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 […]
The Unwanted Suitor: a short story
This is the first part of Historia’s exclusive extract from the latest HWA short story collection, Victoriana. With a gothic undercurrent and a satisfying twist at the end, The Unwanted Suitor by Sophia Tobin is set on the East Kent coast in the mid-19th century. Some tales are harder to tell than others. I tell […]
Review: A Map of the Damage by Sophia Tobin
When Historia asked acclaimed author Antonia Hodgson to review Sophia Tobin’s latest novel, there was only one problem. She’d love to do it, she said, but her copy wasn’t where she could get at it. Sophia’s publisher, like so many others during these difficult times of lockdown, was efficient and helpful and sent an ebook […]
A Map of the Damage by Sophia Tobin
London, 1941. Livy makes her way through Blitz-torn London to the Mirrormakers’ Club, the only place that makes her feels safe, where she finds herself drawn into the mystery of a missing diamond, and torn between two men with competing claims on her. London, 1841. Charlotte is helped from the scene of an accident by a man who shows her […]
The Vanishing by Sophia Tobin
The Vanishing, Sophia Tobin’s third novel, tells the story of a young orphan, Annaleigh, and the isolated house on the Yorkshire Moors where she becomes housekeeper, the shadowy and secretive White Windows owned by Marcus Twentyman and his sister Hester. As this short premise suggests, this is a novel firmly in the Gothic genre. Annaleigh […]
Desert Island Books: Sophia Tobin
I’m well aware that when choosing five books for a desert island, the most sensible choice would be a bushcraft manual by Ray Mears or Bear Grylls. But, frankly, I’m going to be relying on low-hanging fruit for my survival (the chances of me wrestling a caiman are zero). I’m also hoping there’s enough dry […]
Emma Hamilton: Seduction & Celebrity
Now largely remembered as the woman who captured the heart of the nation’s hero, Admiral Horatio Nelson, Emma Hamilton was an extraordinary woman in her own right. Sophia Tobin visits a new exhibition at the National Maritime Museum that celebrates her life. In the second room of the exhibition Emma Hamilton: Seduction and Celebrity, the teenage […]