Time and Chance with Sharon Kay Penman

 WENDY  ZOLLO

Sharon Kay Penman,  author of The Sunne in Splendor, the Welsh trilogy beginning with Here Be Dragons, and two Justin de Quincy mysteries, is one of the most poetic and accurate of historical novelists.

She majored in History at the University of Texas and has a Juris Doctor Degree from Rutgers School of Law.  She practiced corporate and tax law for four years. No longer a practicing attorney, she has this to say about her former vocation, “Yes, I have left the profession of law, thank Heaven. I looked upon that as penance for my sins past, present, and future. I always wanted to write; I just never expected that I could earn any money at it. So there was no choice to be made. When the opportunity arose, I pounced upon it.”

            During her short career in law, Sharon was already captivated by the myths surrounding Richard III, and this led to the writing of The Sunne in Splendor, her first published work.

    “I stumbled onto a revisionist history of Richard III while in college. This particular book held him responsible for the deaths of his nephews – the Little Princes in the Tower – but acquitted him of other crimes he has been saddled with by Shakespeare and the Tudor historians. Until then, I’d accepted the traditionalist view of Richard as evil incarnate, and this new image of him as a decent man, who’d nevertheless committed a reprehensible crime, aroused my curiosity. If he were Shakespeare’s bottled spider, it is not surprising he murdered his nephews. It would have been surprising if he hadn’t! But if he had been a man of honor prior to taking the crown, what had pushed him over the edge of that ethical divide?

“I wanted to find out more about him,” Sharon continued, “and soon discovered – to my amazement and indignation – that his was the classic case of history being rewritten by the victor.”

“I spent a few weeks cornering my friends and telling them about the injustice done to this long-dead English king. I got the same reaction from one and all. They’d mumble ‘Richard who?’ and their eyes would start to glaze over, and then they would edge away.  So to save what was left of my social life, I decided I needed another outlet for all my Ricardian outrage, and this eventually led to Sunne.”

Sharon did exhaustive research into Richard III, gaining assistance from many libraries in both the States and England, and the U.S. branch of the Richard the Third Society and its parent organization in the U.K. She also spent some months in York, living and discovering Richard’s universe.

Some of her readers have described The Sunne in Splendor as one of the most vivid books they’ve ever read. They were enthralled with the rich tapestry of events and the interpersonal relationships woven into the plot. One of her many fans had this to say, “I just feel at home with Penman’s characters and their world, sharing in their joys and tragedies.”

Here Be Dragons was Penman’s next outing and the first in her Welsh trilogy, which also includes Falls the Shadow and The Reckoning. It is one of her most beloved novels, and when I asked why she thought this was, she responded, “I think Dragons is so popular because it was virgin territory for most readers. The saga of the Plantagenets was much better known, but not many people were familiar with medieval Wales or its princes. And then, too, the story of Llewelyn the Great and Joanna, King John’s illegitimate daughter, is a remarkable one, which struck an emotional chord with many readers.”

Here Be Dragons is an incredible love story entwined neatly and accurately into the fierce history of Wales and its ongoing struggle for independence. Joanna is a deeply drawn, emotionally complex personality, and an interregnal figure in Dragons; I asked Sharon how she was able to uncover the specifics regarding a mere baseborn daughter of a king.

“All we know about Joanna,” she answered, “are the bedrock facts about her life. I took those facts and did my best to breathe life into them, seeking to create a woman who would have acted as we know she did. For example, I think the greatest proof that there was love in her marriage is that Llewelyn was able to forgive her for such a public infidelity. That would not have been an easy thing for any man, especially a prince of the 13th century. And if he loved her enough to forgive her, she must have loved him too, or his own love would have withered on the vine. At the time of her adultery, they’d been wed for more than twenty years, and no unrequited love could survive that long! The fact that she secretly warned John of the Welsh conspiracy against him is strong evidence that she loved him, and her involvement in diplomatic matters testifies to her intelligence.

“Women in history are too often overlooked; somehow they fall through the cracks. This is especially true for those born out of wedlock. Joanna is a rare exception, a woman who made an impact upon her times and who is still remembered today in Wales as Llewelyn’s Siwan.”

When asked if she took any liberties with Joanna’s character, Sharon stated that she stuck to the known facts and did her best to flesh the skeleton out, adding that it was not a case of poetic license, but rather of filling in the blanks.     

Our discussion continued onto some of the minor players in Here Be Dragons; how did she discover Llewelyn’s brother Adda, and Henry Tudor’s forebear Ednyfed Fychan?

            “All we know of Adda is his name. Until I stumbled upon Peter Bartrum’s wonderful life work, I was under the impression that Llewelyn was an only child, as all the other historians reported this. When I discovered Adda, I was faced with a dilemma. Why did Llewelyn’s brother play no role in Welsh politics? He’d lived long enough to father a child, so that only deepened the mystery. I eventually concluded that he had a disability, and I explained my reasoning to my readers in my Author’s Notes.”

Regarding Llewelyn’s seneschal Fychan, Penman has this to say, “I can’t recall a time when I didn’t know that Ednyfed was the ancestor of Henry Tudor. I assume I must have encountered that fact early in my research. Despite his dubious descendants, I was rather fond of Ednyfed as a character.”

It’s difficult not to care about the scores of characters Penman writes about. She deeply involves her readers in their lives with her careful research and intensely drawn personalities, engaging her fans’ emotions with the people she writes about. 

In her quest for the facts, Penman has developed a deep affinity for Wales and the Welsh people. She says, “Whenever I cross the border from England into Wales and see the Red Dragon sign that welcomes me to Cymru, I always feel as if I’m coming home.”

Having recently visited Wales for the first time myself, I just had to question her about some of the sites, and a certain person (and quite the character!) I met in Hay-on-Wye who was utterly enthralled with her beauty!

“Hay-on-Wye is the world capital for book lovers, a small Welsh town that offers unlimited opportunities to buy second-hand or antiquarian books. The Castle Bookshop is one of my favorites,” (mine also, I might add, most likely for the same reasons as Sharon’s) “primarily because of Edward Foreman, the owner. He is a Welsh charmer who invariably heralds my arrival with a loud cry of  ‘And here’s the famous American author!’”

Sharon obviously makes a rather striking impression on the people she meets; she certainly did with Mr. Foreman, who during our moderately lengthy conversation continually expressed his admiration for her work, not to mention the numerous times he told me just how gorgeous she was!

Another favorite of Sharon’s is Dolwyddelan Castle. “When I first visited it, I had to park my car off the road, ask at the farmhouse if I could see the castle, and then trudge up the hill, dodging sheep. Today there is a large parking lot, a café, souvenir shop, a well-marked path to the castle, and a display of the Welsh princes in the keep. I know there are those who’d prefer to have kept the castle in its uncommercial isolation. But the changes enable many more people to visit Llewelyn’s castle, and I think that matters the most. I am also very fond of Rhaeadr Ewynnol, today’s Swallow Falls, which looks much as it did in Llewelyn and Joanna’s time – except that now you have to pay 40p to view it!”

Moving on from Wales, Sharon’s next journey was to take on the Plantagenets, with When Christ and his Saints Slept, the story of Maude and Stephen’s fight for England’s throne. Deep and richly evocative, filled with sensitivity and struggle, Saints is also a favorite of many of Sharon’s readers.

Then she surprised us by turning her hand to the world of medieval mystery with The Queen’s Man and Cruel as the Grave. Here Justin de Quincy is her dashing hero and sage sleuth to Eleanor of Aquitaine. Written in authentic Penman style and steeped darkly in the atmosphere of the era, Sharon discovered another world for her imagination to tackle.

Still, it is her historical novels that her readers crave. There has been a long wait for Time and Chance, the second in the continuing saga of her current Plantagenet trilogy, which revolves around the relationship between Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. 

“You asked about Henry’s quote. We don’t know the exact words he used, but no contemporary chronicler reports it as ‘Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?’ There are several other versions, all rather similar, in which he complained that there were traitors (or ingrates, or drones) who allowed him to be mocked shamefully by a lowborn priest or clerk. Whatever he said, it was enough to motivate four knights to try and win one for the Gipper [boss or coach, to uninitiated Brits]. This is one of the best-reported events of the Middle Ages. No less than four eye-witnesses wrote about it afterward.”

At one point Penman stated she was in serious danger of overdosing on Thomas Becket, which just attests to her gift for providing her readers with as much historical accuracy as possible.

Off the cuff I asked her, “If you could walk in the shoes of any historical figure in history, regardless of gender, whom would you choose?”

Sharon said, “That is a difficult question. If I could live a single day as a historical figure, then the list is endless: Elizabeth Tudor, Cleopatra, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Joanna, Nell de Montfort, Sally Hemings, Anne Boleyn, the Empress Maude, Anne Neville, Katherine Swynford, maybe even Boudicca or Boadicea, the rebel Briton queen with the unpronounceable name. Despite your ‘regardless of gender,’ my natural instinct was to envision myself in female form. If I had to live my entire life as any of these women, I think I’d pass on that; too many of them came to unfortunate ends. With respect to male historical figures, I am fascinated by almost all of the Plantagenet kings, of course, and Simon de Montfort, and the Welsh princes, and Napoleon, and the Welsh pirate Henry Morgan, and Danton, and Crazy Horse, and…well, I could keep reeling off names until kingdom come.”

So what’s next for Sharon? “My next project is another medieval mystery, Dragon’s Lair, in which I send Justin de Quincy into Wales and he crosses paths – and possibly swords – with the young Llewelyn ab Iorwerth of Here Be Dragons.  And then I’ll wind up the Saints trilogy with The Devil’s Brood.  After that I’m open to suggestions!”c

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Sharon Penman’s novels The Sunne In Splendour, Falls the Shadow, Here Be Dragons, The Reckoning, While Christ and his Saints Slept, The Queen’s Man and Cruel as the Grave are published in the UK by Penguin and in the US by Ballantine. Time and Chance will be published by Putnam (US) in March 2002 and by Michael Joseph (UK) April 2002.

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Wendy Zollo is a Registered Dental Hygienist. Originally from Boston, she now lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. As well as reviewing for HNR, she has had 3 articles published by the Richard III Society. She has a children’s book eagerly awaiting a publisher/agent and has just received a contract to illustrate a medieval fashion/era general publication research book. Married for 16 years, she has 2 children, the elder adopted from Korea, the younger “a surprise”. She runs two Email lists: SharonKayPenman@yahoogroups.com and ElizabethChadwick@yahoogroups.com