What is historical fiction? Recently I read a post at one of the many blogs I visit asking that question. What is historical fiction? I thought that should be a fairly easy question to answer. Is it primarily fiction? If it is described by the author as fiction, then we have to accept that it is indeed fiction. Even if someone completely familiar with the event in question can say from their own knowledge or experience that ALL the facts presented are true that knowledge is completely irrelevant to the classification of the material. If the author claims it as fiction it is fiction. Does it depict a historical event or describe with some accuracy a historical society? Is some aspect or part of it undeniably historical? If it contains any of these then it is historical fiction. No question. However, that could be all out the window with changing just a few things. For instance, let’s change the timing. Let’s take a story about ...