My new novel, The Anarchy, is published next week by Impress Books. It is the final book in the Conquest trilogy, focused on the life of Nest ferch Rhys and the 12th century struggle between the Welsh and the Normans. In the novel I (anachronistically) use a poem by the Welsh bard Dafydd ap Gwilym: Yr wylan deg ar lanw,…
Down the research rabbit hole
I’m working on a biography of three 11th century sisters and, at this stage of the research, every thread to pursue involves disappearing down a rabbit hole for a very long time, trying to get answers. The critical thing is to record everything in the research process, including more threads and queries to pursue, so that,…
Text is material
‘For all writing, you need to be nosy.’ ‘To me, text is material in the same way as stone or paint are.’ ‘A pen is like a prosthetic for me. It’s like a visual artist needing a sketchpad always to hand, or a sound artist needing to record on their phone.’ ‘The first thing with…
Water Love
My post Water Love is just published on meanda.net. It outlines my future fiction and books on water art and writing workshops for adults and children. Also if you are drying out, unable to swim in these lockdown times, check out the links to octopus art, pool art, underwater soundart and the Outdoor Swimming Society’s…
Female Lords
The eleventh-century countess of Barcelona, Almodis de La Marche, was accused by the monk historian, William of Malmesbury, of being driven by ‘a furious and godless female itch’, which immediately struck me as a good reason to write her biography. I’m working on that biography now and have expanded it to incorporate the lives of…
Thwarted Lovers
Attended a riveting event yesterday where Martin Shaw retold the story of Tristan and Iseult in one day to an audience of 80 in Dartington’s medieval Upper Gatehouse. With lashings of humour and feeling, Shaw led us into an exploration of how the story conjures the rapture and damage of love. Romantic love thrives on…
Norman silver bird brooch
Writing on a Norman silver mine in the final stages of editing my next novel, The Anarchy. Found this exquisite Norman silver bird brooch to help with writing the scene.
The Gerona Beatus
I was recently in Girona carrying out research on a biography I am working on about the lives of three sisters who lived in the 11th century: Almodis de La Marche, Raingarde de La Marche and Lucia de La Marche. More on the sisters and the biography in a later post. In this post, I…
Offcuts from research
This month, I’m working on the final rewrites for my next historical novel, The Anarchy. The book will be published on 2 June and you can preorder it here. In the course of researching my books, I’m forever having to keep the story focused and leave out some of the fascinating characters and facts from history….
Dartington Laser – Tracking Water
The third in the Dartington Laser talks series – Art After The Collapse – takes place tomorrow, Friday 15 Nov, 7pm-9.15, free, at Dartington Studio 3. Pay bar in the Space Cafe from 6pm. The series considers how artists are working on ‘deep adaptation’ to a climate and ecological collapse that some say has already…
Tracey Warr Writing 