The Little Book of Monarchs
What can you tell us about your new book Little Book of Monarchs?
I’m on a mission to improve children’s knowledge of history.
Why do you feel it is important that children should know about our past kings and queens?
My mother and father instilled a love of the subject in me. My primary school teachers and a brilliant grammar school carried it on.
But now, our children are simply not taught the full chronological narrative of our kings and queens. Unless our children are properly taught about what happened in the past, how can they possibly understand the present and how we got to where we are?
Please tell us about your first book Leonie and the Last Napoleon?
My first book, Leonie and the Last Napoleon, was an historical novel. I based it on the diary of my French great grandmother which I had discovered among my father’s papers after he died.
It set out the first 25 years of her extraordinary life. Born in Paris in 1848, Leonie lived throughout the Second French Empire and she knew the Emperor Napoleon lll . Her father treated the Emperor for skin cancer and her brother helped the Empress Eugenie escape from the mob when the Empire fell in 1890.
Leonie survived the Franco Prussian War and the Siege of Paris. But her husband was on the Paris Commune’s execution list because he still supported the old emperor and the two of them had to flee into exile in England.
Why do you feel that the standards of history teaching are falling schools?
I see the standard falling all the time. The lack of knowledge by young people in TV quizzes astonishes me. One youngster actually thought Churchill was the nodding dog in the insurance adverts.
And in 2010, no less than 159 of our comprehensive schools failed to enter a single child for GCSE History.
What periods are mostly focused on in schools these days?
They’re taught disconnected periods like the Tudors and World War ll. They know more about Hitler than Henry V.
Which is your favourite period in history?
My favourite period is medieval history, especially the Wars of the Roses. I loved The White Queen on TV recently. A very complicated story which was very well told and acted – although I think we all needed the Plantagenets’ family tree on our knee as we watched it.
Being from Newcastle, I think my interest in history may have started when my mother took me to see Newcastle’s perfectly preserved Norman keep and the ruins of Tynemouth Priory with its collection of monks’ stone coffins.
How can parents and children enjoy this book?
I have already been told by young mothers that The Little Book of Monarchs will be a very instructional bedtime read as their children get a bit older and they can explain things to them in more detail.
And the children in the top classes at my local primary school are all reading it and enjoying it and say they’ll use it for their course work.
How much has your background in journalism helped you to publish books?
Nearly all journalists want to write a book. I constantly draw on my training as a reporter and sub-editor when I’m writing. And I also know a fair bit about the printing and publishing process so self-publishing didn’t hold any terrors for me.
Now I’m concentrating on marketing and publicising my book to maximise initial sales and I’m building up a programme of talks to interested groups. Talks are a very good way to sell your book.
With Leonie, I gave 140 talks to WIs, Universities of the Third Age, Ladies’ Luncheon Clubs, Inner Wheel, Rotary, Probus and history groups.
What is next for you?
After doing the rounds of those, I’ll probably put my thinking cap on and come up with book number three.
The Little book of Monarchs costs £7.99 for more information visit www.boullemierbooks.co.uk