I write both fiction and non-fiction. I’ve published ten novels so far, a book on utopian thought, and biographies of Ann Lee, the founder of the Shakers, and of Samuel Sewall, the only one of the Salem witch trial judges to admit the whole thing was a miscarriage of justice. I also produced a sort of collective biography in my book about the ill-fated Fruitlands experiment, undertaken by Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane (along with their long-suffering families) in Massachusetts in the 1840s. After that, I revisited Sewall’s Salem traumas in a novel, Crane Pond, published by Europa in 2016. Biography can only tell the external part of a story, and I felt this strange drama could do with exploring on a psychological and emotional level that was hardly possible with a strictly historical approach.
My most recent book, Laura Laura, is a lot closer to home, quite literally, centring on a retired historian living in Bath whose existence is unsettled by a chance meeting with a young girl. He comes to realise that the past is as equivocal and mysterious as the future, since there are so many routes you can take through it. It’s a book about marriage and adultery, memory and forgetting, both funny (I hope) and disturbing at the same time, and will be published by Europa on 13 August 2020.
In the meantime I’m delighted to go into business with my daughter Helen. She has experience in every aspect of publishing, and we are setting up an MS editing and mentoring service: https://www.francisliteraryconsultants.co.uk/.
I’m feeling even more inspired to write and get published after the talk you gave at Bath Spa University this evening, thanks.
Thanks so much for taking the trouble to write. I really enjoyed doing the talk – my first at Bath Spa since I left 16 months ago. It made me feel very nostalgic for the place. Don’t forget you’re welcome to come to my talk at Toppings on Tuesday – 7:45 for 8:00 pm. Just say at the door you’re a guest. All the best, Richard
I have a question regarding literature which has occupied my mind for sometime. I am sure there must be writing on this subject, but as a professor of creative writing, do you think there exist objective means by which we can know literature to be ‘good’, or is it all a matter of taste, of subjective opinion? For example, can we ‘know’, that Jane Austen is ‘better’ than Barbara Cartland? I’d be very interested in your answer and also grateful if you could direct me to some works that deal with this question. Thank you.
Dear Tim
The nearest thing to an objective test I suppose is the verdict of history – on the whole, the novels that have the most subtle characterisation, the most meaningful stories and the best writing, tend to survive. People I suspect will be reading William Golding in fifty years and not Barbara Cartland. But individual judgements are bound to be subjective, though the more a person reads the more he or she is likely to home in on books that are ambitious and which make serious explorations of life. Practically any critical book is ultimately aimed at establishing the criteria of quality. But the best method is to read as much as possible, with close attention, and see which books reward that time spent. Not everyone will agree with your choices, but that’s OK. you end up as part of an overlapping consensus. To answer your other question, I no longer teach creative writing, but write full time.
Best,
Richard
whoah this blog is great i like reading your articles. Keep up the good paintings! You know, a lot of people are looking round for this info, you could help them greatly.
Have you got the wrong blog?
Non-fiction is something I have never really explored or wanted to write.
However after hearing your talk tonight at Bath Spa University, it is now something I am excited to try out. I would have never made a historian but I am fascinated by history – in particular history’s horrific events such as the Salem Witch Trials you write about in ‘Judge Sewall’s Apology’. The research involved in writing non-fiction must be fascinating.
Thanks for a passionate and inspiring lecture.
Dear Amy
Thanks you so much for taking the trouble to write. You were a great audience. I do think biography and non-fiction generally are a bit overlooked by many CW students. Yes, it is fascinating to do the research. Good luck with it!
Best wishes,
Richard
Dear Mr. Francis,
I really enjoyed reading Judge Sewall’s Apology but I have some lingering questions. What specifically would you say your argument was? (Judge Sewall went back on his verdict and apologized years later?) I also have a more personal questions, how do you situate your work in the existing scholarship on the topic?
Thanks,
Liana
Dear Lianne
I’m in France at the moment, but would be happy to answer your query when I return to England. Many thanks for taking the trouble to write – and so glad you enjoyed the book.
best wishes,
Richard
Hi Richard,
Just used your Fruitlands book for a research paper. Found myself to be so interested in your writing I actually couldn’t put the book down! Thanks for the fascinating information
Hi Liane
Many thanks. I’m so glad you enjoyed it – and thank you for the taking the trouble to write.
best wishes,
Richard
Whoops sorry. I used the name of another correspondent by mistake! So sorry Marianne.
Best,
Richard
Mr. Francis,
I have just finished reading Crane Pond and I found it quite riveting. I live in Danvers Ma. only about 1000 yards from the excavated Parris farm so this topic is literally close to home. It is fascinating how you portrayed S. Sewall as such a weak willed individual so easily swayed by his peers. I haven’t read all of his diary but I must say he would seem to be a man concerned with keeping what he had including his status. You paint him as a frightened man with repressed sexual cravings. I wonder that all the Puritans didn’t suffer such. It seems to me that they were all frightened of their immediate surroundings and saw goblins or savages (one in the same) behind every tree.
The real fight here was between the Porters and the Putnams, the latter siding with S. Parris to fund his ministry, These two families had much of the wealth in Salem Village and they were feuding at the time. The Putnams alone accused 50 of the people imprisoned. As I see it, this was more of a land grab at the beginning until the superstitious Judges became involved. It was a perfect storm of greed and hysteria that still reverberates to this very day.
In 2010, in a diary written by John Adams (1766) was found a reference to the spot where the accused were hung and buried. It was “a hill about half a mile from Cranches” (his in-laws). This is where the “executed witches were buried.” It is a “memorial of that memorable victory over the prince of the power of the air.”
I find it fascinating that 74 years later people still saw it as a victory over Satan. Strangely, to this day the accused are still referred to as witches and many believe that some, in fact, were. Some point to the succession of Sheriffs that all died of heart problems until that office was moved out of Salem as the result of a curse Giles Corey put on George Corwin. Evidence of a witches curse?
There is a memorial there now but it certainly doesn’t remind us of a victory. It’s on Pope Street (ironic) and I think it was dedicated in 2016.
https://salemwitchmuseum.com/proctors-ledge
Sincerely from a satisfied reader,
Robert Domingue
Danvers, MA
So sorry – I’ve not been into my website for a while, as you can see! Thank you for your fascinating letter. Asa in so many crises I think there was a toxic layering of mercenary and imaginative elements in the crisis. As you say, there was a genuine belief in witches (and depite his apology, Sewall continued to believe in them), while many cynical motives at play at the same time. Yes, Sewwall, was frighgtened oif ostracization – which mnakes his apology all the mnore impressive, I think. Many thanks. Richard.