Historical saga Sophie: 

Mystery until the last page!

An interview given on 20 August, 2021 in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Interviewer: Ivan Rumánek

Q: You are known as the author of novels for women. When an author changes her style after years, it logically raises the question why ...

   I have never felt like an author of 'women only' books. I'm just writing stories that I hope will give pleasure to people. For me, writing is like breathing, and if I haven´t been writing for a longer period, I feel I miss something, I am not satisfied. It is simply an addiction.

    If any of my book gives someone a nice comfortable time, then it makes sense. After all, the last few months, too, have convinced us all to see how important this entertaining side of literature, and art in general, is for people.

Q: Why, then, the change in the style of novels from present-day to historical?

    In my stories, I have always been primarily interested in women's relationships and stories. So I´ve been dealing predominantly with this topic ever since my first book, Five O´Clock Loves (Lásky o piatej), and I haven´t got too far from it even after the change of genre. Women are my primary focus in my historical-adventurous saga Sopheie as well, women and their everyday experiencing of their lives.

    In 2015, however, I was hit by a creative crisis. It seemed to me that I had already written all the constructions of relationships that could be of any contribution to my readers, and I did not want to repeat myself in plot twists or produce their endless variations. I did not see any opportunity to move on or any direction to develop further. My parents' health issues also contributed greatly to this.

    And then the Slovak famous playwright and the writer Viliam Klimáček advised me to try to write a historical novel.

    I was leaving the meet-up with very mixed feelings, as if I suffered from depression and someone advised me to try flying. But something started to work somewhere inside me ...

Q: When you started writing historical stories about women, why didn't you choose a story from Slovak history?

    I´m often asked this. On the one hand, I didn´t want to penetrate by force among my renowned colleagues who have been devoting themselves exclusively to historical stories from Slovakia since the beginning of their careers. On the other hand, I didn´t see any strong personality that I´d be tempted to grasp. Žofia Bošniaková? The Lady of Čachtice? I was looking for a positive story, full of a certain number of inspiring historical figures. I didn't just want a romantic love story set against a tempting background of history.

Q: So how did the inspiration come?

    A few years ago, my husband and I spent two years in Belgium, where my husband worked and I accompanied him there. We spent a lot of our free time travelling. We took weekend trips to the surrounding regions, but in this case the “surrounding regions” were not only Belgium but also the Netherlands, plus a portion of France and England. It was “just a jump" to everywhere. All of a sudden, a lot of historical and cultural sights became easily accessible by car for us.

    I experienced a similar feeling - that of "now I suddenly have world monuments within my hands´ reach"- a few years before as an aupair in the UK, which was the stay thanks to which my first two books would come about. However, an aupair doesn´t have so much time or money to travel. That´s why I welcomed the opportunity to live abroad again very much.

    On our trips, we also visited the castles of the Loire Valley about which I´d heard a lot but what I´d really known about them was very little. And, to be honest, they completely enchanted me. The mere feeling of riding up and down that romantic region was so enjoyable and rewarding. You don't experience this on the bus. During that miraculous extended May weekend, a completely different world opened up to me!

    Sure, my romantic soul had never missed any 'nice castle', but the Loire Valley showed me a whole different dimension of this kind of romantic experience! And my husband enjoyed it too.

    The very experiences from this trip could yield a separate book by themselves, like for example when, in a hotel in central France, belonging to a relatively prestigious international network, only one receptionist spoke English and the menu had an incredibly poor English translation. It was similar in famous castles with leaflets or audio guides. A Russian audio guide was a pleasant surprise in Chenonceau, where I also groped in the Polish version for some words.

    It was May, everything was just in bloom, and each room in the castles was lit up with bursts of freshly cut live flowers. In Diana de Poitiers' study room in Chenonceau, they´d put flowers of lilies of the valley on the marble mantlepiece, a very gentle sight. And in Amboise, for example, the wisteria was just in full bloom. One of them even hugged with the tassels of its light purple flowers the St Hubert Chapel, allegedly the site of the last resting place of Master Leonardo da Vinci.

    And it was in the Loire Valley that I first heard about Diane de Poitiers, who was the mistress of Henry II. Which wouldn't be so interesting in itself, but she was twenty years older than him. The walls of Chenonceau are full of her, because it is thanks to her that the castle, originally just an ordinary building on the river bank, became an architectural jewel, a castle bridging above the river. And also the Amboise Castle literally breathes with the legacy of Francis I, the father of Henry II. As if His Majesty had just left the room.

    In the reign of Francis I, the Renaissance ruled over the civilized world. Columbus had just discovered America, people began to take an interest in ancient culture and ancient wisdom, which brought in completely new ideas, thanks to which, for example, the Reformation of Martin Luther could take place. In short, the Middle Ages were replaced by the Modern Age.

    After returning to Slovakia, I published another six books with present-day plots, but then came the aforementioned creative crisis, and in 2016 I started to write Sophie, with utmost caution. I had no idea what I was doing.

Q: So how was the Sophie historical saga being born?

    At first I found out that I didn't know anything at all, but the story opened up to me more and more. I'm a fairly determined person and I always get down to something first and only then do I think about how to do it. So far, it had worked for me in my life and writing. I simply sit down and write, and this story virtually wrote itself, I just stumbled across the lack of historical facts. "Just”...

    For example, it used to happen to me that I could not complete the sentence because I wanted to make a reference to the objects in the room, or I needed to put a fan in the heroine's hand, but with sadness in my soul, I found out that the fan didn't start to be used until sixty years later. It was similar with the rosary. Whatever I thought, I had to check. I wrote a very nice scene in the castle kitchen with potatoes, but the whole thing had to go away because, although America had been discovered for fourty years, Europe still felt a strong distrust of potatoes for two more centuries.

    I knew almost nothing about those times. I'd never been a big fan of history, and I had no idea what I was tying around my neck. I had no idea about their daily habits, I only imagined a lot. I guess I knew most about clothes, because I marginally remembered that from my history of art course at uni which I was among my graduation exam subjects. So if I wanted to write a quality book, I needed to fully feel myself into those days. I had to feel it by myself exactly. Because if I don't feel it, I can't see it, I can't convey that feeling and the story has no atmosphere.

    I needed to study a lot. To write a single scene, I often had to study sources for several days. The internet was the easiest way. Later, I vaguely planned a trip to France to verify the facts retrospectively. I intended to look at the documents, to visit many places, museums and castles, but as time went on, first my father became even more seriously ill, until he finally left us. The first part of Sophie and the almost finished manuscript of the sequel had already been published. And when I completely recovered from his departure (and from taking care of him in the last few months), the next to come was the pandemic. I couldn't travel anywhere. I didn't want to waste time and tried to continue writing without returning to France.

Chateau Chenonceau, 2008

    Books also started coming to me. In a second-hand bookshop, for example, I unexpectedly came across a biography of Diana de Poitiers or the Hemptameron by Marguerite of Navarre, as well as other books from that period.

    I also began to literally suck in historical documents related to that time. The 70s biographical series on da Vinci was just given on TV and I could recored it for further use.

  I also started literally devouring historical series on TV, in which I started to identify loads of inaccuracies. I remember those details because I, too had encountered many such pitfalls while writing and had to check them out. It made me very upset. For example, Queen Claude being played by a really beautiful actress in one of the series, or, Marguerite of Navarre in the same series, sleeping with Henry VIII. of England – complete nonsense! She was already married at that time, and her religiously fanatical mother-in-law was making her life a living hell.

Q: You apparently got engulfed by history. Wasn't that information all too much suddenly?

    It definitely was. In addition to the book, another book could have been made just from notes on historical facts as they followed each other, another one just about biographies, and yet another just about the Battle of Ravenna. Once I translated the materials, I saved them. Fortunately so. Because as I wrote, I forgot many facts very quickly and this way so I could comfortably return to them any time.

    To make sure, however, every manuscript is checked by a historian before publication, dr. Diana Duchoňová from the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, whom I thank very much in this way, too for her cooperation!

Q: Which historical figures finally got into your saga?

    As I said, it all started with Diana de Poitiers. What kind of woman must she have been if she enchanted a lover who was twenty years younger and their relationship lasted for many years?

    Anyway, by searching further, more amazing women emerged from that time, along with their not less fascinating destinies. They literally fought for my attention. Because not only Diana was an exceptional woman!

    I found Marguerite of Navarre, the sister of Francis I, who became Queen of Navarre in her second marriage. She is considered the first modern author. She had very progressive views for which her brother the King often had to save her from church dignitaries. Some of her books were officially declared heretical by the Sorbonne.

    Then, there was her mother, Louise of Savoy, another progressive woman who loved books, science and art. For a time, she ruled France as regent for her son. Like most women of the time, she´d also been married at a very young age, her husband having been living in his castle with a same-aged mistress long before the wedding. He had a daughter with this lover who was older than Louise. At the time of the wedding, his mistress gave birth to his second daughter, and Louise had to not only suffer her presence in her household throughout his life but even obey her. Can you imagine living like this, together with your husband's mistress?

    Her husband died shortly after the birth of Francis, the future King, and Louise, barely twenty, took care of her stepdaughters as well. She placed one as the abbess in the monastery and married the other well. After all, they had her husband's royal blood! However, she drove her mistress out of the house without delay.

    Also an extremely interesting figure – Claude of Brittany, wife of Francis I, mother of Henry II. Her mother, Queen Anne of Brittany, failed to produce a male offspring. Although she gave birth to twelve children (and there were still more pregnancies), only two survived till adulthood - daughters. Claude, even though the King´s eldest daughter, could not become Queen, so they married her to Francis I. From childhood she suffered from scoliosis, she was sickly, short, humped, fat and even squint-eyed. She hid her shyness by her wit. She loved books and was extremely clever. She wrote poems and played several musical instruments.    

    After the death of her mother, who´d always protected her, and alongside the tall and well-built Francis, Claude very soon became the target of a quiet mockery by the whole court. Her mother-in-law, Louise of Savoy, hated her. And for example, when people whispered 'claudication', they meant the fat Queen. The King, of course, cheated on her at every turn.

    But the main task of a queen was always to bear an heir to the throne, that´s why there was so much pressure on Claude to have as many offspring as possible. She delivered a baby almost every year, and one variety of plums were named after her - reine-claude, the gages. Probably from this allegory with a tree, we also have our comparison in Slovak: ‘she produces like an apple tree’...

    Claude's first daughter died very small, the second very young, but the other five royal children reached adulthood. The fragile Claude died young as a result of syphilis she´d contracted from the King. She spent the last two pregnancies in bed, because, being weak already, and exhausted by the many pregnancies, she simply could not walk.

    She and Diane de Poitiers were the same age, and Diane became Claude's court lady still before Claude´s coronation.

    After Claude's death, her two daughters were raised by their aunt, Marguerite of Navarre.

    At the time of the accession of Francis I to the throne, the famous Boleyn sisters were present at the French Court. Anne Boleyn, the later Queen of England and mother of the future Queen Elizabeth I, also became Claude's court lady and interpreted for the Queen on official occasions.

    When I´d read about all these interesting women at the French Court and their destinies, the story wrote virtually itself. To say nothing of Leonardo da Vinci's extremely inspiring presence at the royal Court in that period!