In 1937, fisherman’s son, John Norman’s first encounter of Felicity MacDougall, the daughter of a retired tea planter, is prickly at best. But a chance meeting during a London air raid leads to a tentative romance, which becomes long distance when John joins the Navy and Felicity takes a job at the infamous, secretive Bletchley […]
A surprising gap in Second World War fiction
When Liz MacRae Shaw was researching her third novel, Had We Never Loved So Blindly, a love story set during the Second World War, she thought the background to her story would be well-covered in historical fiction. But, she tells Historia, she was in for a surprise. The Second World War is such a popular […]
Fortune’s Hand by RN Morris
Adventurer, soldier, courtier, poet, prisoner – outsider. Drawn by ambition to Elizabeth’s court, Walter Raleigh soon becomes the queen’s favourite. But his meteoric rise attracts the enmity of powerful rivals. Sir Francis Walsingham, the queen’s spy master, proves a dangerous enemy. While the Earl of Oxford is an equally dangerous friend. Even Elizabeth’s favour is […]
(Re)writing the Spanish Armada
“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 […]
Armada’s Wake by JD Davies
It’s 1588. The greatest naval force of its age bears down upon England. As a devastating battle looms, a nation holds its breath. Jack Stannard, grandson of the original Jack, is stationed on Drake’s warship Revenge. His father, Tom, commands his own vessel and even his grandfather is close by. Each must be ready for […]
Destiny’s Tide by JD Davies
Jack Stannard has spent his whole life at sea, enduring savage beatings from his father and the furious aggression of whip-cracking storms. But a more cruel and dangerous foe is on the horizon. When Henry VIII dissolves the monasteries and wages war against France and Scotland simultaneously, Jack must take up his family destiny at the head […]
All at sea in Tudor England
The Tudor navy and its complications were an inspiration for award-winning historian and novelist JD Davies. He tells Historia about researching his new novel, Destiny’s Tide.