Welcome to England’s Golden Warrior – an interview with Paula Lofting on Harold Godwinson here at Writing with Labradors.
Today I’m delighted to welcome Paula Lofting. Paula has been a guest before, talking about Sons of the Wolf, her series of novels set in the years leading up to the Norman Conquest. She’s here today wearing a different hat, however; she’s just published her first historical biography. Paula, congratulations.
Thank you, Lynn. I am amazed I survived. It was a long hard slog, but I got there in the end.
I’m impressed you made it. Paula your book is called Searching for the Last Anglo-Saxon King: Harold Godwinson – England’s Golden Warrior. This is your first non-fiction book, and it feels to me as though you didn’t choose an easy subject to start with. What made you want to write about Harold?
I have to admit, I thought it was going to be a much easier job than it was. Having been writing the novels in which Harold is a secondary but important character, I thought I had all the research under my belt already. But I found myself looking into things more deeply, and it was a surprise to me that I didn’t know everything after all!
I had chosen to write about Edmund Ironside first, but then I decided actually, why not write a new bio about Harold Godwinson, especially as most of the most well known books about Harold had already been published and needed refreshing. I thought I could do him justice and so when I embarked on the project, I found that what was most important to me was to ‘find’ the real essence of Harold with the scant information we have. Who he was, how his background shaped him, what were the influences that formulated his decision-making. What others thought of him, and how he came to be demonised.
I guess I could qualify for historian status but as a novelist, I’m more emotionally invested in characters and that is why I don’t hold back in giving my opinions in a less objective manner that perhaps an academic would.
I think that’s one of the things about the book that I enjoyed. While you clearly looked at a variety of different opinions, it was obvious that you’re a bit of a fan of Harold. Paula, one of the reasons I said you chose a challenging subject was that there aren’t that many sources, surely? How difficult was the research on this book?
You could say that the fewer sources to read the easier, but it also gives you less scope. I would say that someone who writes about the Peninsular War needs to cover a lot of information and the need to find every little bit of it is far more stressful than the issues I had. I count myself lucky in that respect.
I think the hardest part is sifting through the later sources and the tendency for writers of that time to embellish and fictionalise. Its difficult to take writers like Henry of Huntingdon and William of Malmsbury seriously.
I suppose you have to look at them critically and work out what snippets of truth you can find in the midst of the story telling. I’ve read the book and thoroughly enjoyed it – my review is here if anybody wants to read it. The various sources paint very different pictures of Harold Godwinson, depending on where they came from and when they were writing. Was it difficult to build up a coherent picture of the man?
I would say not, though the Victorians probably had less information to go on than we have now. Once you realise what was propaganda and what was not, I think it is easier. For one thing most of the Norman chronicles after 1066 were fictionalised to make William of Normandy look like an angel and Harold as Satan but they don’t produce solid evidence to back it up. A lot of it is unquantified name calling. Even the famous Papal Banner turned out to be fictionalised, though that took decades and decades to conclude.
As for Harold’s character, if you study his actions in the context of the 11th century environment and the factors surrounding the events of the time, you will find a Harold of some sort in there. That’s why I try to give options for the reader so they can work it out for themselves. Not everyone will agree with me, but that’s ok. As long as most of the possibilities are presented.
One of the things I enjoyed about this book was some of the myth-busting. The last time I learned about the Norman Conquest was during the first year of secondary school which is history in its own right. I didn’t realise how much work had been done since then. Was it scary moving from fiction to historical biography? I’ve never had the nerve to try it myself. In what ways was it different?
Completely different. For a start you have to be more objective and less subjective, and present evidence and facts rather than a story that you make up as you go alone. Then there’s the ‘notes’ you have to make to back up your narrative and the indexing! Whilst I try to inject humour and a little irony into it, there is no dialogue or made up stuff, though there is conjecture aplenty, it’s all based on the evidence written in the sources which can come from a range of areas. Archaeological, written, or illuminated manuscripts.
I could sort of imagine doing it for my own Napoleonic period, just about, because I understand the sources available. I think going back this far must be more challenging. And in fiction, nobody expects footnotes or an index, thank goodness. Harold is a recurring character in your novels as well. Was it difficult to separate out your fictional Harold from the real man you’ve written about in this book?
Not really. I try to portray him realistically in my novels. He’s not your perfect hero who rescues women from their vicious husbands (though there is a myth that said he rescued his second wife from hers) and often makes decisions that badly affects my MC, Wulfhere, which leads Wulfhere to hate him at times. His decision to back the northern rebels instead of his brother Tostig would have displeased many, as it must have done the king. Sometimes he was backed into corners, and it appears that he did what he believed to be right at the time. I think I have portrayed him fairly, according to his deeds and the circumstances he found himself in.
Yes, he comes across as very human. I want to ask about your writing style. One of the things I like about this book is despite the huge amount of research you’ve obviously done, it’s not heavy to read. You’ve kept a light storytelling tone. Was that deliberate or does it just come naturally because of the fiction writing?
It is deliberate, I think. I don’t want my readers to get the idea that I think they are stupid, I just believe in making reading enjoyable and if a text is too difficult or highbrow to read, then I am not achieving this. That’s the beauty of popular history, most writers tend to use easy to understand terms and paint a picture of a landscape inside the readers head of what happened, when, how, and why. I think that it what most people want. But as my dear mentor Sharon Bennett Connolly showed me, you want to be taken seriously too, so there has to be a balance.
As I said before, I really liked the balance you achieved in the end. I don’t know how much of a struggle it was, but it comes across as a really good read but definitely not an Idiot’s Guide to Harold Godwinson. There’s a lot of scholarship tucked away in there. How long did it take you to write this book, including research?
A lot longer than I’d hoped. 2 years I would say.
I think two years is pretty impressive for a project like this to be honest. I wonder how much of that was actual writing and how much was research, indexing and notes? There’s a big cast of characters in a biography like this. Do you have any favourite secondary characters? Maybe someone you’d like to follow up either with another biography or in fiction?
I think I know who you would like to hear more about and as I don’t want to disappoint you, I’ll say Swegn Godwinson. What a character! Swegn was the black sheep of the family. He was a troubled soul and could not get anything right and I have a penchant for bad boys, so I have a soft spot for him as a historical character. There were so many things he did that were just wrong, but in the end, he tried to atone for everything and that is what endears him to me. Sadly, it cost him his life. Such a sad tragic ending. But I shan’t give it away.
I also have a soft spot for the Mercian brothers, the young earls of the North. They were referred to as boys of noble stock which is why I think they were in their teens when they became earls in their own right. They fought a hard battle at Fulford Bridge and despite losing the battle, which was against the Mighty Harald Hardrada, they were said to have fought bravely. Both boys went on to survive the 1066 Conquest and were held as hostages by William. They were given their freedom, but William did not come through with their promises that he’d made to them, good marriages and their own earldoms were given to William’s mates, so they rebelled and got involved with Hereward the Wake’s uprising. In the end, eventually, Edwin died, and Morcar submitted to William and led a comfortable rest of his life as a hostage of William’s.
You’re right, I do love the story of Swegn even though he must have been an absolute nightmare for his family to deal with. There’s probably not enough information out there for a full-blown biography of him, but I wonder if we’ll be seeing something more of him in an article one day, or perhaps a blog post? Or even in fiction. Now I know this can be a difficult question for a biographer but at the end of it, did you like Harold? Did what you learned along the way make you admire him more or less?
I guess I’ve always had a soft spot for Harold since I started reading about the era about 20 years ago, however, I really did think doing all this research would lose me that rose-coloured tinted glasses because when you go as deep as you possibly can, you tend to see the ‘real’ person more and you find out that perhaps they are not as squeaky clean as you think they are. But in Harold’s case, despite the more unsavoury things he did that I never really thought philosophically about until now, I can’t say that I like him less for it because you cannot judge a medieval king with 21st century morals. In fact, it gave me the confidence to actually say that when you compare him to many of the other medieval leaders, he was pretty much one of the good guys. I have come to see that despite being ambitious, I do really believe that he cared considerably for his England and her people. He fought desperately and bravely for his life, and to save his country. He had seen what kind of a man William was and certainly did not wish that on his people. Sadly, he failed.
What was Harold’s best quality and what was his worst?
His best quality was his use of diplomacy rather than going all guns blazing. He was patient with the Welsh until one day they pushed too far, and his patience ran out. He invaded with the help of his brother Tostig, and the power of Wales was diminished. You might say that he was patient to a point and once he snapped, everyone needed to look out.
So his best quality was his patience and his worst was what happened when he lost it? That makes a lot of sense. Paula, you’re probably aware of the new drama series coming out soon about William of Normandy and Harold Godwinson? Will you be watching it or do you think you’ll end up correcting the history too much?
I’m going to try and watch it. I’ll have to find a way around it because I don’t have a TV licence!
And after people have watched the series, your advice is to immediately buy your book I imagine?
Most certainly!
You heard it here first, people. Final question, Paula. What’s next? I know those of us who have read the first two books in your Sons of the Wolf series have been waiting for the further adventures of Wulfhere. Or are there more historical biographies in the future?
I do have the Edmund II book to complete, however I’m hoping to make sure I get my third novel in the Sons of the wolf series finished, Wolf’s Bane. Wulfhere and his lot are getting up to too much mischief!
I’m very much looking forward to that. I suspect you’ll have a much clearer picture of Harold when he wanders into the pages of your novels in the future. And after reading your book, I think I will too.
Paula, thanks so much for coming along to talk to us today. Good luck with the book, you deserve to do well, and perhaps you’ll come back to tell us about your next project when it’s ready to go.
I certainly will. I’ve really enjoyed being on here with you!
My thanks to Paula Lofting for joining me to talk about her new biography of Harold Godwinson.
About the Author
Paula was born in the ancient Saxon county of Middlesex in 1961. She grew up in Australia hearing stories from her dad of her homeland and its history. As a youngster she read books by Rosemary Sutcliff and Leon Garfield and her love of English history grew. At 16 her family decided to travel back to England and resettle. She was able to visit the places she’d dreamt about as a child, bringing the stories of her childhood to life. It wasn’t until later in life that Paula realised her dream to write and publish her own books. Her debut historical novel Sons of the Wolf was first published in 2012 and then revised and republished in 2016 along with the sequel, The Wolf Banner, in 2017. The third in the series, Wolf’s Bane, will be ready for publishing later this year.
In this midst of all this, Paula acquired contracts for nonfiction books with the prestigious Pen & Sword publishers. Searching for the Last Anglo-Saxon King, Harold Godwinson, England’s golden Warrior is now available to buy in all good book outlets, and she is now working on the next non-fiction book about King Edmund Ironside. She has also written a short essay about Edmund for Iain Dale’s Kings and Queens, articles for historical magazines. When she is not writing, she is a psychiatric nurse, mother of three grown up kids and grandmother of two and also re-enacts the Anglo-Saxon/Viking period with the awesome Regia Anglorum.
You can find Paula on the following social media sites:
https://www.instagram.com/paulaloftingwilcox/
https://www.facebook.com/Wulfsuna?locale=en_GB
https://www.threads.net/@paulaloftingwilcox?xmt=AQGzt4dBTQyhpi3KALo3S2LlPFu675xU76a9176zAtMjRdA
https://bsky.app/profile/paulaloftingauthor.bsky.social
Paula’s books are available on the following links.
https://mybook.to/Haroldpreorder
