Take a walk with me through the world of Sanctuary on Severn ...
Like most stories, setting is incredibly important to this novel. In fact, post-apocalyptic novels almost always relies on setting and atmosphere to create the tension and suspense the genre is famous for.
This is partly because many of the dangers and threats to survival come from nature and the environment - often the very thing that caused the apocalypse in the first place).
Sanctuary on Severn is no different.
The greatest dangers in the world come from nature itself: the weather, food shortages, disease, and illness. The other dangers, perhaps unsurprisingly, comes from other humans.
The novel is also alternative historical fiction and, because of my love of history, I want to keep as much medieval accuracy as possible while still telling a compelling fictional story.
All of this means there's quite a bit of research involved in creating the depth I want Sanctuary on Severn to have.
Since more than half of the novel takes place out in the wilderness, it made sense to start by researching what the English countryside actually looked and felt like during the medieval period.
Here are a few of my favourite dicoveries so far from a book that has become one of my research bibles, The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer:
‘Contrary to what you might expect, the woodland area is not very much greater than in the modern world - that is to say about seven per cent of the land. However, almost every inch of the medieval woodland is managed carefully.’
‘In medieval England there are just three coniferous species - Scots pine, yew and juniper - and juniper is more of a bush than a tree. There are very few evergreens at all - holly is the only common one - so the winter skyline is particularly bleak. Every other pine, spruce, larch, cedar, cypress, and fir you can think of is absent.’
‘The trees which cover England are largely those introduced during the Bronze Age and Roman periods mingled with the species which repopulated the British Isles after the last Ice Age: rowan, ash, alder, field maple, hazel, sweet chestnut, whitebeam, aspen, some poplars, silver birch, beech, lime, walnut, willow, elm and honrnbeam. And of course the good old oak.’
‘That squirrel in the trees above you is a red one - the grey variety has yet to reach Britain. In the fields the cattle are smaller than their modern counterparts: much smaller. So too are the sheep [...] if you want to see an indigenous wild wolf, you will have to go to the highlands of Scotland [...] There are still some wild boar in the aristocratic hunting parks or chases but they too have been brought almost to the point of extinction.’
These details might seem small, or perhaps even insignificant, but they're exactly the kinds of things that help bring a world to life.
Knowing which trees would line a woodland path, what animals my characters might realistically encounter, or just how bleak an English winter would have looked all help me create the atmosphere I want readers to feel while keeping the setting true to its historical roots.
For me, that's one of the most enjoyable parts of writing this novel. Every new fact I discover makes the world of Sanctuary on Severn feel just that little bit more real.
Research has become one of the ways I'm reconnecting with this novel, and it's been wonderful to feel that spark returning.
Did any of these research facts surprise you? Let me know below - I'd love to hear from you 🙂
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