What You Can’t Do in Historical Fiction – Frederick Forsyth QUOTES FOR WRITERS
You can say that Hitler won the Second World War, but you can’t say that Green Park* is on the Northern line.
Frederick Forsyth
*For non Londoners, it is on the Piccadilly and Victoria lines
Picture image: rickcheadle from Pixabay
3 comments on “What You Can’t Do in Historical Fiction – Frederick Forsyth QUOTES FOR WRITERS”
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A Good Confession
"Unputdownable" Miriam Stoppard
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 
This is so true even of speculative/alternative histories. I’ve recently finished writing a trilogy of alternative histories, blending 17th century Polish history with characters in an epic trilogy written in the 1890s [by Henryk Sienkiewicz,] and though changing history, the details of real characters and places are as important as if setting an historical novel in the place and times following the real world events. Of course some places might not happen – if Napoleon had won at Waterloo, the Waterloo Bridge might not have been built, or if it had, would have had another name, and certainly there would never have been Waterloo Station, and possibly one fewer songs by ABBA. But Quatre Bras would have been in the same place.
This is a fanscinating insight into your experience as a historical writer. Of course, it’s possible Napoleon might have built a Waterloo bridge in London, but the phrase meeting your Waterlook would take on a different meaning.
heh, it would indeed
People can receive revelations and some change is possible. But some of them are more fun to leave as total gits…