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How do I find imaginative space between what I know of the facts?

18 August 2016 By Emma Darwin

Dear Dr Darwin You’ve talked elsewhere about finding the “white space between the facts” on which we can write, and I think I’ve found a time and place – the run-up to Waterloo – which gives me (just about) enough white space for fiction. But I’m finding it very hard to write anything on those […]

How to make us believe your bucklers are swashing and your Tyrian is truly purple

1 October 2015 By Emma Darwin

Dear Dr Darwin, You keep saying “make it vivid and convincing”, but how do I do that? When I put in lots of detail my writers’ circle say it slows up the story; when I cut it back they say they don’t believe in the places. When I make my characters act/think/react differently from how […]

I’m beginning to wish my novel was set in Salford in 2015

1 July 2015 By Emma Darwin

Dear Dr Darwin, I’m writing a novel set in medieval Mallorca, and I’m a draft-by-the-seat-of-my-pants writer, not a planner. My business partner says it’s inefficient to do the research until I’ve written my first draft and know what I need. My critiquing partner says it’s asking for trouble to do the writing first and leave […]

So I put the gravy browning on my legs as I drank my Camp coffee and sang along to Glenn Miller

1 April 2015 By Emma Darwin

Dear Dr Darwin, When a wartime-set story is all, “So I put the gravy browning on my legs as I drank my Camp coffee and sang along to Glenn Miller,” or similar? It’s so unsubtle that it ruins my immersion in the story. I know it makes sense to use things that I think lots of […]

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The Straits of Treachery by Richard Hopton

21 January 2021

A Prince and a Spy by Rory Clements

21 January 2021

Powder Smoke by Andrew Martin

21 January 2021

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Editor’s Picks

Entrance to Auschwitz

Torn from home

27 January 2019

Was America, not Wallis, the real reason Edward VIII abdicated?

23 September 2018

Mutiny on the Bounty

10 January 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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ISSN 2515-2254

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  • The Straits of Treachery by Richard Hopton
  • A Prince and a Spy by Rory Clements
  • Powder Smoke by Andrew Martin

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