A D Bergin: ‘Do as much research as you possibly can – but the fictional narrative comes first’
BY Katie Smart
21st Nov 2024
A D Bergin was a student on our Edit & Pitch Your Novel – Advanced course in 2023. We caught up to discuss his debut novel The Wicked of the Earth – out now from Northodox Press.
Read on to discover A D's approach to researching the 1650s witch trial that inspired his historical debut, his advice on establishing a sense of place and the historical fiction he's enjoyed recently.
You studied on our Edit & Pitch Your Novel – Advanced course in 2023. How did studying with us impact your approach to rewriting and the editorial process?
It was a great pleasure, as well as a great challenge, studying with CBC. The Edit & Pitch Your Novel – Advanced course had a clear and profound impact on my writing, its central ‘Rewrite Doctor’ element being particularly powerful in adding editorial structure and deliberation. The course tutoring was also uniformly excellent, but I would have to highlight the role played by peer feedback. Repeatedly placing your work in front of a group of other writers, inviting them to critique it, dissect it, is the most exacting, but also the most beneficial, of experiences. And such benefit continues after the course, in the form of writing buddies and the genuine friendships established. In my case, I also found the perfect counterfoil reader, exchanging work chapter by chapter right up to publication.
Your debut novel The Wicked of the Earth is set in the 1600s against the backdrop of England’s largest witch trial. What drew you to this time period?
The Interregnum period is the true crucible of the modern era, Britain emerging with a powerful navy ready to cement its leading position in global trade, an army habituated to colonial dominance and a developed, intrusive state apparatus, all paid for by sophisticated finance funnelled through the City of London. As the world which was then ushered in dissolves around us, there is particular interest in looking back to that genesis.
The period also offers the strongest contemporary resonance, not least in the aftermath of the recent US Election. Following the execution of Charles I, ‘Progressives’ emerge triumphant and set to rebuilding the whole country in a Godly fashion. Confidence in their own moral superiority only leads, however, to damaging overreach and factional purity battles both of which narrow their base of support until the Restoration of the monarchy brings about a political, social and religious settlement far more conservative than that which had provoked war in the first place.
The true history of the great Newcastle witch trial, Britain’s biggest, and in many ways the Scottish witch hunt spread south, has all of these themes at its heart: greed; faction; corruption; zealotry; but also ordinary women organising together to fight back. Its an irresistible underlying true story which provides the foundation for my detective-style thriller, offering a modern reader a way in to understand this most important and complex of historical periods.
The novel is published by Northodox Press, which specialises in publishing authors born in or currently living in Northern England. Historical Newcastle is integral to the story – how important is setting to you and what advice do you have for establishing a convincing sense of place?
Place is crucial. The appalling events of 1650 did not take place in Newcastle accidentally. The town underwent an extraordinary commercial boom because of its unique position at the centre of the exploitable coal field while also being the last major ‘friendly’ port capable of supporting the English army in its colonial suppression of Scotland. This won the Newcastle merchants lucrative military contracts and stimulated industries such as shipbuilding and munitions which would go on to define Tyneside for centuries. Yet the detailed physical state of the cramped medieval town with its dark steps and alleys, called the Chares, leading steeply up from the river quay, also conditions the real history. The remodelled houses of the victorious Puritans, self- consciously seeking to do God’s work in turning the town into a ‘New Jerusalem’, can still be seen directly opposite the Guildhall where the witch trial took place. The very bones and sinews of history remain clearly defined in the city we see today. Bringing that old Newcastle back to life was a key aim of the writing, until the town became an ominous, brooding character in its own right.
What I would say in terms of establishing that sense of place is to avoid being too much of a gazetteer. As a writer, you need to know your setting inside out, its every little alley, the smells, sounds, the very feel of it, the names of places, people, things. Do as much research as you possibly can. Local heritage professionals and enthusiasts can be invaluable here, and, in the case of The Wicked Of The Earth, so were the details provided by generations of unpublished PhD dissertations on the local socio-economy. But the fictional narrative comes first, any details emerging in the finished text only in so far as your characters naturally notice them. Be greedy with what you learn, meagre with what you show.
How did you balance historical research with the creation of your own fictional characters and narrative?
There is a process of history and a process of fiction, and it felt important to ensure that the former was followed exactingly, so as closely to ground The Wicked Of The Earth in the historical evidence, aiming to imbue every scene and every character with authenticity as a means to make the fiction all the more convincing.
For example, most of the characters encountered in the book are real historically documented people drawn from sources such as the Newcastle Guild lists, records of the Hostmen’s company, New Model Army regimental lists or court records. Only the main character, James Archer, his missing sister and a very few others are entirely fictional. The narrative unfolds in real places, almost all of which can still be visited today, in action based upon a real-time walking of the ground. The fictional story itself accommodates all of the available historical source material and ignores none, having taken it to the limits of historical investigation. Hopefully, such a process creates a strong foundation upon which this fictional story of greed, corruption and the courage of ordinary Newcastle women is built.
But, as I say in the Author’s Note at the end of the book, fiction this is. The truth lies buried along with the bodies of the victims in a common pit in the churchyard of St. Andrew’s on Newcastle’s Newgate Street. It is a site which I would encourage all readers to visit. Along with historians and heritage professionals, I am part of a campaign to achieve a permanent memorial to the dead, and to all those persecuted across Northumberland and Durham in this largest of witch hunts. If The Wicked Of The Earth helps to raise greater awareness of that campaign, it would be a very satisfying outcome.
What historical fiction have you enjoyed reading recently?
I absolutely loved Naomi Kelsey’s The Burnings, set around the earlier North Berwick witch trials, with its closely-drawn, utterly believable characters. For sheer narrative drive, Anna Mazzola’s ‘The Book Of Secrets’ remains for me the pick of the many recent, excellent feminist fictions set in seventeenth century Italy. Covering a very different time period, but true historical fiction offering a wonderful entry to a particular time and place, Natalie Marlow’s 1930s Birmingham-set William Garrett books, Needless Alley and The Red Hollow, are also great reads which truly deserve the adjective ‘immersive’.
Do you have any tips for the aspiring authors reading this who are thinking of applying to a writing course?
Just do it! Anything which exposes your work and your thinking to peer challenge is the best possible path to take. Only, go in fully prepared to welcome all feedback, however critical. It can only make your writing stronger.
Finally, what’s next for your writing journey?
I’m currently working on completing the second book in the James Archer series, Jerusalem Staggers. Naked Quakers, viciously pot-wielding Scottish fisherwomen, the infamous case of The False Jew and a new, major, female character as Archer struggles to prevent the Republic from slipping back into civil war.
Get your hand on a copy of The Wicked of the Earth.