Renegade Nell - A Review

Yeah, I'm procrastinating again. Dealing with post-Swanwick Blues and contemplating what to work on next, I decided to take a look at Renegade Nell, a swashbuckler fantasy series created by Sally Wainwright (of Gentleman Jack fame). While the Kestrel and Scar stories aren't really fantasy, I hoped to get some inspiration for them.

Taking place in 1705, we follow Louisa Harland as Nell Jackson, a soldier's widow who returns to her father's pub in Tottenham. During her journey, she's confronted by a gang of highway robbers led by Isembard Tully but defeats them with the aid of a fey called Billy Blind, played by Nick Mohammed. Not long after returning, she gets into a fight with Thomas Blancheford, the spoiled and boorish son of the local magistrate. In revenge, he kills Nell's father, arranges to have her and her sisters evicted, and then kills his own father and frames Nell for it. Now an outlaw, Nell must find a way to clear her name. Meanwhile, Thomas and his sister both fall under the sway of the unscrupulous Earl of Poynton, a powerful sorcerer and ringleader of a Jacobite plot to depose Queen Anne.

Going into the series, I was expecting some entertaining swashbuckler fantasy, and that delivers. There are some great sequences where Billy Blind inhabits Nell to give her superhuman strength (and the ability to catch bullets), but he won't inhabit her all the time. Nevertheless, Nell is still a cunning fighter even without Billy's help, and provides plenty of witty lines when she doesn't take anyone's crap. We don't know much about where Billy Blind came from, and he doesn't know either.

There's an impressive array of other characters too:

• Enyi Okoronkwo plays Rasselas, a stable hand at the Blancheford estate who becomes one of Nell's first allies. After Blancheford's father covers up the death of Nell's father, it's Rasselas who blows the whistle and later joins Nell when she goes on the run.
• Frank Dillane plays Charles Deveraux, a foppish noble whom Nell deduces to be Isembard Tully. The pair pose as an aristocratic couple at one point, which produces some funny bickering as they comment on their wanted posters.
• Jake Dunn plays Thomas Blancheford, who is a spoiled and foppish bully but later gets consumed by guilt after he kills his father. It's satisfying to see Nell kick his ass at the beginning of the series.
• Alice Kremelberg plays Blancheford's widowed sister, Sofia Wilmot. She initially covers for Thomas when he kills their father, and soon becomes a student of Poynton's black magic.
• Ashna Rabheru plays Polly Honeycombe, an aspiring novelist and romantic at heart who is looking to escape from an arranged marriage and later develops a crush on Nell.

One thing I wasn't expecting was the harsh critique of the inequality and elitism of society at that time (which honestly hasn't changed much). Nell is disdainful of how the law only protects the wealthy and influential, and fears that a magistrate won't help her since she's apparently killed one of their own. A later episode shows her posing as a doctor to infiltrate Newgate Prison, where she finds children serving sentences or awaiting execution for stealing bread or blankets. There's also a recurring theme (including a whole musical number) in which Nell is demonised by the newspapers, showing how the media often serves the interests of the elite while profiting off sensationalism. This is where I found the writing to be the strongest.

Sadly, there's only one season with eight episodes. When I was reading up on things, I discovered that Disney cancelled the series at the end of July. It's surprising what you find when you don't use Twitter. I guess Disney weren't keen on the aforementioned themes.

However, the series is available on Disney+ and is definitely worth a watch.

Happy writing.

Swanwick 2024 - My Write Up

Once again, it's that wonderful time of year. No, not Christmas, but it can feel like Christmas (especially at the times you don't know what day it is). I'm of course talking about my annual visit to the Writers' Summer School at Swanwick. This has been my eighth visit to the school, and my third visit as a member of the committee which organises it. One of my roles in the months leading up to the school is processing applications for the "TopWrite" scheme which offers subsidised places for 18-30 year-olds starting out in the writing world. Much bigger than this was the technical side of things, which involved a lot of running around to switch on screens and microphones in the conference rooms. That was hard work.

Like every year, the school hosts a wide variety of fascinating courses. These include "Specialist Courses", which comprise four sessions spread over the week; "Short Courses", which comprise two sessions taught on the same  day (with lunchtime between them); and single session "Workshops".

Being on tech meant not always being able to attend the courses I was interested in, since I give first dibs to my volunteers as to where they want to be. I remember being told on my visit "don't try to attend everything because you'll tire yourself out by Tuesday". Boy is that true. Not only was I in charge of tech, I was also running my own course, gave a one-to-one session on writing action, and sold a few copies of The Lady's Favour.

For the specialist course this year, I attended the first two sessions of "The Secrets of Storytelling" by Simon Hall. There were some truly interesting pointers, including the use of senses in writing and how to show not tell. There was even a segment which involved looking at the story in the song "Escape". I do like Piña Coladas. Getting caught in the rain...not so much. Unfortunately, I had to miss the latter half so I could get a bit of quiet time and make some preparations for other parts of the school (including my own course).

Sunday's short course was "Talking Taboos" with Liz Hurst. The first session was dedicated to writing sex scenes, which is something I don't really do, but was nonetheless insightful. The second session looked at swearing, including when and where to use them to great effect and the law of diminishing returns. I don't really use that much swearing in my prose. Kestrel might use "bloody" or "arse" from time to time, but nothing more severe than that. My poetry is a bit more potty-mouthed though. This was followed by a workshop on "Secrets of the Psychological Thriller" with Lesley Kara. While that's not my usual genre, it was nonetheless fascinating.

On Monday, I attended "Writing Fillers" with Maggie Cobbett (pictured above with my book). That provided some interesting pointers on where to submit photos or letters to magazines, and could be an avenue that's worth looking into (I haven't done any ghostwriting since pausing my Fiverr gig last October). The workshop that afternoon was "Find Your Historical Fiction Voice" with Fiona Forsyth. Historical fiction is one of my main genres, and I got some great pointers about avoiding use of slang or explaining terminology in narrative.

On Wednesday, I ran my own short course on writing content for Table-Top Roleplaying Games. Being a rather niche area of writing, I didn't get many attendees, but that nonetheless helped create a comfortable environment to bounce ideas. In fact, I've since started working on an adventure in my comic fantasy setting called "The Curse of Faltitek", which got brainstormed as part of a group exercise. After a particularly stressful evening with that side of things, I found a sense of catharsis in that.

In addition to courses, there was a fantastic array of evening events. These included a poetry open mic on the Sunday night, which I was on hand for and read one of my own works. There was a campfire singalong on Monday night where I sang a couple of pirate songs from memory, and enjoyed some marshmallows. There was also a fancy dress evening on the Wednesday with the theme "Diamonds are Forever", complete with a disco. I didn't do much dancing this year; it was too hot and I picked up a few blisters on my feet. But I had a pleasant evening in the bar.

Agent 0075, Licensed to Quill

As this was the school's diamond jubilee, there was a special celebration dinner preceded by a cake cutting ceremony with a speech from the Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire. This ceremony included an announcement of members for next year's committee from a vote held at the school's Annual General Meeting. I had run for chair at next year's school, but was unsuccessful. However, I am still on the committee, so I can keep the mics running for another year.

Insert Portal reference here

Despite the stresses of the technical side, this year's Swanwick was still an enjoyable experience. People enjoyed my course, I sold half of my stock in the book shop, and I made a lot of new friends. It was great to be approached by people who said they had voted for me in the election, enjoyed my performances, or showing appreciation for my running around. Tech is a big job, and often regarded as a thankless task, but it was great to see that proven wrong.

I'm certainly looking forward to returning next year, although I will have to step down as a committee member afterwards. If my finances hold out, I'm sure I'll be able to attend in Swanwick 2026. Might even get some writing done.

Happy writing.