Billy Griffiths

the storytelling that's going on.

And this is a wonderful display of storytelling, prowess, humour, but also it's just seeking to constantly liven and be playful with literature.

Think about literature in playful ways.

Yeah, well, I would start by saying I think all history is an act of imagination too, so it's not wholly the domain of fiction.

I think the stakes are high when you're rewriting a known historical account, but also it sounds especially high when you're writing into such a sensitive moment in religious history as well.

I think there are so many wonderful examples of historical events being reimagined, especially filling in some of the absences.

But what I always look for in a fine piece of historical fiction is something where the author is comfortable to keep the silences that exist in history.

They don't need to explain everything.

that um that did happen um as if it did as if they know everything and i think that's the magic of um

history is we don't know everything.

We're trying to understand and bring everything, understand what happened at a various point in time and get an insight into a different world, a different culture, a different moment.

And imagination is at the heart of that.

And history writing is an enormous imaginative act.

And in partnership with fiction can be

very, very rewarding and powerful and strong.

But also the stakes are high.

If it falls flat, then I wonder why it was attempted.

And that's because all engaging with the past, these are people's lives.

They existed and we have a moral responsibility to

to ensure that they're represented as who they were.