Griff Hosker Interview Published on: 18, Aug 2020

South East Lancashire between Manchester and Liverpool

My mum- I joined the library and was taking out adult historical fiction from the age of 7. The first 400 page book I read was about King David- I think I was 8 but I can’t remember the author

Historical fiction-Normally my favourite go to author is Bernard Cornwall but I do like everything that Ben Kane writes

I was a teacher for 40 years and I found that to make history live you need to tell the story behind the characters. It is not just the dates and events which are important but the people who create the events.

Both challenging and enjoyable in equal measure. I taught in inner schools where the kids were tough but appreciated the efforts I made. I am still in contact with children I taught 40 years ago. I taught English and I loved make Shakespeare accessible and enjoyable to all.

Making up for lost time. I am 70 now and I have so many stories I want to tell. I also find that writing at that pace makes my stories more exciting to read. I tell stories and I entertain. My litmus test is my wife. When she edits my books I wait for her reaction. If she likes it then I am happy. If not then there will be rewrites. And, of course, I had a band of readers who demand books faster than I can write them.

It depends upon the material. I know a great deal about a large number of my subjects already as history was my favourite subject and I used to run wargaming clubs for my students. Crecy was a challenge and took two months of research before I put pen to paper. ( I storyboard I note books first.) The characters are roughly drawn. It is like painter doing a charcoal sketch. It is an outline but you can see the features. Once I feel I know the character then I let the character determine what they will do. I taught drama and often I will act out scenes to see how they pan out and to test vocabulary. Again my wife is invaluable. I used my father as a character in my WW2 series and she took me to task telling me that my dad would not have said that! She was right and I rewrote it. I also use Beta readers. These are my most loyal fans who are sent a draft copy and they tell me their reactions. Thank fully they are honest and I appreciate that.

Anarchy was my most popular series at the time and I wanted to continue with the family. In addition, I wanted to write a book about the Crusades. I decided to make my hero suffer and so I made him an outlaw and that led me to write about a little known Crusade, the Baltic Crusade. It went on from there and the series has proved every bit as popular as Anarchy.

I hahve just finished the 3rd and final volume. There was not quite enough for 4 books and a little too much for 3. The last book is over 125,000 words in length and that is far longer than my normal 90,000 word books. I have tried to make it a standalone. Readers need not have read the first 2 in the series.

John Hawkwood. He is a fascinating character and it is his life which will determine the other books in the series. He left home when he was less than 12 and went to London. Having written many books about London in the Middle Ages I knew that London was no place for the faint hearted and I gave him many difficulties which helped to form his character. He became an archer but in the next book in the series he becomes a man at arms and is knighted after the Battle of Poitiers.

That is an easy one. I live in the borders and have done for over forty years. I have all the old maps of the area and I can be at Hadrian’s Wall in under 45 minutes. In 2004 I walked the whole wall- alone. I write a great deal about the border because I have visited every castle and town between the Tees and the Tweed. I feel very comfortable writing about the border. I even stayed in Otterburn Castle which is just along the road from the derelict Elsdon Castle.

I know people do suffer from this but I don’t. Occasionally, if I have not done my quota by the time, I have had dinner I might struggle but I have found it is better to write something which you do not regard as good rather than having a blank page. When I edit a book I read it as though for the 1st time and I recognise the parts which are below par. My books take form when I edit them.

My early books were badly edited, and I was rightly criticised. As an English teacher that hurt most of all. Since I have used my wife and beta reads then I am criticised for other things. Some readers do not like it when I make a slight change of style. I have other readers who are very technically minded and they are quick to point out if I used a weapon in the wrong period. It happens less and less but Kindle and being self published means that I can respond and make changes almost instantly.

I wrote a series called Dragonheart which was about Vikings. It proved very popular. The main character died. I then wrote a series about the Vikings discovering America. When they came back I had them return to the land of Dragonheart. (The series were not really connected.) My readers wanted to know what happened to Sámr Ship Killer and Fótr the Wolf. The Vengeance Trail brings them together when they take a longship to hunt for Sámr’s family kidnapped by King Harald Finehair. It is a challenging book to write as I have two series to marry but I must confess I am loving it. It will be a one off although I may write a short story about the Vikings they left in America. This is something I do between series. To clear my mind of one period I go to a totally different one and write a short story about one of my characters. The first volume was Tales from the Sword and covered the Dark Ages. The second, which I have almost finished is about modern warfare – Napoleonic to WW2 and Korea. I find it a good way to introduce my books to an audience which may not have read my work.

London Book Fair 2019- My publishers, Endeavour then now Lume- invited me down and I met a really nice lady at the stand who pointed out that All Author was made for me. She was right.