Historical fiction is booming.
The much-publicised success of Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites, Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries and Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall is just the tip of the iceberg for a genre that rivals any other in contemporary publishing.
As an author of some 30 books – of which only one is set in contemporary times – this pleases me, but also makes me question why readers opt away from contemporary novels to those focused on the past. In my own case, the reasons are clear.
I have always loved books set long, long ago and far, far away.
