Sarah Burton and John Spurling Interviewed by Jem Poster

Writers of historical fiction Dr Sarah Burton and John Spurling talk about their new novels centred around the theatre in the years following the restoration of the monarchy.

Burton’s The Strange Adventures of H chronicles the life of a young woman fighting for survival in a city scarred by plague and fire. Spurling’s A Mirror for Monkeys is a fictional account of the life of the dramatist William Congreve. Together they discuss their approach to historical fiction with fellow novelist and teacher of creative writing Professor Jem Poster.

Burton is founder and former director of Cambridge University’s MSt in creative writing and the author of Impostors and A Double Life: A Biography of Charles and Mary Lamb. The Strange Adventures of H was shortlisted for the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Fiction Prize. Spurling is author of 30 plays for stage, screen and radio, and of The Walter Scott prize-winning novel The Ten Thousand Things and Arcadian Nights: Greek Myths Reimagined. He has also written historical novels about the Hungarian composer Liszt and the 14th-century Chinese painter Wang Meng. Poster is emeritus professor of creative writing, Aberystwyth University. He is the author of a collection of poetry, Brought to Light, and two novels, Courting Shadows and Rifling Paradise.