Pamela Belle on Dorothy Dunnett
Pamela Belle, author of Wintercombe and many more
I discovered the glories of Dorothy Dunnett’s novels at the tender age of thirteen, nearly sixty years ago. I’d been laid up with flu, and was reading a back copy of my mother’s Woman’s Journal, in which there was a glowing review of DD’s first novel, The Game of Kings, set in 16th century Scotland. It sounded intriguing, so I borrowed it from the library, and was instantly hooked.
Needless to say, I didn’t understand the half of it, but I fell totally and passionately in love with the hero, Francis Crawford of Lymond. He was a man you could admire – a brilliant musician, soldier and polymath – but he was also, in the old-fashioned romantic tradition, moody, secretive, his own worst enemy, and above all, Misunderstood. There was action, humour, tragedy, suspense, and a thrilling denouement. I’d liked the historical stories of Ronald Welch and Rosemary Sutcliff, and I was now discovering adult authors such as Georgette Heyer and Jean Plaidy, but they were nothing like Dorothy Dunnett; even Heyer seemed dull and predictable by comparison.
I devoured Queens’ Play, the second in The Lymond Chronicles, as the series is now known, but had an agonising wait for The Disorderly Knights, which came out the following year. Pawn in Frankincense was published in 1969, just after I’d finished my A Levels. I remember standing in the bookshop in Ipswich, covertly reading the end – would my beloved hero die? No, he didn’t – but nothing in the world could have prepared me for the agonising scenes which had me reading until 4 a.m. and then sobbing myself to sleep. The final two books (which of course I still have) were given to me by my parents, who by then were well aware of my obsession, and I read and re-read the series regularly, to the extent that I can still quote bits of it by heart.
So realistic, compelling and convincing was the world that Dorothy Dunnett had created, moving easily from Scotland to France, the Ottoman Empire, Russia and back to France and Scotland, that I began to do research of my own. Ipswich Library had all the State Papers for the period, and amongst many other things, I discovered to my delight that the raid on Hume Castle, so vividly described in The Game of Kings, was indeed led by a Spaniard (or was he?). I pored over maps and read biographies and histories of the period, confirming that the novels were based firmly in fact.
On a holiday in the Loire valley, I dragged my long-suffering parents round the castle at Amboise, location of a famous scene in Queens’ Play. For a long time, I persisted in the belief that there must be other authors like Dorothy Dunnett out there, I just hadn’t discovered them yet. It took me years to realise that she was unique, and that there are very few, if any, historical novelists who combine wise, witty and beautiful writing, vivid description, accurate research, vibrant characterisation and intricate plotting into a coherent, compelling whole.
For nearly twenty years after I first read The Game of Kings, I was on my own with Dorothy Dunnett. I had tried to interest my mother, but she preferred more straightforward novels. ‘Oh, isn’t that the one about the Scotsman who had trouble with his family?’ she famously commented. But to my delight I eventually discovered, through a new friend who turned out to be also a fan, that there was a huge international community of Dunnett afficionados, passionate, erudite, and full of theories about the numerous ambiguities and mysteries that had enthralled me when I was reading the books.
More than sixty years after the first was published, and after twenty-two novels – six of The Lymond Chronicles, eight in The House of Niccolò (set in the 15th century), seven Johnson Johnsons (modern thrillers), and King Hereafter, about the historical Macbeth, which many consider to be her masterpiece – people all over the world are still debating, online and through the pages of Whispering Gallery, the Dorothy Dunnett Society magazine, as well as at regular Gatherings, the motivations of various characters, the many mysteries and ambiguities, and the thorny question of How Much Is True (almost always, a lot more than you’d realise). You think everything is clear, then you realise it isn’t. That there are gaps in your knowledge, vital facts which the author knows, and which you don’t. All around, there are clues and hints, but you have to do a lot of the work yourself, and you have to pay attention (which is why just one reading isn’t enough, there are always bits you previously missed). And it’s those ambiguities that fuel our continued fascination, and which will keep people reading Dunnett long into the future.
Pam Thomas is an author of historical fiction, writing under the name Pamela Belle. Her books include Wintercombe (1988), the first in a series set during the English Civil War, available in print and Kindle editions.
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