“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 […]
Bebbanburg 2020: the lessons I learned from a 7th-century siege
Matthew Harffy, author of the Bernicia Chronicles novels, finds unexpected similarities between the 7th-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 […]
Raising the Jacobite standard: Glenfinnan, 1745
On 19 August, 1745, a hastily-made red and white flag lifted in the breeze at Glenfinnan, at the north end of Loch Shiel in the Western Highlands of Scotland. It signalled the beginning of the Jacobite Rising of 1745 – but the chances of the flag’s ever being unfurled were in doubt until the last […]
A False Hawksman
John Pilkington’s short story, A False Hawksman, is taken from Royal Blood, the HWA collection of Tudor-era stories by well-known historical fiction writers. He says: “The Thomas the Falconer books have proved to be my most successful historical series. I’m very fond of Thomas and was keen to bring him back, choosing a pivotal moment […]
The HWA Crowns longlists for 2020
The longlists for the HWA Crown Awards for 2020 are announced! With 36 outstanding books in three categories – the HWA Gold Crown, the HWA Non-fiction Crown and the HWA Debut Crown – to celebrate in a lineup which spans millennia and continents, ranging from original historical research to love stories, thrillers, gothic chillers and […]
The Brontë Affair: researching the scandal that enveloped literature’s most famous family
Finola Austin had felt an affinity with the Brontë sisters for many years, but it was only while reading a biography of Charlotte that she became interested in their brother Branwell, who died young, like his sisters – but with his potential unfulfilled. His decline was blamed on a scandal involving Lydia, the older, married […]
The Honey and the Sting: the novel that didn’t want to be written
What is it like when your novel just isn’t working? EC (Elizabeth) Fremantle had the perfect ingredients for a historical thriller: murder, sex, secrets, danger – but why did her first draft turn out to be unreadable? The Honey and the Sting is my sixth novel. I had the idea that writing would become easier […]
Bigger than Profumo! ‘The scandal that history forgot’
In the mid-1960s the Conservative Party was still recovering from the Profumo affair when a new scandal was uncovered… and quickly covered up again, with the help of some unexpected allies. Historian Daniel Smith, author of The Peer and the Gangster, tells Historia how the story was quickly and conveniently ‘forgotten’. There was a peer, […]