Visual research

I am often asked about the research I do for my his­tor­i­cal nov­els. When peo­ple think of research I sus­pect they think pri­mar­i­ly of sec­ondary mate­ri­als, his­to­ries, biogra­phies, and the like. That is to say, text. Such texts are obvi­ous­ly vital. For me, how­ev­er visu­al infor­ma­tion is also cru­cial. I am cur­rent­ly work­ing on a nov­el set in eigh­teenth cen­tu­ry Lon­don. One of the great resources for me here is the art of William Hog­a­rth (1697–1764).

His detailed, satir­i­cal depic­tions of Lon­don life (high and low) pro­vide extra­or­di­nary glimpses not just of that world in gen­er­al, but what men, women, and chil­dren wore, as well as the architecture.

Then there are maps. I was for­tu­nate to secure via the inter­net (a fan­tas­tic source for inex­pen­sive used books) a repro­duc­tion of John Rocque’s Map of Lon­don, pub­lished in the 1740’s. (It is aston­ish­ing what libraries dis­card these days! My pris­tine copy of the reprint­ed map comes from the library of Michi­gan State University.)

Rocque’s map pro­vides extra­or­di­nary street detail, so fine that I had to buy (Ace Hard­ware) a large mag­ni­fy­ing glass to find my way. Hav­ing such a map (and being able to see it) allows my char­ac­ters to tra­verse real geography.

You might not think this visu­al infor­ma­tion makes much dif­fer­ence, but for this writer it does. Know­ing I am ref­er­enc­ing the real world gives con­fi­dence. That con­fi­dence gets processed into the writ­ing, which in turn pro­vides the read­er with a (per­haps uncon­scious) sense of real­i­ty, that I know what I am writ­ing about.  Because of these images, I do.