People sometimes tell me that archaic English is unnecessary. That it creates distance. That modern readers want transparency, immediacy, a prose that gets out of the way of the story. I understand the argument. I disagree with it not on grounds of taste, but of accuracy. When you set a novel in the fifteenth century, […]
Dead Languages and Living Prose: Why Archaic English Is Not an Affectation Read More »
People sometimes ask me why I write the way I do. The question usually comes wrapped in a polite puzzlement, as if the asker suspects a rational explanation must exist but cannot quite locate it. Occasionally it comes less politely: “People don’t talk like that.” True enough. They didn’t talk like that even then, not
The Art of the Archaic: How I Choose Words and Expressions Read More »
There is a question I am asked, sooner or later, by nearly every reader who encounters my novels for the first time: Why the archaic English? The question is reasonable. We live in an age that prizes clarity, speed, and transparency of style. Modern prose aspires to invisibility—the words, ideally, should dissolve on the page,
Why I Write in Archaic English | Language as the Soul of Historical Fiction Read More »
