Wendy J Dunn - Queen of Tudor Fiction
Interview with Wendy J Dunn
Author of All Manner of Things
Wendy J. Dunn, born in Melbourne, is an Australian author, playwright and poet who has been obsessed by Anne Boleyn and Tudor History since she was ten-years-old. Wendy has a new book coming out January 15, 2021 All Manner of Things. Her other Tudor novels are: Dear Heart, How Like You This?, the winner of the 2003 Glyph Fiction Award and 2004 runner up in the Eric Hoffer Award for Commercial Fiction, The Light in the Labyrinth, her first young adult novel, and Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters.
Give us a little background of All Manner of Things. What inspired you to write it?
What inspired me to write this work was my first novel, Dear Heart, How Like You This? Researching that novel also meant researching Katherine of Aragon, who was a background figure in this work. My novel gave voice to Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder, and poet, and told the story of Anne Boleyn through his eyes. Katherine of Aragon was one of Wyatt’s patrons. When Dear Heart stepped out into the published world I knew I wanted to write about Katherine of Aragon.
It is a complex story with extensive historical reference to the life and times of Katherine of Aragon and King Henry VIII. Did you need to do a lot of research?
A mountain of research – plus two research trips to England and Spain. I confess feeling surprised at the amount of research I ended up doing. I started this work with years of Tudor research under my belt, but I discovered I did not know enough about the years 1501 to 1520. I had no choice but to learn more about the Tudor period to write this work.
Did you follow the recorded historical version of Katherine, Arthur and King Henry VIII or take some creative liberty in the telling of their stories? If so, point to an incident/scene in your novel?
I followed the recorded historical version for Katherine, Arthur and Henry, but I am a writer of fictional history. I practice my craft exactly the same as Margaret Atwood. Atwood writes, ‘…when there was a solid fact, I could not alter it … but in the parts left unexplained – the gaps left unfilled – I was free to invent’ (Atwood 1998, p.1515). Writing historical fiction brings history alive on the page – and that involves taking creative liberties because historical fiction is a creation of a writer’s imagination.
Hmmm – what scene to share…Henry and Katherine did meet secretly before the death of Henry VII. I liked the idea of them spending time in one of the royal gardens.
Wendy J Dunn Photograph
All Manner of Things is told through the interesting character, Maria de Salinas, a close friend and cousin of Katherine of Aragon. Why did you choose her and how does her view benefit the story?
Why Maria de Salinas? I knew it had to be her from the time I read the story about how she rode from London the long distance, in winter, to Kimbolton Castle to be with Katherine of Aragon in her dying days. History makes it clear that Maria de Salinas was devoted to Katherine. She was a fellow exile and a member of Katherine’s household. She was with Katherine during the dark days when Katherine seemed forgotten by her father, and of little interest to Henry VII. She also served Katherine of Aragon during her years as England’s queen. Using Maria de Salinas gave me a point of view character who was as close as possible to Katherine of Aragon, and a person able to tell her story. But the fact we know only the bones of her story also gave my imagination the freedom to construct an important story around her too.
The Tudor world can be quite brutal but you have also shown us its haunting beauty. Would you say it was a difficult novel to write? What was your hardest scene?
This was a very difficult novel to write. Katherine of Aragon had a life of so much sorrow. I wish I could have changed that for her – but I had no choice but to follow the history of her life. I often found myself avoiding writing this novel because I knew I would be writing of yet another death. But I became increasingly inspired by her story. Katherine of Aragon was a woman of real faith. A woman who surmounted grief after grief to become a beloved Queen. She took her queenship seriously and did what she could to serve England well. She was the aunt of the powerful Charles V – whose armies sacked Rome. When Henry VIII decided to replace Katherine of Aragon with Anne Boleyn, her supporters encouraged Katherine to ask him to make war on England in vindication of her cause. Katherine refused to consider it.
So many scenes were so hard and painful to write. But I am a mother of four and a grandmother of two little boys. To lose a beloved child…I do not want to imagine it, but this book forced me to imagine.
Wendy Dunn Photograph
This is a passionate and sympathetic telling of your characters’ lives. We can feel their emotions and struggles. Did you personally connect with any of these historical figures and how much of your own self have you written into their characterisations?
I am so delighted that you felt the emotions and struggles of my characters. Writers of fiction need to connect to their characters to write our stories. If we fail to connect, then readers will not connect to our characters. I have always felt great empathy for my Tudor women. I sometimes wonder if it is a DNA thing – my ancestors knew the Boleyns and the Wyatts. One of my ancestors includes Anne Boleyn’s uncle in his will.
How much of ‘me’ is in my story? I write what I know, believe and have experienced. I am a woman who has known oppression. I grew up in a working-class family, with a father who placed little value on his daughters. Drawing from the experiences of my own life, I then filter it through the context and distance of history. That creates the necessary separation to tell my story, but revised, and made anew. That is, I draw from my life, like all writers, for the purposes of storytelling.
It is an epic story filled with great detail. How long did it take you to write All Manner of Things? Feel free to share its process.
Thank you, Cindy! Whilst I did rework some scenes from my original failed vision of the novel, the one I stopped working on in 2004 (after twelve painful rejections), most of the novel I wrote after the publication of my first novel in this series, Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters (2016). I had originally planned a trilogy, but All Manner of Things is told through Maria’s point of view. Since I framed it as a letter to her daughter, the duchess of Suffolk, it would have been wrong to break it up into two. Plus – I have always wanted to write a novel well over 100,000 words. I had planned and hoped 2020 for its publication year – but changed my mind when I realised 2020 would give me enough challenges to deal with.
Have you taken any literary pilgrimages and, if so, how have they helped your writing?
Oh, yes! I have visited places important to my stories for all my novels. Those ‘literary pilgrimages’ (love that description!) deepened my sense of place. I am an Australian. I needed to walk amongst the trees of England to soak in the green land of England.
These ‘literary pilgrimages’ also opened my eyes to how research from books can often feed my imagination with the wrong information – or how much I can be led astray by own interpretation of primary documents.
Wendy J Dunn Photograph
