Marian L. Thorpe on Dorothy Dunnett
Marian L. Thorpe, author of the Empire’s Legacy series
I read King Hereafter when I was in my early twenties, a time when I was still primarily immersed in fantasy. It’s a book I’ve never forgotten, for several reasons. Perhaps most importantly, it was the first book I’d read that I would call speculative history: the evidence for Thorfinn Ravenfeeder and Macbeth being the same person isn’t strong, although they were contemporaries. Other historical fiction authors have them as half-brothers; some sources claim Thorfinn may have been one of Macbeth’s war leaders. He may have been simply an ally. But Dorothy Dunnett made it more than plausible, she made it believable. If you write convincingly, using a tripartite recipe of some facts, a familiar feel, and a dash (or more) of ‘what if?’, readers will believe it. An important lesson for a then-young writer who would eventually write a series of books set in a world not ours, but without the conventional trappings of fantasy.
With King Hereafter, Dorothy Dunnett introduced me to history I had known next to nothing about: the disputed and fluid rule of the Scottish Highlands and islands; the influence of Norse settlement on what is now Scotland; and the complexity of politics and alliances among the kings and earls. All this both inspired and shaped the world of my own books. She wrote of things often ignored at the time in historical fiction, including the importance of trade. The structure and themes of King Hereafter also have stayed with me. At a time when the three-act structure of screenplays is held up as the model that novels should adhere to, the four parts of King Hereafter gave me another model to consider—and use. Dunnett shows the reader how Thorfinn’s world expands from the islands he knows as a young man to a world wider than he could have envisioned: Alba within a European context, the influence of the Roman church and its global politics as it brings Macbeth’s land into its oversight and imposes its will. If Macbeth is to rule, he cannot ignore the power the church wields. While not consciously borrowing from Dunnett, but undoubtedly influenced by her, my own books examine a similar theme.
Perhaps there is one more thing I can thank Dorothy Dunnett for. Historical biography, as well as historical novels, filled several bookshelves in the house I grew up in, but at the time—more than fifty years ago—historical novels by women tended to focus on queens, and often romanticized their stories. Dunnett showed me that women too could write convincingly about blood and battlefields, politics and diplomacy, and the price—in friendships, in integrity, in morality—paid for power. I owe her more than I can say.
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