History and Fiction

In what ways is history like fiction?

1.     Historical ‘facts’ are not valid and relevant anymore because of disciplinary boundaries in historiography.

2.     History as a textual product involves both ‘finding’ and ‘invention’ by an author who is himself subject to ideology.

3.     Fiction narrates for now from a time other than now. Likewise, history seeks solutions to today's issues in the past.

4.     History is a textual interpretation of the past, and yet, this text is open to interpretation.

In what year are The Children of the King set? How did you work this out? What does the novel say about history?

There is no indication in The Children of the King that London bombardment had begun. In World War II, Germans bombardments against London started in September 1940. Furthermore, in the novel, May says that her father “went to France,” (p.38) to defend that country. By mid-1940, the French resistance had come to an end. The story tells of evacuation just prior to the bombardment which happened after falling of France. Therefore, The Children of the King is set in 1940, precisely in the “summer” (p.42). The small conflicts between characters in the story and the big war between the countries are intertwined to demonstrate that everything is connected, and history is a concomitant result of interactions between people throughout the time.