A Researcher's Weapons

So my highlighting pencils have arrived from Amazon.co.uk; it's not that I've become so dependent of internet shopping that I couldn't just go to a normal stationery shop and just buy them. It's that none of the Ryman or WH Smith or Paperchase or such places near me stock them. That was surprising but I guess in Spain we are much fonder of the pencils than here, where people seem to use only highlighter pens.

Now I can go about doing the rest of my research with a little more method to my madness.

INSPIRATION: Gerard ter Borch

A lady reading a letter.

Women writing a letter.

Woman drinking with sleeping soldier.

The Letter.

The Dispatch.

The Card Players.

A guard room.

Maybe it's an education thing but I have always associated the 17th century with what the Dutch paintings made of it. Those lights and shadows are still the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about the period - and it's a preconception I have to fight against when I'm trying to write about 17th century England.

Still, I find my particular fondness for Early Modern Dutch painting a great help when it comes to mood research; it's easier for me to slip into the lives and minds of these people when I look at these pictures. Rembrandt in particular is a great inspiration, with his poetry of shadows, and his resolve never to compromise.

The National Gallery - my favourite place whether I need to be inspired or simply kill some time - hosts some Gerard ter Borch paintings (most famously The Ratification of the Treaty of Munster). I wasn't familiar with the painter during my college years but lately I've been more and more interested in his work, specially his portrayals of soldiers during their waiting hours, in between battles.

When one is obssessed about a particular subject it's inevitable that in this single-mindness state one finds connections in everything. And I mean everything. But I think that in the case of Borch's paintings I am justified in finding quite appealing how many of his works seem to be Relevant To My Interests. Not only his painting about soldiers in calm moments -a third of my novel is composed of such scenes- but also the recurring theme of letter-writing and letter-reading. And then individual works that strike me and inspire me, such as The Card Players, and particularly the Woman Washing Her Hands, both postratying the same actions as those found in pivotal moments in my story. As I said, maybe obssession, but I like it. Seeing artists from that period take on the same elements as I am strugling with makes me feel in good company, with my feet on the ground.

Link: Gerard Terborch Online.

Woman reading a letter.

Woman washing her hands.

Lady reading a letter.

Hilary Mantel - Author, Author: Unfreezing antique feeling

Wonderful article for the Guardian by Hilary Mantel on the presence of the past in our lives, and how some people are more atuned to the traces of time.

I have been reading enthusiatic reviews and raves about Mantel's latest book, Wolf Hall, winner of the Booker Prize. I am anxious to pick up a copy but poor and bohemian as I am I have to wait until second-hand bookshops quench my thirst or my local libraries have some copies available. I loved Mantel's Beyond Black and Thomas Cromwell is a figure I am intrigued by but know little about, so it should be a great ride.

The article is very unassuming but I think it raises a fine point about writers being in synch with the world in stranger ways than other people. I refuse the notion of writers somehow being "special" but I feel understably mystic about my profession sometimes, or at least about myself - being in the business of painting the world with words is an odd affair, moody, and sometimes we find ourselves weeping over ancient stones like fools. That's what I like about the article.