The Jesuits say 'give me a child until they are seven and I will show you the man', or woman of course. When I was seven I spent my time making up impossibly large families in 'my famerley book' (spelling was not a strong point). I also wrote long stories or played complicated, extended games of schools. Although I enjoyed 'dressing up', I hadn't yet started donning period costume but most other aspects of my current life were there in embryonic form.
I am a social, community and family historian and lecture across the English speaking world on these topics. This is also the focus of my writing. I spend time as my alter ego, Mistress Agnes, living in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, working as part of the Swords and Spindles team https://swordsandspindles.wordpress.com/. My book Coffers, Clysters, Comfrey and Coifs: the lives of our seventeenth century ancestors, emerged out of this experience. My main focus is on the day to day lives of ordinary people, particularly women. In 2014, helped 80 ladies to write their memories of the pivotal period 1946-1969, which became the book Remember Then: memories of 1946-1969 and how to write your own.
It is only recently, that I was persuaded to return to fiction writing, something that I had not done since my angst-ridden teenage years. Blue Poppy Publishing produced Barefoot on the Cobbles for me in 2018. The story is based on a real scandal that lay hidden for nearly a century and includes murder, shipwrecks, disease and some lighter moments! Rooted in its unique and beautiful geographical setting, here is the unfolding of a past that reverberates unhappily through the decades and of raw emotions that are surprisingly modern in character. http://bit.do/bfotc will tell you more.
My second novel Sins as Red as Scarlet, is also based on a real tragedy that took place in Devon, this time in the seventeenth century. Here we find, plague, war, religious dissent that form the backdrop to accusations of witchcraft. There is also a modern strand to this book, in which 16 year old Martha researches the history of her town and its inhabitants, finding parallels in her own life as she does so.
Both these novels have won Chill with a Book Awards
In 2020, my short story The Return, set in 1970s Northumberland, won the Trip Fiction short story competition.
As historian for The Braund Family History Society I have immersed myself in the origins, genealogy and biography of this west country family and have written several books about them. I also research my own family history, with an emphasis on putting the lives of my ancestors into a wider context. I am responsible for the latest edition of the classic family history handbook Family Historian’s Enquire Within.
You can read about my chaotic historical life on the blog at Latest News from the History Interpreter do click ‘follow’ if you want to keep up to date. http://thehistoryinterpreter.wordpress.com/ You can also follow me on Twitter @JanetFew but be warned, I have no idea where I am going.
