Set in 1940, The Secret Guests speculates what would have happened if the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were sent to a remote stately home in Ireland to get away from the Blitz on London. When a dead body turns up, it takes every effort to uncover the truth and stop the girls’ identities coming to light. In this edition of Historical Fiction, Rob Weinberg talks to the Irish, Booker Prize-winning novelist John Banville about penning historical crime novels under the name of B.W. Black, and the endlessly challenging work of being a writer.