Transcript:
Speaker One: I've got a question about Markham. When did you decide who he was? And, do you know the future for him and his family?
Jodi Taylor: I don't know the future. I didn't know who he was for a long time. For the first two or three books, he was just the comic relief and then he elbowed his way into more and more and more of the stories, and I completely lost control.
It became apparent that he had to be somebody fairly important and I enjoyed releasing little snippets of information, like he'd had a really good education. He knew what was going on better than the historians did half the time.
That was great fun to do.
And then I sat up in bed one night, bolt upright, and thought, oh, I know who he is.
Ran it by my then editor, who was quite horrified.
I wrote the story with a great deal of trepidation,
But people said, yeah, that's who he is.
I've no idea where he's going. I don't think he does either. But he's quite settled and happy for the time being.
My Name is Markham - a Chronicles of St Mary’s short story
Like a smaller and much scruffier Greta Garbo - finally - Markham speaks!
It's Christmas and time for the first (and almost certainly last) St Mary's Annual Children's Christmas Party - attendance compulsory, by order of Dr Bairstow. Discovered practising his illegal reindeer dance and poo-dropping routine, our hero, along with fellow disaster-magnets Peterson and Maxwell, is despatched to Anglo-Saxon England to discover the truth about Alfred and the cakes.
In his own words, our hero reveals Major Guthrie's six-point guide to a successful assignment and the Security Section's true opinion of the History Department. And of historians in general. And of one historian in particular.
And, just to be clear, it is time travel, for God's sake. Forget all that pretentious 'investigating major historical events in contemporary time' rubbish.
This is history without the capital 'H'. Because this is the way the Security Section rolls!
For more information about Jodiworld CLICK HERE
An Unexpected Hero: Markham's Journey