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Battling with history: how to write fight scenes and battles in historical fiction

4 March 2021 By Matthew Harffy

How do you write a battle scene which engages your readers and drives the story on? It’s a question many authors of historical fiction fight with. Matthew Harffy, well known for his action-filled Bernicia Chronicles series, gives Historia his advice. All good stories need conflict, and what better way to convey conflict than to have […]

Historia interviews, 2020 Crown Awards shortlists: John Larison

22 November 2020 By Frances Owen

John Larison is the author of Whiskey When We’re Dry, a remarkable novel which, with its compelling voice, challenges the traditional values of the Western and which is shortlisted for the HWA Gold Crown Award. This is the fourth in Historia’s series of interviews with writers shortlisted for the 2020 Crown Awards. Congratulations on being […]

Historia interviews, 2020 Crown Awards shortlists: Anita Frank

12 November 2020 By Frances Owen

Anita Frank’s first novel, The Lost Ones, is shortlisted for the 2020 HWA Debut Crown Award. She tells Historia about her love of history, the inspiration for her book – including big houses, spiritualism and the First World War – and passes on some tips for new writers. The HWA Debut Crown celebrates new voices […]

Historia interviews: Clare Mulley and Carolyn Kirby

11 October 2020 By Editor

The biographer Clare Mulley has been in the news recently for her success in obtaining an English Heritage blue plaque to commemorate wartime SOE agent Krystyna Skarbek, also known as Christine Granville, who was said to be ‘Churchill’s favourite spy.’ Krystyna was the subject of Clare’s bestselling 2012 biography The Spy Who Loved and Clare […]

Writing historical fiction to an anniversary: some tips

13 September 2020 By Carolyn O'Brien

If you’re writing a novel to mark the anniversary of a historical event – perhaps the most unmovable deadline there is – you may find these tips from Carolyn O’Brien, who learned them the hard way, will help you succeed. When my debut novel The Song of Peterloo was published in August 2019 to coincide […]

Historia interviews: Alexandra Walsh

28 July 2020 By Frances Owen

Author Alexandra Walsh talks to Historia about her books, writing, research, women’s friendships, and her links with historical figures

How much should I explain? And how?

3 February 2020 By Emma Darwin

Dear Dr Darwin, As a reader of historical fiction I want to be in a place which may resonate in my world, but is not my world. That’s not only about politics and clothes, and how the people think and feel and believe, but in how they talk and write, and what they talk and […]

My writer’s circle friend keeps getting his facts wrong

15 November 2019 By Emma Darwin

Our resident agony aunt, Dr Darwin, answers a common question: how can we make sure our historical details are accurate – and believable? Dear Dr Darwin, Someone in my writers’ circle keeps getting facts wrong: things like calling a 17th-century character Tiffany, and giving her mother a vote in elections. He makes both of them keen […]

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Latest Releases

Where are the Women? A Guide to an Imagined Scotland by Sara Sheridan

4 March 2021

A Burning Sea by Theodore Brun

4 March 2021

A Time for Swords by Matthew Harffy

4 March 2021

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Editor’s Picks

A game of gods: religion in a changing Roman world

10 December 2020

Historia Q&A: Matthew Harffy

16 May 2017

Desert Island Books: Sara Sheridan

31 October 2016

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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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  • Where are the Women? A Guide to an Imagined Scotland by Sara Sheridan
  • A Burning Sea by Theodore Brun
  • A Time for Swords by Matthew Harffy

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