History, Truth and Stephen Poliakoff

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History, Truth and Stephen Poliakoff

 

Every day seems to bring us a new film, book or TV series based on “real life”, whether a serial killer of husbands, the last woman to hang in England, or the British government’s cynical pursuit of jet power after the war.  The claim adds lustre and credibility and it seems that something about the ‘truth’ appeals to a deep human need.  I once gave James Baldwin’s Another Country (New York in the late fifties) to someone who didn’t read much and she liked it but said it would’ve been even better if the people had been “real”. 

     So steps history into drama just as historians doubt they can
ever uncover a single invincible truth as to “what really happened”.  In
the current BBC series Close to the Enemy Stephen Poliakoff plays on
the notion that secret files can reveal the dark side of reality, and in
conversation with historian David Reynolds, talks about the way
artistic licence can shine a beam of light into the past.  Reynolds
agrees that history needs empathy and imagination to lift the “truth”
out of the opaque facts hidden in the archives.

     All of which lies thankfully well below the surface of the
thriller, a genre designed to entertain, but nonetheless the question of
historical accuracy hangs in the air.  We believe in Jason Bourne
because the screen is the most persuasive of all media, but the written
word has subtler assets.  EBOLOWA is based on a true case.  I make the point in my video on Unbound: I don’t believe the “whole truth” has been told and I want to offer a more convincing version.  I think it’s the kind of truth that Poliakoff and Reynolds would recognise and I hope you find
yourself agreeing with them.   

 

I think that real life novels are by far more captavating and interesting than fiction unless the author is a really good artist.

How do I define a good artist im not really sure.

My favourite fictional novels one flew over the cookoo nest and clockwork orange I would defo say top drawer artist and are a couple of my favourites. Oh and des dillon and irvine welsh ( u may disagree ) janice galloway work top drawer to. The scots well represented. There are many many more. I hope my comment is not to off subject.

Stephen d

steve - -  thanks for your comment - - Cuckoo's Nest up there for me but I couldn't get through Never Give an Inch - - you're not off the subject - - - it's just where we get our inspiration and what we want to convey - - for me it's history, what we think happened and how it might've been otherwise - -  you should read Baldwin, especially if you like the blues - - all the best simon