The Young Adult Historical Fiction Society discussion

Hi,

My name is Andrew Fish and I'm the recently published author of Erasmus Hobart and the Golden Arrow, a time-travel historical comedy.

The story goes something like this: Erasmus Hobart is a teacher in a Nottinghamshire school. Inspired by a school project about Robin Hood, he uses his time-travelling privy to go back to the Middle Ages and establish the truth of the legend. Naturally, things don't go according to plan and he soon finds himself tangling with homicidal knights, amorous female outlaws and mischievous squirrels. And all in the name of the furtherance of knowledge.

Erasmus is published by Harpercollins' on their Kindle imprint, Authonomy, and is currently available for 99p ($1.62 US) on Amazon.

Thanks for listening,
Andrew

Hi Andrew. When I read about Erasmus Hobart here at Goodreads, I was struck by the loose similarity of the concept to that of my own first novel, a fictional biography of Ned Ludd. I therefore bought a copy, and have today finished it. I thought it was a charming tale, definitely suitable for young adults, and likewise fans of Terry Pratchett. It was a nicely flowing story that readers interested in the Robin Hood era will enjoy, and I smiled at the scene in the Tannery, having recently visited the preserved one in Nottingham city centre (in the caves).

Can you tell us something about your other novels? I've seen in another thread that you've written a whopping 23, and as well as that being a staggering number, it's also my unlucky number - not that there's anything bad going on here ;-)

Hi Bobby - thanks for the missive and for the comments on Erasmus (a review would be nice if you have time). Nice to see you picked up on the tannery too: I went on the tour a few years back and knew I had to use it for the book. Are you local yourself, or were you just visiting?

In terms of my other books, as you can imagine I don't want to give chapter and verse on them all, but they're something of a mix. In no particular order there are three political comedies based around what happens when the result of an election is a government with only one party having two seats. The first two were written in the very early days, the third is a complete rewrite of the first some years later. Then there are two musical comedies based on a group of robots and a human who form an act called Blood and Oil. There's a satire about God being in therapy; three books set in a kind of American cinema world with superheroes, gods and gumshoes (hard to explain without going into plot detail); two more Erasmus books; four other historical comedies - one with pirates, one with Elizabethan spies, one in the English Civil War and one in Roman Britain; an Ealing-esque crime caper; a satire about a dodgy television journalist who is forced to live amongst the Amish; a high-concept comedy about archaeologists exploring periodic collapses in their civilization (another hard one to explain); one about two old men who hate each other so much they carry on feuding as ghosts after they die; a twisted eco-fable; a book which starts from the same end-of-the-world premise as Hitch-hiker's and goes in a different direction and - my only serious book - the first in a YA time-travel series set around the Luddites. I don't think they're all publishable in their current form, but most of them are at least redeemable and some of them I'm pretty pleased with.

There are also a handful of radio scripts (I went through a lot of back and forth with Radio 4 at one point) and a play. Next up will be the fourth Erasmus book and then - who knows - plenty more ideas where those came from. Soon be away from your unlucky number, anyway.

How about yourself? Did you get further than the Ludd biography? Is that one out and about for us to read?

I'm in Leicestershire, and I went on the caves tour with one of my brothers during a day trip. If you ever make a second edition of Hobart, you could expand the tannery scene(s) to include the lime and the parsnip soup :-)

Thanks for the long answer! You're obviously a man with a large literary imagination, and I hope you can get some of those titles finalised, especially the Ealing-esque one, the archaeological one, the old-men one, and the Luddite one. When I was younger, I drafted six novellas, and I remember feeling burdened by the future work that would be involved in finalising them, but in my case, I whittled them down to three and knuckled down. Twenty three is a shedload, and I imagine you also feel burdened by your own labours of love - but at the end of the day, all you can do is plough on with them.

I'm reluctant to get into my own writing here, lest the thread become "hijacked", so I'll just say that I'll be advertising them on Goodreads and elsewhere in the coming months. For now, further information can be accessed via my profile.

Regarding Erasmus Hobart, did it have any specific inspirations, besides the obvious Robin Hood ones? Two novels that spring to my mind are the classic The Time Machine, and Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock.

Hi Bobby,

Sorry about the slow response - got a bit sidetracked by "proper" work for a bit there. That's beta cycles for you...

In terms of inspirations, probably nothing specific. I'm pretty widely read and have a scarily effective long-term memory, so inspirations may or may not emerge from the mulch of my past without me being particularly aware. Sometimes there's a specific trigger, but where the book goes from there is usually more serendipity than conscious imitation. Obviously I have read The Time Machine, but that was probably twenty years ago now. Michael Moorcock I haven't read, but perhaps I ought to find the time.

Anyway, I'll keep an eye on your page for your books. I do get a bit of reading in on the commute each day, so new material is always of interest. Good luck with it.
Best
Andrew