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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 JULY 2022 12 OPINION Good historical fiction is not just about factual accuracy HOW do you begin the process of researching a novel? In the case of my latest book, Man at Sea, the task seemed straightfor- ward if a little daunting. The novel is partly set during the second world war, so I spent a lot of time combing the Imperi- al War Museum archives. It also examines Malta's transition from British colony to independence in the 1960s, so I was fortunate enough to undertake several re- search trips to the island. As a writer, the key is not so much assembling reams and reams of material, but finding the details that make a period or situ- ation vivid for you and, eventual- ly, for the reader – those few facts which make a sprawling and mul- ti-faceted topic specific enough to relate to and empathise with. The novelist Sarah Waters once memorably described those nug- gets of information as the "poign- ant trivia" that provides the can- vas for historical fiction. As a creative writing lecturer, I teach students to not judge their historical fiction purely on his- torical accuracy, but on its ability to evoke an emotional response. This is what academic Melissa Addey describes in her research as a "playful exploration set with- in the frame of the historical record", which allows for incor- poration of smaller, more idio- syncratic details. Other research points to the useful distinction between ac- curacy and authenticity, with the latter allowing for the char- acter-based detail that a reader will connect with. For me, the initial wartime narrative clicked with the dis- covery of the Guinea Pig Club. This was the moniker adopt- ed by a group of airmen bad- ly burned in action who were operated on by the pioneer- ing plastic surgeon, Archibald McIndoe, in East Grinstead in Sussex. At that point, I knew that one of the protagonists of the nov- el, Stuart, had been injured in the war, but the Guinea Pig Club provided a wealth of de- tail and characteristics that really brought him to life. In July 2017, I made my first visit to the "town that didn't stare", where the club's honorary sec- retary, Bob Marchant, showed me around the Queen Victoria Hospital. Here were the cedarwood huts which I'd seen in the back- ground of photographs show- ing men with bandaged faces and long trunk-like skin grafts as they waited for their next surgery. And the balconies over the operating theatre from which fellow patients used to watch procedures undertak- en by McIndoe. Back at the East Grinstead Museum, Bob showed me the archive of club magazines. In those pages I found the ca- maraderie which my character would pine for in those long post-war years, the sense of support and belonging which could sustain him in navigating civilian life. And I was genuinely moved to find the Christmas 1960 is- sue with a memorial to McIn- doe who had died that year. At the end was the simple state- ment: "There are no words." The Guinea Pig Club, and the debt of gratitude the members Liam Bell is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, University of Stirling • theconversation.com Liam Bell As a writer, the key is not so much assembling reams and reams of material, but finding the details that make a period or situation vivid for you and, eventually, for the reader