| Oliver Cromwell remains, nearly 350 years after his death, a contentious figure. I'm aware there'll be those who disagree with my take on him. While The Settling takes some liberties with historical facts as we know them (adding a time-travelling alien, say), I've endeavoured to base it as much on real history as possible. History is about sources: finding and comparing them, and - most importantly - citing them. This play owes a great debt to two books in particular. Christopher Hill's God's Englishman (ISBN 0-141-29036-0) is a definitive account of the man's life and times, analysing - as it says itself - 'the forces which Cromwell helped to create, and which created him.' Tom Reilly's An Honourable Enemy (ISBN 1-84212-080-8) is more controversial, challenging the conventional view of Cromwell's time in Ireland. The book includes a great deal of contemporary evidence, and it's this I've most freely made use of. (The note on the back of the CD, for example, comes from page 64.) Simon Guerrier, November 2005 Simon Guerrier script edits stories about space archaeologist Bernice Summerfield. His Dr Who novel, The Time Travellers, also mucks history about. In episode two of The Settling, he plays the English soldier hit by both potty and chair. |