JAMES CHARLES ROY ’63 James Charles Roy ’63 has written innumerable articles on Irish history and seven distinguished books, including The
Fields of Athenry and Islands of Storm, a Book-of-the-Month and History Book Club selection. A prolific author of books and articles on history and travel, he has been published by leading imprints in the U.S., Ireland and Germany. His most recent publication, The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland, has received high praise by noted scholars such as
Nicholas Canny of the National University of Ireland, David Fitzpatrick and Dr. Laurie Kaplan (www.jamescharlesroy.
com). Renowned Irish history scholar Roy Foster, author of Modern Ireland, 1600-1972, describes Jim’s book as “a richlytextured, impressively researched and powerfully involving story, written with a full realization of its tragic and haunting relevance for future times.” The following is Jim’s description of the evolution of The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland.
THERE WAS NEVER A PRECISE MOMENT WHEN I BEGAN THIS BOOK. It
is, in fact, an evolution from my previous work on Irish subject matter, both books and articles, but it did not attain real focus until 2010 when I stumbled across one or two references to a minor functionary in the English administration at Dublin Castle, Lodowick Bryskett, and the luncheon party he gave at his rural retreat outside the city in 1582. His guest list included Edmund Spenser, one of the most famous and influential poets in the English canon, but no longer widely read today (regarding The Faerie Queene, Virginia Woolf once wrote that no one ever wished it a single word longer). The manuscript was completed in 2016, whereupon the frustrating search for a publisher ensued, a process from which I am battle-scarred veteran many times over. More often than comforting, I felt kinship with those many nameless pilgrims described so beautifully by Chaucer:
PAGE 32
Bulletin_Winter 2022 Final.indd 32
From every shire end of England they wend, The holy blissful martyr for to seek. That’s the problem: Middle to end-of-list writers are generally ignored in today’s publishing industry, always on the search for hot authors and trends. The kind of writing I do, narrative non-fiction, is considered déclassé and outdated in today’s marketplace. Historians I have spent my entire working life admiring – Barbara Tuchman, Robert Massie, Alan Moorhead, David Howarth – would all probably have problems getting in print today. What a mess. I think I received over fifty pink slips for this book alone... and I even have an agent (getting an agent, by the way, is tougher than getting a publisher). The only advice I can offer aspiring authors (not that any have asked), is perseverance. Without it, you won’t get far.
P O RT S M O U T H A BBE Y S CH O O L
2/22/22 2:00 PM
