ANTONIA HODGSON is an awarding-winning writer and author of the bestselling ‘Thomas Hawkins’ historical crime series. Her latest novel, The Raven Scholar, is the first in a new fantasy series.

Good Reading caught up with Antonia to discuss her shift into the fantasy genre.

As a child Antonia Hodgson remembers wanting to write plays.

‘I think I liked the idea of spending time alone writing but also being involved with actors. I also wanted to act for a little while, in my early teens, but that would have been disastrous. I’m far too sensitive to rejection!’

Although playwriting never become her career, she has spent her life working with words as an editor and now as a bestselling novelist.

‘My job involved a lot of reading and structural editing, and I worked with a wide range of creative people – not just novelists but musicians, actors, journalists, comedians. That being said, when it comes to sitting down in front of the computer … you’re on your own. I love being absorbed in my work, so that everything else around me disappears.’

Antonia says her debut novel, The Devil in the Marshalsea, to a small extent, sprang out of an unpublished novel – a Gothic vampire fantasy she spent five years writing.

‘Once I realised my vampire novel wasn’t going to work, I put it down, and the character of Tom Hawkins sauntered into my head. I thought, I’d like to write a first-person murder mystery, set at street level, with this gentleman who thinks he’s a scoundrel, but is actually kinder and a touch more innocent than he realises. I asked myself – where would he be at the start of the novel, given the choices he’s made. The answer came to me straightaway: a debtors’ prison. From there, my research took me to Marshalsea Prison, and the real, horrifying story of what was happening within its walls in the late 1720s.’

The Devil in the Marshal sea won the prestigious CWA Historical Dagger Award and more bestselling books followed. Now she has changed genre. The Raven Scholar is a big (in every sense of the word) chunky fantasy, the first in a new series. Compared to crime fiction, writing fantasy can be a complex journey, with worldbuilding, intricate detailing, and all sorts of ideas you can add to the mix, so The Raven Scholar took Antonia four years to write.

‘It takes time to build an entire world, I discovered. The book is both an epic fantasy and a murder mystery, with a lot of action and a big cast of characters. The world-building was a bigger task this time, because it was all invented. One of the first things I did was draw a map, which instantly offered up so much context and inspiration. And having drawn from primary sources for my historical novels, I enjoyed inventing sources this time around: plays, poems, myths, historical figures, folk tales, paintings. Most are only alluded to within the story, but they give an added depth to the world. I think even the bits you eventually erase from the manuscript still have a ghost presence.

‘It’s set in the empire of Orrun, which has strict laws to avoid tyranny and dynastic rule. The current emperor has completed his term and must step down. This triggers a competition between seven contenders to compete for the throne. On the eve of the competition, one of them is murdered. Neema Kraa – the current emperor’s High Scholar – is forced to investigate. As the investigation unfolds, she steps more and more into the centre of things.

‘Each of the contenders comes from a different monastery, affiliated to a Guardian animal: Fox, Raven, Tiger, etc. Neema’s ex, Cain Ballari, is the Fox contender. Neema is a Raven. I should state, because a friend once misunderstood this: she’s not an actual raven. She is a woman!

‘Those are the bare bones, but there’s a lot of political intrigue and duplicity – it’s best not to assume too much going in.’

The Raven Scholar utilises the meaning that humans place on animals with the character of Raven a focus.

‘This is at the heart of the book,’ Antonia says. ‘I’m fascinated by the myths and symbolism that grew up around certain animals and how these were drawn from the close observation of our ancestors. Those deep connections between story, history and the living world feel very powerful to me. Things change, but an oak tree is an oak tree.

‘Ravens are extraordinary creatures: extremely clever and alert, wonderful problem-solvers, bags of personality and highly adaptable. Because of this, they’re found just about everywhere, which means they’re always popping up in myths and legends. They’re also incredibly handsome and charismatic up close. The more I read about them, the more impressed I was by their qualities. Plus they like rolling around in the snow for fun – that has to be a good sign.

‘While researching the book I went to the British Library and called up a stack of books on animals through history, including more general works on the Guardians I’d selected.

‘One small example of something I read that went into the book: an ox isn’t capable of leading a team until it’s learned how to follow. For those affiliated to the Ox in The Raven Scholar, this factual detail becomes part of their general worldview – both in terms of respecting every role in a team, and also mistrusting leaders who refuse to muck in.’

Antonia says that she is well absorbed into writing book two in the series. Does she already have this book mapped out or do her stories evolve as she writes them?

‘A mixture of the two. I know the main beats, the pivotal emotional and dramatic scenes. And once you’ve set up various situations in book one, things naturally flow from there. I also know exactly how and where the trilogy ends, but once I’m writing, and the characters are interacting, new ideas and connections emerge.’

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Antonia Hodgson was born and grew up in Derby and studied English at the University of Leeds. Before she left publishing to focus on her writing, she was Editor-in-Chief at Little, Brown UK.