Stacia Brown talks about The Glovemaker

Stacia Brown, author of her first novel ‘The Glovemaker’, in her interview talks to Female First about how rewarding the process of researching her novel was and how it was a ‘pure discovery‘.

Brown’s novel was inspired by the research conducted during her dissertation at Emory University on 17^th century England. In 'The Glovemaker’ she writes of a woman on trial for murder, a glovemaker’s assistant, Rachael Lockyer, who is the only suspect following the discovery of a dead child found buried behind the Smithfield slaughterhouse.

Brown was particularly interested in the alternative society to the one that is so commonly portrayed in many other novels and television shows of this ilk. ‘I wanted to explore what life was like for ordinary women- not queens or duchesses or countesses’. The novel not only encapsulates the historical element but also boasts a romantic accompaniment to the focal point of the story. ‘I also wanted to imagine what it was like to fall in love in this time period, what the risks were, how women navigated relationships, how they dealt with power and authority and how they broke and kept secrets.’ She used archaic principles such as the definition of fidelity and ‘what it means to do our duty’. Through this she weaves more old fashioned notions in a manner that still appeals to a modern day reader.

Following her graduate degrees, Brown had experiences of reading 17^th century sermons, treatises, broadsides and poems on the civil wars on the meaning of martyrdom. She admits that although she had ‘a general foundation in the intellectual history of the period, to write a novel is very different to writing a dissertation, so I had to start over in some way.’ She found that other areas of research came into play, such as ‘fashion, social manners of style and taste’. More specific aspects needed including to provide clues to the time period, such as ‘how people got their drinking water, what they cooked with, how they relieved themselves and what their mattresses were made of.’ Something that may seem so trivial is a key revelation to placing the book in a historical time frame. Brown also had to study old maps to gain insight into that layout of England at that time.

Her interest in theology was the initial inspiration that ‘metamorphosed’ into what she now writes. She claims she has always had an interest in what ‘people’s faith tells us about them, how they made sense of the world and how they also failed to make sense of the world.’ Brown feels that reformation era England is the perfect canvas for gaining insight into theology; it is not about ‘providing answers but about framing questions’. She also believes that the ‘early modern period, the civil wars and Puritan era have potential for exploring the point where ‘people’s faith starts to fall into crisis and doubt starts coloring everything’.

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