I’ve just come across a very
nice review of Icelight in this month’s edition of The Historical Novel Society. It’s always good to get a review which shows evidence that the
reviewer has enjoyed and engaged with the book – even when it comes with
reservations. While talking about what he kindly describes as the ‘brilliant
characterisation’, the reviewer points out that some of the characters ‘use
some unpleasant male language’ which he says is ‘distasteful though refreshing
coming from a female writer.’ He then
says ‘Aly Monroe is no lady.’
I was immediately amused by
this, but it reminded me of something a long time ago. I have mentioned
elsewhere that I was very much into acting when I was young – attended drama
classes until I was eighteen, and even seriously considered drama school before
deciding to go to university. What I remembered was this. When I was about
fifteen, I was asked to choose a speech to perform from Shakespeare’s The
Tempest. I knew perfectly well that they expected me to choose sweet Miranda.
But I rebelled at being typecast. Instead I chose Caliban’s speech ‘This
island’s mine, by Sycorax, my mother ...’ Caliban is usually portrayed as wild
and deformed, between man and beast, and speaks his pent-up, imprisoned rage in
wonderful, energetic, verse. I really relished
this. It has often been said that one of the attractions of acting is that you can
experience being something and someone else. In fact, the act of
characterisation from an acting point of view means that you blot yourself out
and ‘assume’ another person.
When I began writing –
relatively late in life – I drew on my acting experience of characterisation to
create my characters. This was familiar to me. You listen, hear the voice, see
where the characters will go and how they will react. The words they speak are
theirs.
The characters the reviewer
referred too would certainly never have used ‘lady-like language!
