Interview with Iuli Tsakalou
A time of great turmoil and conflict! More than thirty years ago, Ken Follett’s best-selling novel, The Stylists of the Earth, was published. Now, with the exciting new addition to the series of Kingsbridge stories, we are on another battlefield and witness the conflict between mercy and greed, love and hate, progress and tradition. And, through the sufferings, passions and adventures of its heroes, we watch with a new eye the shocking changes that shook the world in 19th century Europe.
-“THE WEAPONS OF LIGHT” the title of your new book. Bold in size and set against a meticulously studied historical background. What is the trigger for this new route?
The late 18th century, when most of The Armor of Light takes place, was a time of both great progress and great turmoil. I’ve always been drawn to periods of conflict as they make a wonderful basis for a novel.
-Love, hate, loyalty, betrayal, hope and despair dominate the new heart-pounding story you are creating, again centered around the fictional town of Kingsbridge. Where do you want to lead your reader?
I don’t want to lead my reader. My readers are intelligent people and I don’t tell them what to think or try to influence their opinions. What I want, though, is for them to discover a story they can’t put down and keep turning the pages.
-Does the place (Kingsbridge) continue to be the invisible protagonist of your books?
I’ve never thought of Kingsbridge as a protagonist, but it’s an important part of my books and of interest to many of my readers. For me, Kingsbridge has come to support Britain as a whole. When I want to tell a story of great historical value, like the Great Plague or the Industrial Revolution, which affected a huge number of people, I think it helps to set it in a smaller and more intimate setting, and for me that place is the fictional Kingsbridge .
-Your heroes bring to life the struggles of a generation that thirsts for knowledge and advancement and fights for a future free from all oppression. Do you believe that in order for man to experience redemption, he must first bleed in order to bring about saving and final solutions?
I don’t really believe in salvation. I think every generation continues to fight for freedom around the world.
-Can the historical background of the Industrial Revolution be paralleled by today’s technological developments, political polarization, inflation and social unrest?
In the last decade of the 18th century there was a crisis that we experienced here in Britain, as I think in many other countries.
During the 18th century, there was a phenomenon called “The Housewives’ Rebellion” where women who could not afford to feed their families broke into bakers’ shops and stole bread. This has not happened in Britain during the current crisis, thankfully, but many people are struggling.
– History does not mean only facts. Does knowing it help us know where we are stepping and where we are?
I think understanding history helps us recognize certain patterns and better understand potential flashpoints.
A flash point is an incident that is small in itself, but could have devastating consequences like the small fuse that ignites a bomb. Or, to world events such as the assassination in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 that sparked the First World War. When I was writing my book Never, I discovered how easy it is for a small incident to turn into a major one and for situations to quickly escalate beyond control.
-Reading “Weapons of Light” I was struck by the depiction of the horrors of war. How easy was it for you to convey to the readers the emotions of your characters, from their most peaceful to their most desperate moments?
A battle scene is nothing without the emotions of the people fighting on the battlefield. It is important to get the facts right and even more important to let the reader share the feelings of the characters.
-How do you see what is happening in the world lately? How do you perceive the next day? Has the world changed or does the past define us?
I don’t think we are defined by our past, but I hope we can learn from it.
And of course, a few words about the author we admire so much: Ken Follett was born in 1949 in Cardiff, Wales. He studied philosophy in London and worked as a reporter, before devoting himself exclusively to writing. Since 1978, when he was awarded The Eye of the Needle, he has written thirty-six novels, which have been translated into thirty-three languages and have sold over one hundred and seventy-eight million copies in eighty countries. Many of these were carried over to film and television.
He has won the Edgar Award for The Eye of the Needle and the Corine Award for Code: Magpies, while his famous novel The Stylists of the Earth is one of the most popular works of all time. The subsequent books in the Kingsbridge series, as well as the “Aeons” trilogy, have been equally successful, repeatedly topping the bestseller lists of many authoritative publications worldwide. The author is very involved in the public – among other things, he was the president of the Dyslexia Function foundation for a decade. He lives in Stevenage, Hertfordshire with his wife Barbara.
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