In the late 1800s, just four or five decades after New Zealand became a British colony in 1840, life was harsh for most of its inhabitants. Men and women had fled Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and England seeking a better life — only to find the reality was a shock. Infrastructure was poor, buildings mostly wooden, and survival depended on resourcefulness and sheer determination.
Yet out of that hardship came something remarkable. New Zealand became one of the most egalitarian societies on earth. In a world first, women were granted the right to vote in 1893. The first woman mayor was elected in Onehunga that same year. And in another world first, The Old-Age Pension Act came into being in 1898.
These are the women I write about. Not the Lords and Ladies, the Dukes and Duchesses, or the glamorous ton of historical romance. But the ordinary, unknown heroines — women like great-grandmother Isabel in The Cornish Knot, Brigid The Girl from County Clare, and Gwenna from the Valleys of Wales. Women I discovered through genealogical research and chose to fictionalise — to protect their real descendants, while honouring their true stories. Because it is they who made this country what it is today.
I know that novels about the aristocracy are among the biggest sellers in historical romance. I understand the appeal — escaping into a world of excitement and privilege, not unlike what fantasy or sci-fi readers seek. But I am more engaged by characters I recognise. Women who changed their lives despite the rules of society holding them back. Women who rose above whatever life delivered them.
I’m a character person. Give me wit, resilience, and humanity over rank and title every time. I wish I could write witty characters as well as the Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey — Maggie Smith was consummate in that role. But since witty eludes me, I write women with heart. And I find that’s enough.
So tell me — are you a character person or an action person? And do you read historical fiction for escape, or for connection?
No Comments