Writing historical fiction about famous 20th-century people may mean that there are more records to draw on than are available for previous centuries. But it brings its own set of problems, as author Gill Paul found while working on her latest novel, The Second Marriage. Biographical novels have long been a popular form of historical […]
It’s time to remember Ganga Singh: maharaja, reformer, statesman
A hundred years ago the terms of the Treaty of Versailles came into force, changing the geopolitical landscape of Europe, and ultimately the course of world history. One of its signatories, Maharaja Ganga Singh, is the inspiration for a new novel set in British India, Enemy of the Raj. Its author, Alec Marsh, believes that […]
Writing historical fiction to an anniversary: some tips
If you’re writing a novel to mark the anniversary of a historical event – perhaps the most unmovable deadline there is – you may find these tips from Carolyn O’Brien, who learned them the hard way, will help you succeed. When my debut novel The Song of Peterloo was published in August 2019 to coincide […]
The Unwanted Suitor: a short story (part two)
This is the second and final part of Historia’s serialisation of Sophia Tobin’s The Unwanted Suitor, taken from Victoriana, the HWA collection of ten short stories set in the 19th century, each one accompanied by an interview with the author. In the first part, the narrator, a vicar living on the East Anglia coast, marries […]
The Unwanted Suitor: a short story
This is the first part of Historia’s exclusive extract from the latest HWA short story collection, Victoriana. With a gothic undercurrent and a satisfying twist at the end, The Unwanted Suitor by Sophia Tobin is set on the East Kent coast in the mid-19th century. Some tales are harder to tell than others. I tell […]
Review: Brontë’s Mistress by Finola Austin
Author Essie Fox reviews Finola Austin’s “remarkable” debut novel, Brontë’s Mistress. Brontë’s Mistress by Finola Austin is a literary novel created in the classic style of Victorian sensation. It also echoes certain themes from the Brontë sisters’ work. But at the centre of this novel is not some younger woman in the throes of her […]
Did Henry VIII really want Katheryn Howard to be executed?
Was Katheryn Howard’s execution avoidable? It may be that in death, as in much of her life, she was a pawn manipulated by some of the most powerful men in England. As historian and novelist Alison Weir tells Historia, evidence suggests that it was Henry VIII’s advisors, rather than the grief-stricken King himself, who wanted […]
(Re)writing the Spanish Armada
“Everybody thinks they know the story of the Spanish Armada,” says historian and novelist JD Davies. Yet, as he tells Historia, this is a story that has been reinterpreted and embellished for over 400 years. Which made his own retelling of the Armada story in his new novel, Armada’s Wake, both an opportunity – and […]