They were granddaughters of Queen Victoria and two of the most beautiful princesses in Europe. Princesses Alix and Ella were destined to wed well and wisely. But while their grandmother wants to join them to the English and German royal families, the sisters fall in love with Russia — and the Romanovs. Defying the Queen’s […]
Felo de Se: the gruesome punishment that led to me writing The Low Road
Katharine Quarmby’s investigation into the gruesome burial of a suicide victim — for felo de se — with links to her home town inspired her first novel, The Low Road. For Women’s History Month, she explains why this punishment fell disproportionately onto poor women, and what made her want to tell this story. On a […]
The Golden Hour by Jacquie Bloese
In the genteel squares of late-Victorian Brighton, Ellen and Reynold Harper — twins, companions, colleagues – ply their trade as portrait photographers. But at the golden hour, the models arrive to pose for the lucrative — and illicit — photographs that really keep the Harpers’ business afloat. This is the other, shadowy world of the […]
PT Barnum and the Circassian girl
It was a shock for RN Morris to discover that PT Barnum, the famous showman, was a people-trafficker. Yet the facts are well documented. For Historia Roger investigates Barnum’s attempt to buy a ‘beautiful Circassian girl’. One of the things I discovered while researching my novella, The Crimson Child, is that PT Barnum, the famous […]
The Bone Hunters by Joanne Burn
In 1824, Lyme Regis is as tumultuous as the sea that surrounds it. When 24-year-old Ada Winters — poor, peculiar and brilliant — uncovers a set of unusual fossils on the cliffs, she believes she has found the answer to her scientific frustrations and her family’s financial struggles. Meanwhile, Doctor Edwin Moyle has come to […]
The Secrets of Blythswood Square by Sara Sheridan
1846. Glasgow is a city on the cusp of great social change, but behind the curtains, neighbours are watching, and rumours of improper behaviour spread like wildfire on the respectable Blythswood Square. When Charlotte Nicholl discovers that the fortune she has been bequeathed by her father is tied up in a secret collection of erotic […]
Fyneshade by Kate Griffin
On the day of her beloved grandmother’s funeral, Marta discovers that she is to become governess to the young daughter of Sir William Pritchard. Separated from her lover and discarded by her family, Marta has no choice but to journey to Pritchard’s ancient and crumbling house, Fyneshade, in the wilds of Derbyshire. All is not […]
The Low Road by Katharine Quarmby
Norfolk, 1813. In the quiet Waveney Valley, the body of Mary Tyrell is staked through the heart after her death by suicide. She had been under arrest for the suspected murder of her newborn child. Mary leaves behind a young daughter, Hannah, who is later sent away to the Refuge for the Destitute in London, […]