This is the first in a series of Historia interviews with writers shortlisted for the 2019 HWA Crown awards. Giles Kristian’s Lancelot, in the Gold Crown category, is a masterful retelling of the Arthurian legends. Lancelot’s a bit of a departure from your previous books. How did the idea of retelling the Arthurian legends come […]
Historia interviews: LJ Trafford
LJ Trafford is one of the authors selected to write for Rubicon, a collection of short stories set in Ancient Rome. Her books cover the turbulent ‘Year of the Four Emperors’, which followed the death of Nero in AD 68. Her short story for Rubicon, The Wedding, is set a little earlier, when Nero was […]
Historia interviews: Elizabeth Macneal
Elizabeth Macneal’s first novel, The Doll Factory, is as full of strange, beautiful and horrifying things as a Victorian curiosity cabinet. Her protagonist, Iris, moves from sweatshop labour making dolls’ clothes to the exotic company of the Pre-Raphaelites, only to become the object of a collector’s obsession. She spoke to Historia about her novel and […]
Historia interviews: Alison Weir
Historia interviews author Alison Weir about her novel Anna of Kleve
Historia interviews: Diarmaid MacCulloch
Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of the new biography Thomas Cromwell: A Life, is speaking at the Yorkshire Museum, York, on Friday, 14 December 2018. Tickets are £12 and available on their website. The event is presented by friends of the HWA, the York Literature Festival. Imogen Robertson, Chair of the HWA, spoke to him last week. I’ve […]
Historia interviews: Leanda de Lisle
White King, Leanda de Lisle’s biography of Charles I, won the 2018 Historical Writers’ Association Non-fiction Crown at an awards ceremony earlier this month. Historia talks to the author of this “quietly revolutionary” book.
The HWA Non-fiction Crown celebrates the best in historical non-fiction writing.
Gothic writers choose their favourite chilling books
As the nights draw in and the ghosts seep from the walls, it’s time to huddle beneath your counterpane with a suitably creepy book. I asked seven of our most brilliantly chilling writers to name their favourite Gothic reads, both a classic and a modern Gothic novel. Prepare to be frightened, repulsed, entranced… Ruth Ware […]
Historia Q&A: Lindsay Powell
Lindsay Powell is the author of several acclaimed books on battles, generalship and warfare. His speciality is the early Roman Empire and, in particular, the lives and times of the notorious extended family of Caesar Augustus. Among his books are two firsts – full-length biographies of Drusus the Elder and of his famous son Germanicus. […]