Interview: Stacey Thomas, author of The Revels

Hi everyone, my name is Stacey Thomas and I’m a civil servant by day and a writer in whatever spare hours I can find. The Revels is my debut novel. I’m also a serial hobbyist and have tried everything from taxidermy to Renaissance dance. I’ve just started archery and I’m hoping this will be the one that sticks.  

Witchy, wintry and gothic.  

In a country torn apart by war and rumours of witchcraft, a young man hides a secret: the dead sing.  

I’ve always loved history and studied it at university. If I’m being honest, I find the research more enjoyable than the writing. Or at the very least less painful! 

I had the idea for The Revels during lockdown and would have been lost if it wasn’t for my library which posted down the books I needed for my research. I spent about six months reading everything I could about 17^th-century England, including the witch trials; witch-hunters of the day, including Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General; clothing; medicine; the English Civil War and biographies of leading figures from King Charles to Oliver Cromwell. 

I also read pamphlets and plays published in the 17^th century. My protagonist is an aspiring playwright and I wanted to tap into the rhythm of the language of the time. I also read a biography about John Taylor, The Water Poet, who was a rare example of a working-class writer who was able to live off his writing, despite the disdain he received from the literary elite. Even while writing my story and going through edits, I continued to research the period and would watch historical dramas and listen to history podcasts. Looking back, I can see I probably did too much, but I wanted my story to feel as authentic as possible in a world where my main character can hear the dead sing.  

The Pendle Witch Trials of 1612 is probably one of the most well-known historical events in The Revels. The testimony of nine-year-old Jennet Device was used to secure the convictions and deaths of her family and neighbours for witchcraft. Least known is the witch-hunt that followed twenty-one years later when Edmund Robinson claimed to have been abducted by witches. His father took him on a three-month tour of the local areas to point out his kidnappers. Their search ended in the imprisonment of seventeen people. Fortunately, a growing scepticism led to the case being reopened. Edmund confessed to making the whole thing up and his father was found to have blackmailed women for money in exchange for ensuring his son wouldn’t denounce them as witches. I think people would be shocked to learn that the accused weren’t automatically released from prison. In the 17^th century, you had to pay for your time in prison and many of the accused were too poor to pay the fee. Years later, some of them were still languishing in the dungeons of Lancaster Castle, including Jennet Device who played such an integral role in the infamous witch trials just two decades before.  

I also think people will be shocked by how commercialised witch-hunting was. In the 17^th century, there was a huge profit from selling accounts of alleged witch trials. They were written in English, rather than Latin – the language of the educated elite, and cheaply priced to ensure a wide readership.  

It might just be me, but I was very shocked by the story of Christian Caddell – Scotland’s only female witch pricker, who earned a living identifying the devil’s mark on accused witches. The devil’s mark was proof that a witch had sold her soul to the devil and people believed it wouldn’t bleed if you pricked it with a pin. Of course, what was kept quiet was that Caddell and other witch prickers used a retractable blade to condemn as many witches as possible in exchange for a high fee. There’s an inherent misogyny in witch-hunting and it can be easy to define the witch-hunts in terms of men vs women. My research showed me it was more nuanced than this and I was inspired to explore this in my debut.  

The heated first-person, present debate! In the past, I’ve played around with different viewpoints, but the first person has always felt the most natural for me. My personality is quite contained (ok, introverted) and the most common critiques beta readers have shared are that my characters can be a bit emotionally closed off. Writing in the first person helps me to go more method. I can tear down the walls between myself and the story and react to events as though it's happening to me. This helps the narration to feel more immediate and personal.  

I hope so! When I first started writing The Revels, I wanted to explore the witch-hunts from the perspective of the villain. But as the story evolved, I became more interested in exploring the vulnerability of my protagonist who’s both a witch and a witch-hunter as opposed to an all-out villain. But anyone who’s read Ronald Bassett’s Witchfinder General will find nods to his wonderfully menacing depictions of witch-hunters in my villains John Rush and Clements.  

This might be presumptuous considering how amazing their books are, but I hope that readers will see the influence of Bridget Collins and Maggie O’Farrell in the sense of atmosphere I try to invoke in my debut, along with the yearnings my characters feel for a sense of connection with people. Although The Revels is told from a male perspective, I hope that readers will pick up on how much Stacey Hall’s depiction of strong women inspired my female characters Althamia and Grace.  

I also hope readers will pick up on my love of Clarke’s speculative approach to history in my debut where King James who instead of becoming jaded with the witch persecutions set up a commission for witch-hunters.  

The best historical fiction effortlessly transports you to the past. I had no idea how hard this was until I started writing The Revels. It’s a constant balancing act between making the period come alive, but also wearing the research lightly so that your story doesn’t read like a textbook.  

How I read historical fiction has changed since getting a book deal. I still get lost in the story, but I find myself paying more attention to the period details and how authors use it to set the scene. I also tend to re-read books a lot more. The first time as a reader and the second as a writer trying to uncover the writer’s tricks.  

I recently visited the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth where I spent a few days researching the Brontës and immersing myself in their stories. I read Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey, etc at school, but it's only now that I’m older that I can appreciate how wonderful their books are. Mr Rochester’s proposal scene gets me every time.  

I love Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic and I can’t wait to read Silver Nitrate when it’s out. I’m also looking forward to Anna Kopp’s graphic YA The Marble Queen. 

After putting it off for years, I read Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life a few weeks ago. It’s beautifully written, but emotionally devastating and I can’t stop thinking about it. I’m therefore trying to self-medicate with something whimsical like Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries.