{"id":1063,"date":"2012-05-11T13:43:43","date_gmt":"2012-05-11T20:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/blog\/?p=1063"},"modified":"2012-05-18T13:42:36","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T20:42:36","slug":"interview-j-d-davies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/interview-j-d-davies\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with J.D.Davies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cTeach me the sea, Mister Farrell.\u00a0 Tell me the names of the ropes, and the ways to steer a course.\u00a0 Teach me of the sun and the stars, and the currents, and the oceans.\u00a0 Teach me how to be a proper captain for a king\u2019s ship<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 — from Gentleman Captain by J.D.Davies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m excited to be meeting historian and novelist J.David Davies at the upcoming Historical Novel Conference<\/a> this September, in London — having been introduced to his work by way of Richard Spillman\u2019s review of Gentleman Captain<\/em> on Old Salt Blog\u00a0 <\/a>(June 13, 2011).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In Gentleman Captain<\/em>, the first book of the Matthew Quinton series, J.D.Davies transports us to Britain in the 1600’s — a time well before the glory days of Nelson and the supremacy of the British Navy.\u00a0 He writes of the\u00a0 Royal Navy; a time when English sea captains were not the well-trained mariners they were to become in the following century but were indeed, gentlemen captains who often had little or no shipboard experience.\u00a0\u00a0 An eminent historian, Davies has published academic articles and nonfiction books, among them the award-winning Pepys Navy: Ships, Men and Warfare; 1649-1689<\/em>.\u00a0 His blog<\/a>, Gentlemen and Tarpaulins (after his book by the same name) is filled with fascinating historical tidbits, anecdotes and chronicles of his research excursions.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

David, I read on your website that you became interested in 17th<\/sup> century British maritime history at a young age, growing up on the south coast of Wales. What was it about that particular era that captured your imagination?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The seventeenth century was a really dramatic time in British history, and I was always interested in topics like the civil wars and the reign of Charles II. When I settled on the Restoration navy as a topic for my doctorate, I realized it was a hugely neglected subject – people tend to have heard about Drake and Nelson but often don\u2019t know a great deal about what came in between. \u00a0The more I studied it, the more I realized that this was the<\/span> really important formative period in the history of the Royal Navy \u2013 the time when so many aspects of \u2018Nelson\u2019s navy\u2019 were first created. But the Restoration period as a whole is fascinating, with larger than life characters like King Charles and Pepys, court and political intrigue, and some of the most dramatic events in British history, such as the Plague and Fire. I think there\u2019s something thrilling about one of the most high-minded of ages also being one of the bawdiest: after all, this was a time when the likes of Isaac Newton, Christopher Wren, John Bunyan, Aphra Behn and Nell Gwyn could all have sat down at the same hypothetical dinner table!<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You are the author of three nonfiction books: Gentlemen and Tarpaulins<\/em>, Blood of Kings<\/em> and Pepys Navy; Ships, Men and Warfare; 1649-1689, <\/em>which was awarded the prestigious Samuel Pepys\u2019 award in 2009.\u00a0 I\u2019ve read on your blog that you\u2019re working on a naval history of your native Wales, as well as continuing the Matthew Quinton series. How do you manage to write both fiction and nonfiction?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love the different disciplines, and being able to move from one to the other \u2013 clearly there\u2019s more freedom in writing fiction but in one sense it\u2019s also harder work because you don\u2019t have the \u2018anchor\u2019 of referring back to the sources all the time. I\u2019ve also found that the one complements the other. I can use the fiction to bring some of the actual history of the period before a much wider audience, although I always have to be wary of a tendency to slip into \u2018ex-History-teacher\u2019 mode and write long passages of factual exposition! On the other hand, writing fiction has made me think much more about the language I use in my non-fiction, to make it more readable and interesting; I think there\u2019s nothing worse than dry academic tomes about history that are written in deadly dull prose with no thought whatsoever for the readers. History is exciting and should be written about in an exciting way, regardless of whether it\u2019s fiction or non-fiction!<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Quinton Journals<\/em> are very layered, with lots of interesting back story.\u00a0 Do you work with a detailed outline, or is your method more free form?\u00a0 Do you keep notebooks about your characters\u2019 histories, or is it all in your head?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I do have detailed notes about the \u2018back story\u2019 \u2013 indeed, this was the first material I wrote, well before I started writing any part of Gentleman Captain. I think this was the crucial difference between the various failed \u2018Chapter Ones\u2019 I\u2019d written and then abandoned in earlier years; the fact that I\u2019d given so much thought to the back story and to the inter-relationships of the various characters meant that when I actually started writing the stories, it seemed straight away as though as I was dealing with real people who were affected by the \u2018baggage\u2019 of their pasts, as we all are. On the other hand, there\u2019s a lot in my head, too. For example Phineas Musk was originally going to be quite a minor character, but from pretty much the first words I ever wrote for him, he seemed to keep barging in and demanding a bigger and bigger role! When I come to write the individual books, I spend quite a bit of time on plot construction (I usually hire a cottage somewhere on the coast or in the countryside so I can obsess about the plot 24\/7 without driving my partner Wendy nuts\u2026). I then have an outline that gives a number of key headers for each chapter, but when I actually start writing I always try to keep things flexible and to let the ideas flow, reworking the original outline as I go along if necessary. So the writing itself is usually quite easy \u2013 it\u2019s the plot construction that takes the time and the really hard thinking!<\/em><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re not researching or writing, how do you unwind?\u00a0 Are you still a rugby enthusiast?\u00a0 Any other interests?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, I still love rugby although I don\u2019t get to as many games as I\u2019d like. I also enjoy visiting historical places \u2013 this is something I\u2019ve done from my very earliest days, and indeed, it was a visit to Pembroke Castle at the age of five that first turned me on to history. We\u2019re quite lucky in that we live about 40 miles north of London with easy access not only to the city but also, going in the other directions, to the many wonderful historic sites in the English Midlands and East Anglia. I love listening to music, especially Handel and other composers of that era, and also reading, but I must admit I don\u2019t read as much as I\u2019d like to these days; I find it\u2019s an unfortunate side effect of writing, namely that after spending all day looking at words on a screen I find it quite difficult to then look at yet more words in the evening! <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you have any advice for aspiring historians or authors of historical fiction?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d hesitate to advise aspiring historians these days, although I suppose I taught plenty of them over the years! As for authors of historical fiction, though, I think the most important thing I\u2019ve learned is something I\u2019ve already referred to. It seems to me from listening to aspiring authors speaking at conferences, etc, that people can be so concerned about doing their research thoroughly and getting every little element of period detail right that they sometimes forget the essential point \u2013 historical fiction is fiction first, historical second, and the critical thing is to have a good story with strong, believable characters. So really work on your characters and their back stories before you write anything, then develop a really cracking story, then worry about the period detail, not the other way around. And if you can, actually go to the places that you\u2019re writing about. For example, the forthcoming \u2018Quinton 4\u2019, The Lion of Midnight, is set in Sweden in 1666, and although I\u2019d been to the country several times before, I went over for a week last year specifically to visit the locations I\u2019d want to use in the book. A strong sense of place is almost as important as the other ingredients of a good book!<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is there anything else you\u2019d like to say about your work or about J.David Davies, the man?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Only that I thoroughly enjoy what I do, and one of the most enjoyable aspects of all is the really kind and positive feedback that I get from my readers. My main aims in writing the series were to produce stories that people would enjoy and which would hopefully increase knowledge of the seventeenth century navy at the same time, and so far, comments from my readers suggest that I\u2019m achieving both of those objectives! So I\u2019m really grateful to everybody who\u2019s read the books, and I hope to carry on writing them for a long time yet. <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I hope so too!\u00a0 Teach me the sea, Mr. Davies…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Want to read more about J.D. Davies?\u00a0 Check out David Hayes<\/a>‘ interview, and reviews on Astrodene’s Historic Naval Fiction<\/a> — an encyclopedic website and forum for all nautical fiction (and nonfiction too!)<\/p>\n

The Blast That Tears the Skies<\/a>, book 3 of the Matthew Quinton series has just been released in Britain by (publisher).\u00a0 Britannia\u2019s Dragon<\/em>, his work-in-progress about the naval history of Wales, can be pre-ordered on the author\u2019s website, J D Davies, Historian and Author<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTeach me the sea, Mister Farrell.\u00a0 Tell me the names […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[193,194,195,118,184],"class_list":["post-1063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-interviews","tag-biography","tag-british-navy","tag-historical-nautical-fiction","tag-historical-novel-society","tag-j-d-davies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1063"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1134,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063\/revisions\/1134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}