Interview with Brenda Clough on HIS SELACHIAN MAJESTY REQUESTS

I had a gas reading this book.

Brenda Clough maintains she writes historical SF, maybe too confining a label? She has set a number of her novels in the past– including this one, set in the late seventies. It’s loosely connected to her Marian Halcombe series, which takes Wilkie Collins’s once-famous heroine farther into a long and remarkable life.

One of the features of these novels, including His Selachian Majesty Requests,  is their sheer unpredictability, pulling in glimmers of fantasy and SF and mainstream tropes as needed. Her philosophy seems to be “follow the action,” but that action is always character-driven, and finding the tension point between character and plot is one of the elements that make a book for this reader. That and the narrative voice.

I took my thoughts to the author, who graciously took the time to respond. Here’s our exchange:

ME: There are some who maintain that Marian is one of the more interesting characters written during the 19th century, especially by men. She’s very different from the generic Victorian heroine (though there’s one of those provided by Collins!) What inspired you to start this series?

HER: I’m with everybody else — Marian Halcombe is definitely a more attractive heroine than her unfortunate sister Laura. The work was published serially, and you can put your finger on the place in the novel where the editor said, “Wilkie, the woman’s taking over the plot. Wasn’t the hero supposed to be Walter Hartright?” So Collins gave her typhus and sidelined her, so that Walter could pick up the ball.

It’s obvious that there should be more, much much more, about Marian Halcombe. The novel was a tremendous best seller, Marian so popular that the publisher received letters addressed to her proposing marriage. Why on earth didn’t Collins capitalize on this and write a sequel? (The answer is that he was busy inventing the mystery novel, writing the foundational novel THE MOONSTONE.)

Well, when you want something done, you have to do it yourself. I began and it was like getting on a toboggan at the top of the slope.

How much research did you need to do?

Oh, tons. I went to Britain and France to take pictures. I delved into period marriage manuals. I copied out recipes for Victorian invalid dishes. I made smoking bishop and served it at Christmas. I watched YouTube videos about Victorian ballroom dancing. And I accumulated masses of books!

No writer can remain in a static time or place, alas: years pass while an author writes a series, and their own life undergoes transitions. So does their storytelling. Did the series change on you as it evolved?

 I was able to keep the Marian novels purely historical for a long time, but eventually the cloven hoof of the fantasy writer peeped out from under the hem of the petticoat. If we asked her, Marian herself would energetically deny that she is anything other than a Victorian matron. But I have made her in truth an angel, one of many messengers from the divine. All of this is delved into in a novel, HIS SELACHIAN MAJESTY REQUESTS, about her great-great-grandson.

What did you learn in the course of writing this series?

I have always thought of myself as a science fiction and fantasy writer. After writing a dozen novels set in the 19th century, I realize I am a historical SF and F writer. Everything I write has a historical angle in it.

There are many readers who want period verisimilitude, and other readers who prefer modern people in period clothes for their historical fiction fix. Your Marian books hew much closer to the period and the tone of the “sensationals,” though I find them a beguiling blend of the period and modern sensibilities, which heightens their appeal. Who is the audience you aimed for?

I wish I knew! You’ll enjoy my work if you value originality and dislike boredom. I like books where stuff happens! I try to make each novel like a roller coaster. Maybe uphill at the beginning, but it gets steeper and faster and by the time you get to the end you’re hanging onto the bars and your knuckles are white!