As far back as Lucky Jim, if not further, historians and writers of historical fiction have been at each others’ throats. The Historical Writers Association (HWA) was formed in October 2010 with the unique selling point that it is the only historical organisation open to both historians and historical novelists. Other organisations such as the Royal Historical Society and the Historical Association are strictly for writers and teachers of non-fiction.
It is obvious that many writers have something to gain here. For many years, historical fiction has been viewed as intellectually unsatisfactory, dependent on the archetypes of sex, fantasy, war or crime mystery to attract readers. Despite several historical novels winning the Booker Prize over the last twenty years, the general perception has been that historical fiction is something less than history and, at the same time, something less than fiction. If you want to know about a period in the past, fiction is going to give you an unreliable answer, even if it is based in part on historical evidence, because you cannot tell the accurate parts from the invented.
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