What got you into history?

I had to look VADs up: Voluntary Aid Department. I didn't know about them so thanks. That is definitely an avenue I'll have to do more research on.

My favorite story is that of Florence Nightingale who is usually portrayed as carrying that lamp in the night to tend to the wounded in the Crimean War. But she was one of the first medical researchers of the modern age and a famous statistician among people familiar with her work. She carefully collected data on wound care and wound healing.

She developed what is now known as the Rose Diagram. Who knew? Is she listed as a famous mathematician? Of course not, she's not a he.

Nightingale's Rose Diagram:

In 1858 nurse, statistician, and reformer Florence NightingaleOffsite Link published Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army. Founded Chiefly on the Experience of the Late War. Presented by Request to the Secretary of State for War. This privately printed work contained a color statistical graphic entitled "Diagram of the Causes of Mortality in the Army of the East" which showed that epidemic disease, which was responsible for more British deaths in the course of the Crimean War than battlefield wounds, could be controlled by a variety of factors including nutrition, ventilation, and shelter. The graphic, which Nightingale used as a way to explain complex statistics simply, clearly, and persuasively, has become known as Nightingale's "Rose Diagram."

In January 1859 Nightingale more offically published and distributed A Contribution to the the Sanitary History of the British Army During the Late War with Russia. This also contained a copy of the Rose Diagram.

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Is she often credited with her work in wound care? Of course not, she's not a he. She's the nurse with a lamp caring for those wounded men.

I never thought of myself as being particularly "into" history. The way I got writing historical novels was that I really wanted to write a story about a basically good person ending up doing terrible things and when I tried to think of a scenario I realise that history gave me real examples. I'd come across James Brooke on a visit to Borneo and decided that he was the character I wanted to write about.


After I'd written The White Rajah, an agent told me I should stick to historical novels and I've been turning them out ever since. As my son says, I don't have the imagination to come up with my own plots so I have to write about things that (more or less) really happened.

Well, growing up in Germany where you step into 2000 years worth of history the moment you leave the house, with history loving parents and shelves of books on history ... I was a lost case from the cradle.

I've got a degree in Archaeological Botany, which involved studying pollen types found at different levels of peat bogs in West / Central Scotland to determine what plants were growing, and what kind of agriculture was being undertaken, at different periods of history. That led me directly into more detailed study of Scottish history, that then spilled over into more detailed studies of history in general, and the megalithic stone builders in particular.

I disliked history until I looked more into my Italian heritage and history. Now I like world history, but never got into my own country's history.

When I was a kid (I'm 54) my parents had an atlas that included a historical atlas. I read and reread that atlas until it fell apart, literally. I think it was looking at that atlas that got me interested in, and then hooked on, history, which I found and still find to be richer, more varied and just plain weirder than any fiction.

I had a strange journey...grew up very interested in history as a kid, especially Egypt, Greece and Rome, but then had it knocked out of me by appalling teachers in high school.

Fortunately, I never stopped my own personal education, and happened upon Cosmos, by Carl Sagan - a life changing book which gave me an interest in theoretical physics but also reinvigorated my natural interest in the history of humankind.

Accordingly, when I did eventually go back to uni, I studied law (for a paying career) but also history for love. I mainly focused on medieval Europe and from the start I had this thing about trying to get into the heads of people from distant epochs. Then, one day as I was walking into a large modern mall, I was struck with a vision of the same place as a medieval market. It was quite overwhelming and from that moment I had a mission to try and generate similar visions for others.

I've mainly been published as a crime writer but my debut historical nov came out in December and I would love to continue in that genre.

If we’re talking history do dinosaurs count? (I’m not even kidding.) When I was a kid museums were my thing, and then when I was old enough to read I loved the entire collection of Asterix comics (Coliseum in 52 BC? Piffle to accuracy!). When I was old enough to read serious stuff I latched onto some WW2 magazines that my father was subscribing to and when I was old enough to think for myself I knuckled down to research my own stuff. In senior high school I also had a top notch history teacher who had a knack of imparting his enthusiasm to those of us who gave a damn - he used to call himself Francus Trentius (I assume it was a pun on Terentius Varro, the Roman consul who botched a certain battle against Hannibal).

As an adult, George Shipway and David Robbins kept me on the path, but when Conn Iggulden wrote his series on Genghis Khan his attention to the smallest detail blew me away!

All in all, everyday life is all about historical roots and even now I try to convince people that studying it is a worthy pursuit. Unfortunately, too many people are camels, i.e. they are not horses that need to be led to water for a drink, therefore they refuse to drink.

P.S. I am new to AW but I am here to stay!