Schama’s class, called “Writing Narrative History,” was the perfect combination for her, she says. Half the time was devoted to closely reading historical narratives, and the other half was a writing workshop.

“It was the first time I actually had a model of writing that fit with the idea of what I wanted to write,” Davidson says. Davidson started work on her novel after graduation, though it would be another six years until it took a form similar to the version that appears in print.

“I must have written well over a thousand pages,” she says.

The book is now about three hundred pages.

She says she felt that the various permutations were necessary to finally achieve what she wanted.

“I think it’s kind of exciting to look at a big pile of pages that you wrote and then throw it out,” she says.   At the same time, Davidson was working on her dissertation on 18th century hypocrisy “and why people wanted to argue that it was a good thing.”  

But she stresses that the novel is not something she did in her spare time, because it makes it sound like less work than it actually was.

“I hate the idea of calling this a hobby,” she says. The book is being published by Soft Skull Press, which specializes, according to its website, in “fearless, progressive, independently minded literature.”  

Davidson is friendly with one of the publishers of the company, as she was with most of the people at the Wordsworth reading. The reading was so relaxed that Wordsworth events director Jim Behrle said, “I haven’t ever had an author laugh at their own introduction.”Davidson says she’s thrilled with the book’s reception, and she attributes her success to a combination of perseverance and luck. Her advice to other writers?

“For most, it’s going to take a long time, but it’s worth sticking it out,” she says.