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| Edited By: Yoshita Rao |Source: DNA |Updated: Jan 13, 2019, 06:05 AM IST
Charles Spencer, known for his work as a journalist in the early ’90s, is the younger brother of late Diana, Princess of Wales. The ninth generation Earl Spencer will be speaking at Jaipur Literature Festival’s Biographers Ball. Excerpts from an interview.
History has always been my favourite subject since my days of studying at Oxford University. Over the past 20 years I have written six history books, starting with one on my family’s 500-year-old home (Althorp House), followed by one on the Spencer family. My fourth has been on the Battle of Blenheim (which was shortlisted for History Book of the Year at the UK National Book Awards, 2005), and the last three on key royal figures during the 17th century – Prince Rupert of the Rhine, King Charles I, and King Charles II.
Killers of the King and To Catch A King are companion pieces: they cover the business end of the English Civil Wars in the mid-17th century and involve the execution of Charles I and the hopes of his heir, the future Charles II. They took me five years of research and writing – because much of the research material was the same, and I knew my way round it quicker by the time I embarked on the second book, Killers of the King took three years, while To Catch a King took two.
The biography I wrote on Prince Rupert of the Rhine was conventionally structured: it started with his birth, and concluded with his death. But the biographies I have written of Charles I and Charles II were both different. While hopefully giving the reader the broad scope of their lives, I focused on the key moment in their lives for driving the narrative. I suspect that most readers these days prefer this approach to the more predictable and less dynamic biography. It’s important for a biographer to take a point of view, and use that as the spine on which the book is constructed. Prince Rupert – to those familiar with his name – would be remembered as a glamorous and headstrong cavalry leader. I built him out to show he was also a scientist, artist, pirate, admiral, and entrepreneur. Equally with Charles II, people remember him as a lightweight – addicted to pleasure. I wanted to show he also had real qualities – cunning, adaptability, natural intelligence, and a cruel streak. He was one for vengeance, however long it took. You need to give your reader the full picture of your subject.
I am writing one at the moment, which will be out in late 2020. It’s set in a different period altogether, and it’s been fun to escape the royal Stuarts for a while.
The only non-UK book festival I have spoken at before this was in Charleston, South Carolina, in October, which was fun. I’ve spoken at around 100 literary events in the UK, though (including my own – the Althorp Literary Festival is taking a sabbatical this year, but will be back in 2020). I love literary festivals wherever they are, because I love seeing people enjoying books. It’s also good for the authors to get out on the road a bit, as writing can be a very isolating profession. I’ve been to India twice before – once as a student tourist in the mid ’80s, when I particularly enjoyed my time in Kashmir; then when I was working for the American TV network NBC as an on air presenter. I filmed an episode of the series Great Houses of the World in Jodhpur, in the mid-’90s, and loved every second of my time in Rajasthan.
