A hundred years ago the terms of the Treaty of Versailles came into force, changing the geopolitical landscape of Europe, and ultimately the course of world history. One of its signatories, Maharaja Ganga Singh, is the inspiration for a new novel set in British India, Enemy of the Raj. Its author, Alec Marsh, believes that […]
Review: 1917
With its immersive cinematic techniques, the film 1917 conveys the relentless horror of war in a manner that is “profoundly moving”, author Elizabeth Fremantle tells Historia. Sam Mendes’s film 1917, inspired by the stories told by his grandfather of fighting in the First World War, has divided both critics and viewers. Some have deemed it […]
Review: They Shall Not Grow Old
At first it seems a strange title. “They shall grow not old” is from Laurence Binyon’s epitaph on The Fallen of World War I, but the emphasis in Peter Jackson’s masterly film is firmly on those who survived it: the men who enlisted and went out to France, but lived and came home to tell […]
The General Who Wept
On the centenary of the WWI Battle of Passchendaele, Chris Moore explores the legend and legacy of ‘the general who wept’.
Backchat in the Trenches
When the Great War began for Britain, August 4th, 1914, the British Army was recognisably the one described so affectionately in the works of Rudyard Kipling. It was ridiculously small – scarcely 450,000 men, including reservists – by comparison with the millions-strong levies being mobilised by France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia. But Kipling’s army was […]
Historia Interviews: Chris Moore
We talk to Chris Moore about his HWA Goldsboro Debut Crown shortlisted novel, The Hoarse Oaths of Fife. The HWA Goldsboro Debut Crown celebrates new voices in historical fiction. Have you always been interested in history? Always. My dad was one of those guys who stops in the street to gawk every time he comes […]