly. If you set a novel in London in the present day you don't describe London at all, you assume everybody knows something about it. But if you set it in the past, a lot of writers feel you need to know everything about it. Another problem with a lot of historical fiction is that it tells you that it’s in the past. They must remember that people living in the past didn’t know they were living in the past.'
Practicalities and planning
Goddard appreciates that the amount of planning involved in his brand of thrillers can be daunting for new writers, stating, 'I probably do more planning than writing.' He memorises most of his material, he says, but recommends that us newbies note down events on cards and keep chronological tracks of characters. That way, he says, your main character can’t, for example, go to the post-office on a Sunday. It’s also good, especially when writing a mystery, to keep a note of all the lies required in the plotting of this type of book, making sure you know who knows what at every stage of the book. His final advice to us? 'A lot of writing is stopping yourself from writing until it’s so clear in your head that you can just go ahead and do it.'
