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Lucy Moore |
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Lucy Moore was born in 1970. She was brought up and educated in Britain and the United States before reading history at Edinburgh University. She lives in London. She is the author of Maharanis: The Lives and Times of Three Generations of Indian Princesses.
1. Lots of people dream of
writing
a
novel, but few people tackle a heavily
researched slice of history as their
first book. What made you want to
write The Thieves' Opera?
I suppose it was a romantic idea of
highwaymen gleaned from too many
Georgette Heyer novels. I wanted to find out
about the reality behind the
myth and then the defiant, independent spirit of Jack Sheppard drew me in.
As for writing novels, I don't think I really have that page-turning gift
which is absolutely vital. I feel much more comfortable working within a
framework of facts than conjuring something up out of nothing.
2. How did you come upon the idea of writing a biography of
Lord Hervey,
and what drew you to his story in the first place?
I discussed
it with my editor and he thought I should stay in the
eighteenth century, which
I was happy to do; so I began looking for
subjects in the library. Eighteenth century people tend to be great letter
writers and there are masses of nineteenth century collections of letters
and memoirs. I found Hervey through Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, his best
friend, whose letters are some of the most famous of the period. Hervey's
letters attracted me because of his utter self belief, his wit, and above
all the tenderness of his correspondence with his lover, Stephen Fox. I
liked the idea of writing about a doomed love affair, a relationship out of
its time. When I read Pope's vitriolic satire attacking him my hackles
rose in Hervey's defense and I knew I was hooked.
3. You've already done some television - When Money Went Mad
about the
South
Sea Bubble for Channel 4 and Secret History for Carlton. Is making
television programmes something you'd like to do more of?
I
would love to do more - I started writing with the thought that history
can and
should be accessible and interesting to everyone, not just
academics, and so television is the logical extension of that idea. The
visual aspect that TV adds gives you another dimension to work with and
makes the story come to life more vividly.
4. And you were also historical adviser for the film Plunkett & Maclean. It
must have been fun spending time with Robert Carlyle and Jonny Lee Miller
et
al.
As a historian I was fascinated to see costumes and
locations like the ones
I imagined as I was writing coming to life. But the
best bit was seeing
the actors in costume between takes - watching a dandified fop in a purple
tricorn hat smoking a cigarette as he talks to a dusty highwayman eating a
Big Mac is a sight for sore eyes.
5. What are
you planning next?
I have just finished finished the research
for a biography of Richard II,
and I'll start writing it in the autumn. I did
medieval history at
university so it is a familiar world. Anyone who's seen the Shakespeare
play will know what a tragic, compelling story it is.
6. Which writers do you particuarly admire?
Richard Holmes is a wonderful biographer - his empathy and intuitive
understanding of his subjects, always based on meticulous research, are
only enhanced by his writing. Of modern novelists, I love Tim Binding's
work; Island Madness, his most recent book, is set in German-occupied
Guernsey. Two memoirs I would recommend wholeheartedly are Nabokov's Speak
Memory (in fact anything by Nabokov) and Iris Origo's Images and Shadows,
both of which I go back to again and again.
7.
You lead a very peripatetic lifestyle, but presumably you're quite
happy
being constantly on the go?
I have always moved around a lot,
from living in Italy as a small child, to
moving to America when I was 10, to
my father living in Asia and India
until quite recently. It seems quite normal to me to live like this and I
am just grateful that writing allows me the freedom to do it. The only
thing I miss is having my books on bookshelves; I hate the thought of them
inaccessible in boxes in a damp stable.
8.
Which do you prefer: the research or the writing?
Although
they
are totally different processes I like both for similar
reasons. I love the
connections of research, coming across something that
makes something else fall into place - 'Oh, so Hervey had met so-and-so;
then that's why he thought X'. With writing, the bit I like best is after
days of worrying at something, the way it will suddenly just work, suddenly
make sense, or express in a new way what I've previously been unable to
make clear.
9. What tips you have for any
budding young historian?
Read and read. Having gone to school
in America I am a firm advocate of
the old fashioned liberal arts education.
The more you know about things
in general the better off you are; then you can use that broad knowledge to
place the specific thing you're working on into a personal and historical
context.
10. What music are you listening to
at the moment?
The last CD I bought was David Gray's White Ladder. I like
almost
everything, from Led Zepplin to Cole Porter.
11. If you were on a desert island, which book would you take
with you?
The complete works of Shakespeare and, if I was
allowed another under
Desert Island Discs ruling, probably The Great Gatsby.
Even though it is
so short I don't think I could get tired of reading it.
12. And what's your perfect comfort read?
You
can't beat a good romance - a pile of Georgette Heyers, Pride and
Prejudice,
perhaps some early Jilly Coopers, anything by Nancy Mitford,
Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle, Marigold Armitage's A Long Way to Go.
