Remembering departed authors

Submitted by Linda Malcolm, owner of Indigo Books at Freshfields

The literary world lost a few of its stars over the past year, Larry McMurtry and Beverly Cleary most recently.  The author whose passing touched me most was Sharon Kay Penman who passed away earlier this year at 75.  She was one of my favorite historical fiction authors, a writer whose detailed, precise prose enhanced and brought to vibrant life the many hours of medieval British history I had studied.  Her first novel was a stand-alone single volume, The Sunne in Splendor, a brilliant depiction of Richard III, but not the hunchbacked Richard III from Shakespeare.  Instead, we see Richard as a much more three-dimensional character caught in the brutal politics of his time.
Her following tales were written mainly in trilogies, my favorite being the story of the Welsh Princes, Dyffed and Llewelyn, at the height of Welsh nationalism and in opposition to King Edward..  The series begins with Here Be Dragons and who could resist that title!  Ensuing works explored the Plantagenets, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the Crusades.
As a bookseller, I have found that the Penman books appeal to both male and female readers.  Not only is the history detailed but her characters are fully developed and their human stories are told with the same attention as the historical exploits.  Yes, there are plenty of battles and political intrigue but there are also stories of love and devotion.Penman was a stickler for details and historical accuracy, feeling it was the author’s moral duty to render accurate accounts of historical fact.  In a 2020 article, Penman wrote: “We need to be able to rely upon a novelist’s interpretation.  So, truth matters. I would never have expected that statement to become controversial, but never has that bedrock value been under such relentless assault.” Because of the giant scope of her stories and the incredible detail she employs, all of Penman’s books can be classed as “tomes,” most of them approaching 1,000 pages…but I never found them boring.