Naomi Kelsey’s His Mother’s Quilt won the HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition in 2021. It’s a dark, gothic-tinged story of oppression and loss with supernatural undertones, which the judges praised for its “tense, delicate writing. Lace woven with steel threads.” To celebrate the opening of 2022’s HWA DDS competition to entries, we’re publishing Naomi’s […]
The Race by Alice Fowler (the 2020 HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story winner)
We’re delighted to publish The Race by Alice Fowler, the winner of the Historical Writers’ Association Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Prize for 2020. The judges praised the “sheer brilliance” of the premise and her “mastery” in “building atmosphere that tracks with the story’s mounting tension”. We hope you enjoy it, too. And the 2021 HWA/DD […]
The Unwanted Suitor: a short story (part two)
This is the second and final part of Historia’s serialisation of Sophia Tobin’s The Unwanted Suitor, taken from Victoriana, the HWA collection of ten short stories set in the 19th century, each one accompanied by an interview with the author. In the first part, the narrator, a vicar living on the East Anglia coast, marries […]
A False Hawksman
John Pilkington’s short story, A False Hawksman, is taken from Royal Blood, the HWA collection of Tudor-era stories by well-known historical fiction writers. He says: “The Thomas the Falconer books have proved to be my most successful historical series. I’m very fond of Thomas and was keen to bring him back, choosing a pivotal moment […]
A Plague on your Business by Michael Jecks: part 2
Historia’s serialisation of A Plague on your Business by Michael Jecks continues with the second and final part. This is an exclusive extract from By the Sword, the new HWA collection of short stories set in the medieval period. The cook was a lugubrious, scrawny fellow, like a man whodid not enjoy his own food. […]
A Plague on your Business by Michael Jecks: part 1
Historia is delighted to publish an exclusive extract from By the Sword, the new HWA collection of short stories set in the medieval period. This is part one of Michael Jecks’s story, A Plague on your Business. Part two follows in a few days. The body was wrapped at last. He had carefully washed her, […]
The Wedding by LJ Trafford: part I
Historia serialises LJ Trafford’s The Wedding, one of the short stories in Rubicon, the HWA and Sharpe Books collection of stories by ten leading authors who write about Ancient Rome. This is part 1. Rome under Emperor Nero