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Historia interviews, 2020 Crown Awards shortlists: Elizabeth Macneal

14 November 2020 By Frances Owen

Elizabeth Macneal’s acclaimed first novel, The Doll Factory, is shortlisted for the HWA Debut Crown Award for 2020. Historia talks to her in the third in our series of interviews with historical writers shortlisted for HWA Crown awards. The HWA Debut Crown celebrates new voices in historical fiction. Have you always been interested in history? […]

The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal

5 March 2020 By Editor

London. 1850. On a crowded street, the dollmaker Iris Whittle meets the artist Louis Frost. Louis is a Pre-Raphaelite painter who yearns to have his work displayed in the Royal Academy, and he is desperate for Iris to be his model. Iris agrees, on the condition that he teaches her to paint. Dreaming of freedom, […]

Historia’s books of the year for 2019

16 December 2019 By Editor

Whether you prefer reading historical fiction or non-fiction (or both, why not?), we hope you’ll find something to surprise, delight or intrigue you in this round-up of books featured in Historia during 2019. So if you’re looking for a Christmas present for a history lover or a good read for the long winter nights, have […]

Review: The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal

21 July 2019 By Clive Edwards

“The wombat is a joy, a triumph, a delight, a madness.” Dante Gabriel Rossetti.  The leader of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Rossetti, had a particular affection for wombats, and one of them turns up in a small but key role in Elizabeth Macneal’s much-acclaimed novel The Doll Factory, set in 1850s London around the world of the […]

Historia interviews: Elizabeth Macneal

5 May 2019 By Frances Owen

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 […]

The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal

2 May 2019 By Editor

London, 1850. The greatest spectacle the city has ever seen is being built in Hyde Park, and among the crowd watching two people meet. For Iris, an aspiring artist, it is the encounter of a moment – forgotten seconds later, but for Silas, a collector entranced by the strange and beautiful, that meeting marks a […]

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The Prophet by Martine Bailey

26 February 2021

Fortune’s Soldier by Alex Rutherford

25 February 2021

The Last Berserker by Angus Donald

25 February 2021

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Editor’s Picks

The slave ship Zong by Turner

A respectable trade in brutality: Blood & Sugar

18 February 2019

Fortune-telling cards

Did time run slower in the old days? My year living by almanack time

7 January 2019

Lady Constance Lytton: The Suffering Suffragette

5 February 2018

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Historia Magazine is published by the Historical Writers’ Association. We are authors, publishers and agents of historical writing, both fiction and non-fiction. For information about membership and profiles of our member authors, please visit our website.

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