Everyone likes to hear a secret. Something that few people know—or even no one else. The rest of the world goes about its daily business, oblivious to the fact that something important is actually happening under their noses. It’s a convention often used in fiction as any thriller writer will tell you. But it also can work in writing historical novels too. I decided to use this device when I undertook Gideon’s Angel, which is set in the mid-17^th century during Oliver Cromwell’s reign. The novel, originally published by Solaris Books back in 2013 is getting a new lease of life (with a fantastic new cover) on 13 December. You can check it out here on Amazon UK and on Amazon US here.

Some reviewers referred to it as “alternate history” but I prefer to call it “secret history”. There is a difference. Books such as The Man in the High Castle, or Bring the Jubilee (set in a 20^th century where the American South won the Civil War) are truly alternate history if for no other reason than the fact that the events in them are known to all in their worlds. Secret history on the other hand is no different to the actual historical record but for a few exceptions that only a handful are privy to.

The events as depicted in Gideon’s could have actually happened and been recorded– had people then known about them. Real-life characters who walk on my stage, such as Cromwell and John Milton, essentially keep the “truth” to themselves. In so doing the reader becomes complicit in the intrigue along with my chief protagonist, Colonel Richard Treadwell, and just a handful of characters while the rest of London in 1653 is oblivious to the infernal dangers that are bubbling up around them. Real life events inform the plot and the characters but I infuse the fantastical and weave this into the mix. It’s important to get the history correct to add authenticity and indeed some characters doubt while others come to believe. It’s particularly fun to write dialogue where one of the characters has to convince another that something virtually unbelievable has indeed happened. The supernatural elements are not taken for granted by everyone but there is an element of plausibility nonetheless. Keep in mind that the 17^th century was the watershed to the modern world but it still had one foot in the medieval. While Newton was unveiling the true nature of physics and Harvey was detailing how blood circulated in the human body, “witches” were still being hunted down and hanged and curses and hexes still carried power in the countryside. Many thousands believed in the existence of angels and demons.

It might not be kosher for historical fiction purists, but if you fancy something interesting, compelling, and fun, I suggest you give Gideon’s Angel a read. Then you can be in on the “secret” too.