How do you write a battle scene which engages your readers and drives the story on? It’s a question many authors of historical fiction fight with. Matthew Harffy, well known for his action-filled Bernicia Chronicles series, gives Historia his advice. All good stories need conflict, and what better way to convey conflict than to have […]
Review: Warrior by Edoardo Albert with Paul Gething
Matthew Harffy, author of the Bernicia Chronicles, is no stranger to the history of Bamburgh (once Bebbanburg) during the Anglo-Saxon period of English history. He reviews Edoardo Albert and Paul Gething’s latest book, Warrior, for Historia. The title of Warrior: A Life of War in Anglo-Saxon Britain by Edoardo Albert with Paul Gething might lead […]
Bebbanburg 2020: the lessons I learned from a seventh-century siege
Matthew Harffy, author of the Bernicia Chronicles novels, finds unexpected similarities between the seventh-century siege of Bebbanburg and his life in 2020, whether it’s coping with lockdown or making a television trailer. The world is under a cloud of sickness. People despair at ineffectual politicians as more of the global population fall ill and succumb […]
The power of alliance in the Viking Age
Matthew Harffy is well known for his Bernicia Chronicles, set in Northumbria in the turbulent mid-7th century. For his new book he moves place and era, and his research has led him to ask an intriguing question: were there two kings of Wessex who could claim to be called ‘the Great’? My latest novel, Wolf […]
Historia Interviews: Giles Kristian
The third and final novel in Giles Kristian’s epic Rise of Sigurd series, Wings of the Storm, is published on 1st December. Matthew Harffy chats to Giles about Vikings, the English Civil War, working with a living legend and his past life as a globe-trotting pop star. Wings of the Storm is the concluding novel […]
Oswald: Exile, King, Saint
If you were to ask most people to name an Anglo-Saxon king, they might mention Alfred (he was Great, after all!), or Harold (with the infamous arrow in the eye). A few might even bring up names like Ethelred the (mistranslated) Unready, or, if they are a bit more into pre-Norman Conquest British history, they […]
Desert Island Books: Matthew Harffy
When asked what five books I would take with me if I was stranded on a desert island, my first reaction was just to name my five favourite books, or at least the first five good books I could think of. But then I got thinking (often a bad idea, I find) about all the […]