History and Fiction

Like the short story, Living History, on which the play is based, this is a mystery story. It's both a tale of "Who done it?" and a "Who was the victim?" It opens with a policeman questioning a professor who has found a dead body in another professor's backyard. Like the short story, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn are involved, but so is Harry Houdini. In form, this is an old fashion radio play, complete with sound effects and multiple actors. This third episode is the play, In the Real World.

Looking at academics in their ivory tower, ordinary people often find them something between eccentric and deranged. As one who viewed them from the inside, I don't totally disagree with that view. The two short stories you will find here in fact reinforce it. The first involves a professor who believes he is the modern day version of Henry VIII. He meets another professor who believes she is the reincarnation of Anne Boleyn. Based on the history of these two, it doesn't sound like a good idea for them to get together, does it? Well, to find out just how bad an idea it was, listen to the story. The bonus story is about an Englishman who became a professor at an American university and has gone for a vacation on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Here this very civilized man encounters something very primitive and doesn't cope with it very well. Incidentally, beyond Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, both stories are based on real people I've met. This second episode is comprised of two short stories. The first one is called Living History and bonus story is called Surviving Moriori.

Why don't writers who fictionalize history just write fiction? Why did Shakespeare call his character Richard III or King John? Why not call him Reginald I or Murray II? If a fiction writer does choose to use a real person's name, does the writer have any obligation to make the fictional character resemble the real one? In the two episodes that follow this one I use Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn as the basis as the models for fictional characters. In this episode I explain why and how I did it. Maybe you'll agree with what I did, maybe you won't. Give it a listen and decide. This first episode lays out what is involved in turning history, in the form of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, into fiction as a short story and a play.