Is the historical fiction author a historian or novelist? Julie Owen Moylan considers her own experience of writing a novel based on the known facts about two iconic women in the 1950s. Writing about real people is a challenging enterprise for both novelist and historian. How can we best sum up a life of … Continue Reading
Features
Turning Welsh history into fiction: the Mynydd Epynt clearances
The Mynydd Epynt clearances of 1940, when a Welsh mountain community was evicted to make way for a military training ground, inspired Luisa A … Continue Reading
Elizabeth Boleyn, a woman overshadowed by famous relatives
If we remember Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire, it's as the mother of Anne, Mary and George, and the wife of Thomas. Yet, as Alexandra … Continue Reading
It’s never too late! How trying and trying (and trying again) made me a published author
Fiza Saeed McLynn looks back on how she finally became a published author when her debut novel, The Midnight Carousel, came out after years of … Continue Reading
In defence of full-blooded romance rooted in real history
Romance is blooming in the book world -- though, really, has it ever not? So let's hear it for full-blooded historical romance, says author … Continue Reading
Interviews
Historia interview: David Gilman
David Gilman's new novel, Rage of Swords, is the latest in his Master of War series and sees Thomas Blackstone in action in Italy. David tells Historia about the ideas and research behind his book, as well as … Continue Reading
Historia interview: Carolyn Kirby
Carolyn Kirby, award-winning author of When We Fall and The Conviction Of Cora Burns. talks to AD Bergin about her new novel, Ravenglass. A sweeping adventure with a cross-dressing main character, Kit, it's set … Continue Reading
Reviews
Review: Wuthering Heights – the film – and Catherine by Essie Fox
February, 2026 has given us the full Bronte with two retellings of Wuthering Heights. Kate Griffin, the author of several Gothic novels and lover of films set in the Victorian era, is the ideal person to review both … Continue Reading
Review: Samurai at the British Museum
Lesley Downer, author of The Shortest History of Japan, visits the Samurai exhibition at the British Museum and discovers that it's "an exhibition of treasures" which show that the samurai were patrons of the arts … Continue Reading