A note on historical fiction

I am so excited about the BBC1 drama The White Queen which is being broadcast soon.  However I feel it's the right time to respond to critics of historical fiction and dramas such as these, as lots of historians and readers don't like playing around with historical facts.

As a lover of history and creative writing, I can see both sides of this.  On a personal level though, I'm grateful to the Cousin's War series for enlightening me about the Plantagenets - and from there I have gone on to read historical books about the era and the family.  Without the fiction, I would not have found the fact.

The lives of women throughout history are fascinating to me - Empress Matilda, Elaenor of Aquitaine, Anne Boleyn, Mary Queen of Scots.... the list goes on and on.  However, even whilst reading historical books on amazing women such as these, their stories are lost in records of war and the lives of men.  There are parts of their lives which are not recorded, which have been lost in the mists of time.  They did live 500 - 800 years ago after all!  This is where historical fiction comes into its own - it allows you to imagine these women, living their lives, and they are clear and bold and jump off the page.  It honours them; it does not seek to discredit them, and what could be better than that?