10 May 2004
Inspirations
The inspiration for writing Labyrinth came from personal experience. These personal experiences led me to into areas of research I could never have anticipated. I have tried to explain these mysterious creative connections before, but I think in the end you have to find your own imaginative links. I can tell you why and how these events inspired me. But that won't necessarily be in a way that grabs you …
For example, in the historical research I did into the First Crusade, a was actually delving into a little distant family history - how, in the mist of the medieval period, one of my ancestors acquired a coat of arms.
I have written about Chartres Cathedral & its Labyrinth at first from the standpoint of someone who grew up in a market town in West Sussex that is twinned with the greatest cathedral city in northern France. How is it that a teenage orchestra trip when, as a young vegetarian, I was served a heart on a clean white plate, comes to feed into my adventure novel? How does experience mysteriously shape creativity?
I have always been really gripped by the story of the foundation of the Knights Templar. But then I like intricate tales of conspiracy and deceit. The epic, Biblical dimensions didn't hurt either.
I am not a violent person and do not enjoy reading very violent texts, but I had to steel myself to look deeply into the history of the Inquisition, about which it is difficult to write calmly, dispassionately. Even at this historical distance, the systematic genocidal crimes of the hypocritical medieval church sicken. But I knew this was a part of the dram in my story.
One of the simplest stories behind my novel Labyrinth is the assassination of Peter of Castelnau, the papal legate to whom the house of Toulouse failed to show enough respect. In fact, the disrespect went so far as to kill him. But, of course, there's more to it than that, as the murder of the papal emissary proved a key goad to both Rome and the throne of France to 'do something' about Languedoc.
In fact, the murder led directly on – through a few tortuous twists and turns – to the humiliation of the count of Toulouse - the price paid for disrespect. In the person of Raymond of Toulouse, the whole medieval power play between monarchy and church was ground out. (I would like to go on to talk about Henry II of England and Thomas à Beckett, but I have to keep my head down …)
I have other inspirations from history: the massacre at Béziers, the fall of impregnable Carcassonne, the vicious crusader zealot Simon de Montfort, the calamitous murder of the inquisitors at Avignonet, the dreadful fall and pyre of Montségur, the execution of the Templar Knight Jacques de Molay.
Although the subject matter is often grim, the lessons history teaches are worth our time and effort.
I often look back in the Labyrinth.
