The British Library’s new exhibition marks the centenary of the Russian Revolution. Jason Hewitt gets a sneak preview. As we have all experienced, the last twelve months has seen a series of seismic political shifts taking place across the western world. Whether it’s the surprise Brexit vote, the election of Trump, or France’s ousting of her political […]
History by the River May 2017
A New Series of Events in West London We’ve been working on something rather special for lovers of history and literature in London. William Ryan, one of the talents behind the highly successful First Monday Crime Series, along with Antonia Senior, Imogen Robertson and Anna Mazzola have been carefully researching venues and badgering best-selling authors […]
Alderney Literary Festival 2017
Anna Mazzola reports from the Alderney Literary Festival 2017 Alderney, the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands, has blonde hedgehogs, about two thousand inhabitants, and numerous fortifications. It also has a history and literature festival. Every March, a group of historians, biographers and historical fiction writers are invited to attend the festival to throw fresh […]
All Clio’s Children
Sarah Hawkswood, author of the Bradecote and Catchpoll series, on how being an academic historian influences her fiction. I am an historian, and I am also a writer of historical fiction. Being the former influences how I write as the latter, imposes a ‘morality’, but I do not see it as constricting. I also do not […]
The Ghosts of History
Judith Allnatt on the ghosts of history and the inspiration behind her book, The Silk Factory. When a friend told me that she was hearing strange sounds in her house accompanied by a strong smell of soot, despite there being no open fires, it set me wondering what the site had been used for in […]
HWA Announces New Awards!
The Historical Writers’ Association has announced that they will be awarding two new Crown awards to outstanding historical writers in 2017, alongside the already established HWA Debut Crown. The HWA Endeavour Ink Gold Crown will be awarded to the best historical novel of the year, and the HWA Non-fiction Crown is for the best popular […]
Vikings Season 4: Episode 13, Two Journeys
In this episode Lagertha starts a war, Rollo goes swimming, and Ragnar takes Ivar on a road trip. In Hedeby Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) is plotting with her girlfriends to take back Kattegat, but Ubbe (Jordan Patrick Smith) and Sigurd (David Lindström), unlike their brothers, have opted to hang out at home and protect the town […]
HWA’s Christmas Reads
We asked members of the Historical Writers’ Association which books were on their Christmas list, and which they were giving to others. The results include some sparkling fiction and non-fiction, from prize-winning novels to hidden gems. Manda Scott Every year something jumps out of the TBR pile and makes itself noticed so that I remember it […]