Ask the Author: Lucienne Boyce
Answered Questions (3)
Lucienne Boyce
At the moment I’m working on the second Dan Foster Mystery, which takes as its background the government’s attempts to suppress the radical reform societies of the 1790s, and sets Dan on the trail of the murderer of a fellow police officer. I’m also working on a biography of suffragette Millicent Browne.
Lucienne Boyce
Inspiration comes from all sorts of places – from studying the eighteenth century, from local places and local history – I live in Bristol, England, where the streets and quays are full of history, and every village, tree and field has a story to tell. I also find inspiration through immersing myself in the culture of the period through its arts, literature and politics. One of the most important literary inspirations for Bloodie Bones was John Clare’s beautiful poem The Mores, which brings home the impact of enclosures on the working people affected by them. And I also see connections between what’s happening today and what happened in the past – the enclosures movement, for example, shaped our landscape, it helped alter people’s working patterns, and encouraged the development of industrial towns.
Lucienne Boyce
I’ve always been interested in radical history, and especially in the relationship between justice and law – the point at which people are prepared to break the law to fight for their rights. That’s what links my non-fiction work, which is on the suffragettes, with my fiction. In Bloodie Bones Dan Foster, a Bow Street Runner who is also an amateur pugilist, is sent to investigate the murder of a gamekeeper which is connected with local protest about a recent land enclosure. By focussing on a character whose job is to uphold the law, I can reflect the theme of the boundaries between lawlessness and protest, especially as Dan himself often recognises that the law is not always just. I also wanted to write about the enclosure movement which is often skirted over by historians as if it was an inevitable “progression”, when in fact it brought with it much suffering and injustice.
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