History Author Spotlight - Matthew Wainwright

 

Today's History Author Spotlight guest is Matthew Wainwright.

Tell us about yourself

HI! My name's Matthew (or Matt). I'm an author of historical fiction for young adults. For many years I've worked with deaf children and adults in schools and colleges, providing sign language support in the classroom. However, my first love has always been writing, and now my first book is out and I'm finding out what it's like to be a children's author! It's been great going back into classrooms in this new role to share my love of writing and history, and I'm looking forward to many visits in the future.

Tell us about your book

'Out of the Smoke' is a historical novel for teen readers, set in the murky underworld of Victorian London. It follows Billy the chimney sweep as he gets embroiled in the local street gangs and rises through their ranks. The book was inspired by the work of Lord Shaftesbury, a noted Victorian Philanthropist and campaigner for the rights of child labourers.

Life in Victorian times was hard for children, with some as young as 5 years old being sent up narrow, dark, choking chimneys to clean them, amongst other dirty and backbreaking jobs. Lord Shaftesbury was instrumental in outlawing the use of children as sweeps, as well as improving working conditions for thousands of others, but his name is largely forgotten today. I wanted to write ‘Out of the Smoke’ to highlight his work, and to help people understand why he did what he did.

There’s a tendency to characterise Victorians as pearl-clutching moralists, but there was a reason why many in positions of privilege attempted to reform society: cities like London were absolutely rife with crime and poverty, and there was a desperate need for charitable work to bring children and young people out of a dead-end existence and give them a chance in life.

In many ways it’s not too dissimilar to today: grinding poverty and crime still exist, and the problem of gang culture is just as urgent. My hope is that ‘Out of the Smoke’ will help some young readers to question poor life choices they have made, or are about to make, and show them that there isn’t just one path they are destined to follow. It’s up to them to stop, seek help where they can, and turn off that path onto a better one.

What projects are you currently working on?

I'm working on my second historical novel, this time set amongst the intrigue and paranoia of Tudor England. I‘m fascinated by the idea of the English Bible being a banned book—there's a lot of talk about banning books these days, and images of books being burned, and I wanted to take a look back into the history of perhaps the most influential book in the history of the world, at a time when it wasn't mainstream or widely-read. The image of Bibles being smuggled into England from the continent, and the people who translated it and read it being criminalised and executed, is a powerful one, and it makes me think about the power of words and ideas, and what we do when those ideas are unpopular or controversial.

At the same time I wanted to explore the role of women in the religious and political upheavals of the Reformation. The role of men is well-documented (Henry VIII dominates any conversation into which he is introduced, as do men like Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More), but the influence of women upon those powerful men is perhaps less well-explored - though there has been a lot more written about them in recent years. Someone like Anne Boleyn is highly controversial, and she has been portrayed across the spectrum, from heroine to villain, depending on the bias of the person writing or talking about her. Of course, we know the truth is far more complicated, and I wanted to try to understand that and suggest some ways in which we could understand Anne in shades of grey rather than black and white. My hope is that this will help children to understand that history is not as neat or convenient as a story, and that we must question and interrogate ideas rather than just accepting a deceptively simple narrative. In this way I would hope that they will also be able to question and interrogate the content being fed to them in an increasingly information-rich, yet truth-averse, society.

Where can we buy your books?

Out of the Smoke is available from your local bookshop, which is where I'd always encourage people to buy from! If they don't have it in stock they'll certainly be able to order it for you, and I'd recommend waiting the extra few days for the sake of supporting your local indie!

Where you can find Matthew Wainwright:

Website: www.MatthewWainwright.co.uk - for blogs, new stories, sample chapters and learning resources.
Twitter: @mattwauthor
Instagram: @mattwauthor

Facebook: facebook.com/mattwauthor