The Boy, The Witch and The Queen of Scots

An Interview with Barbara Henderson

Part II

Join us as Barbara Henderson, author of The Boy, The Witch and The Queen of Scots for the second part of this author quick fire Q&A.

What is a quick-fire Q&A?

We have our interviewee pick a number at random and we ask them the general question listed next to it.

Shortly after we switch to asking book-specific questions, to give you a brief insight into our wonderful writers and their books.

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Was there anything in particular about the falconer the element that you wanted to include?

Falconry to me was a really lovely, unique angle because you just don't see very much of that nowadays. But in those days, it was a necessity. You needed hunting birds if you wanted to have meat on your table, particularly if you had a big castle, or an estate. So you would have a team of falconers with whom you went out and hunted because you wanted fillings for your pies.

I visited various falconry displays and I took a falconry experience where I had a chance to handle these birds of prey myself. And I was very lucky that when I did my book launch at Huntly Castle with Historic Environment Scotland’s support they actually paid for a falconry display for the schoolchildren who came. We had over 100 schoolchildren from a local school attend. I was able to do my readings in situ in the very place where I visualised some of these conversations and events to take place. Then immediately after they could go and experience these birds up and close and handle them themselves and see them fly, just like Alexander, my hero, would have done.

For my book launch I got a chance to take a photo with an eagle and, oh my goodness, it was actually really heavy. It was a fantastic shot. That is and I think that will be my profile picture forever and ever and ever. Because I will never, ever have a cooler author's photo.

Do you have any worries or joys when you characterise historical figures like Mary Queen of Scots?

You've got to be careful with Mary in particular. A lot of people have something very fixed in their head when they think of Mary Queen of Scots. She is commonly depicted a little bit older, clad all black and white, she's got this huge crucifix and there is almost like an iconography around her. I was keen to challenge that – my Mary is recently widowed because, of course, she was married to the French crown prince, who then ascended to the throne and almost immediately died after that of an ear infection.

I was challenging that stereotype, and I was trying to shine a light on the other side of Mary. I loved doing that, playing with these expectations and hopefully perhaps shooting some of those down later in her life. She made some really bad choices when it came to men and often paid a very dear price – eventually the ultimate price for all of that. She didn't always call it right, I think, in her later years. But at the beginning the world was her oyster. I think she could have played a blinder and at the very, very beginning when she crushed the Huntly revolt – the year that I'm actually writing about, when she was challenged by the Earl of Huntly, who is kind of the baddie in my book.

She was decisive. She was focused. She listened to the right people and, militarily, she did well. And she took it on herself – she travelled north, she went with her troops, she oversaw all this. And then, although she was advised by her brother, it's a different thing, this decisive war queen who doesn't take any nonsense from anybody else. And meanwhile is trying to actually keep most people onside, including John Knox, who proved a little thorn in her side, I think, for most of her reign.
 
When you were putting together the story, were there any particular events or figures that you really wish you could have worked into the novel?

I would have liked to have put in more of John Knox. John Knox in many ways gets a really bad press because he challenged Mary repeatedly. He didn't want to see any women on the throne – he was not a big fan of Elizabeth I, either. And he comes across as these this bigoted, narrow-minded man. But I think he had principles and I think he was willing to pay the price himself. He was sentenced to serving on a galley, he went into exile for a bit, then returned to Scotland, which was a dangerous thing to do. He was a real man of principle and considerable courage as well.

The other context that was just brewing was the witch trials. My book is set 1561–1562, so the following year the Scottish Witches Act is passed and that's when we see this huge persecution of witches. But I think the worldview, the paradigm, was already in place. People were wary of witchcraft. The fear of witchcraft was everywhere. And I think that permeated my thinking. Obviously, there are a couple of plot points that touch directly on that as well.

For all my novels, I tend to work with a limited canvas, with limited places, limited people and a limited conflict so that youngsters don't get overwhelmed. I think that is one of the things that we sometimes do wrong with history. We tend to throw everything at the listener or the reader. And I think that's when people go ‘oh history is boring because my brain can't cope with all these dates and all these people and all these subtleties’. So I think with a child, you want to give them one conflict or one problem that your hero or heroine has to overcome, and then, when it's sorted, get out of there.

Good writing is like a party. You want to come late, when everything is kicking off and you want to leave early as soon as the conflict’s resolved. And I think that for children's fiction that is a good rule of thumb.