Caught Doing the Bear by Leslie Scase

Each week, we invite our Crime Cymru authors to tell us a bit about themselves and their writing. In this fascinating article, Leslie Scase tackles the difficult matter of getting the language right in historical fiction.

In this article I am going to express some of my personal views on the writer’s use of language in historical novels, both as an author and as a reader. By the use of language, I mean not just the words themselves, but the context in which they are used and the effect on the atmosphere that they bring to the page.

Outside of writing I am a bit of a ‘history buff’. Unfortunately, when I do read historical fiction, I am often disappointed. The need for a good plot is common to all novels but when it comes to an historical setting it needs something more.

Notwithstanding the need to be factually accurate…