My story’s origin story
Inspiration struck as I stood in a museum. I was transfixed by an exhibit detailing the exploits of Aéropostale. No, not the apparel company of the 1980s and 90s, but the largely airborne mail service run out of France during the interwar period. I tried to imagine how the pilots felt flying rickety cloth and wooden planes through the mountains in the worst weather, just to send messages back and forth. After a moment, I considered the cellphone in my pocket.
The mundane task of sending messages in text — something I did with one hand while sipping coffee — had once been a life-risking adventure. It was a bracing thought. My curiosity piqued, I looked into the mysterious world of medieval messengers and travellers during my history degree.
As my research revealed that messengers were often used as spies, a story surrounding the life and times of a messenger started to take shape. For inspiration, I looked Bernard Cornwell as well as the Horatio Hornblower and Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey / Maturin novels, all lifelong influences. I really enjoyed how they focused on the day-to-day of the people actually trying to get things done. Not so much the guys giving the orders, but rather the guys trying to make those orders a reality. That’s the fun: the special missions to remote coasts, the cat-and-mouse games with the enemy’s frigates, the raids on enemy ports. I decided to take a similar route.
Regarding the characters, I’ve always been interested in stories about ordinary people facing extraordinary events. It’s one thing for a duke to order something, another completely to get it done. Ordinary people are on the pointy end. As a case in point, during my research, I read the story of a soldier who participated in the siege of Château Gaillard. The siege ended when the inner ward was taken by a soldier named “Ralph,” who climbed up a garderobe, entered the chapel and managed to get the gate open. It’s probably apocryphal, but I love the idea of a soldier so obscure we only know his first name, ending a significant siege because he was willing to climb through a latrine to get the job done. When I read that, I knew I’d found the name for my main character.
With the characters forming in my mind, the next issue — the most important one for historical fiction — was when. I have always been interested in the 12th century because it was a time of transition, a time with one foot in the grim world of the Viking Age and one in the developing world of what historians call “The 12th Century Renaissance.” Worlds in transition are always the most interesting; the collision between new and old create all kinds of opportunities for adventure. I hope to bring the splendour of the age to life in some small way and send my readers on a 12th-century adventure with my characters.