Shortlist spotlight – James Robertson
7th June, 2022
Our final shortlist spotlight is on James Robertson, whose novel News of the Dead is shortlisted for the prize. Sheila Averbuch spoke to James and posed viewer’s questions to him in a live interview on 2nd June. There’s a chance to watch the conversation again above or on our facebook page.
James also answered our written questions in this Q&A:
Q: How do you feel about being shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction? Do you consider yourself a historical novelist?
A: I’m very happy to be shortlisted for the Prize. Scott’s life and work have had an influence on my own writing so it feels right to be in the running for a prize bearing his name.
I don’t think of myself as a historical novelist, but as a writer with a deep interest in history and time.
Q: How did the people and times you write about in this novel first lodge in your imagination?
A: I wanted to write about a place that might be considered by some to be ‘remote’ but which would be central to the lives of the people living there over very long periods of time. Into this location would come strangers, not all with good intentions. How would they interact with the people already there? How would they be received? What values and memories would they bring with them?
Q: What place does research have in your writing? When does the fiction take over from the facts?
A: I have a built-in resistance to getting historical facts wrong, but I’m also conscious that the past is not static. It shifts as our own views and prejudices bear upon it, which is when imagination may usefully challenge ‘known’ facts. This also begs the question, when (if ever) does ‘history’ stop?
Q: Can writing about the past help us to deal with the present and think about the future?
A: Societies and individuals are in a permanent state of change. Individuals do learn from their pasts, and societies can too, though perhaps not so easily. What historical fiction does is remind us that nothing is new under the sun and that the past was inhabited by people much like us.