Historical fiction 'more interesting than history'

NOVELISTS offer a better understanding of the past than historians, the organiser of a major new prize for historical fiction claimed yesterday.

"The way in which history is taught in our schools and universities doesn't bring the past alive anything like as well as a good historical novel," said Alistair Moffat, chairman of the judges for the 25,000 Walter Scott Prize.

Announcing the shortlist for the inaugural prize, which is funded by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, Mr Moffat said that, in a secular age in which religion has lost much of its role as a guide to behaviour, studying the past has become increasingly vital.

"We need to know where we came from, what kind of people our ancestors were," he said. "And that's one reason people are reading historical fiction in greater numbers than ever before to make sense of the present.

"What pulls children in, is story. Historical novelists put the story back in history, and that's what will draw them to the subject."