Researching naval history at the time of Nelson involves taking in a lot of technical details. But, as Katie Daysh points out, when writing naval fiction, character must come first. The Age of Sail, typically seen as between the mid-16th century into the mid-19th, has been a popular subject in fiction … Continue Reading
Features
Women on the warpath in WWI
Louise Morrish looks at two courageous women who defied the authorities and went on the warpath during the First World War: one, literally, as a … Continue Reading
Lady Dorothy Mills, explorer and writer
She was a pioneering explorer, a travel writer writer and novelist, an earl's daughter who reinvented herself, a woman with a drive to "be … Continue Reading
Joanna Plantagenet, the lionhearted woman
Joanna Plantagenet, Queen of Sicily, later Countess of Toulouse, was every bit as lionhearted as her more famous brother Richard I. As her … Continue Reading
Shame and the Ancient Greek hero
Sulky, brutal Achilles; vain, passive Helen. Have we misjudged these characters from the stories of the Trojan War? Susan C Wilson, author of … Continue Reading
Interviews
Historia interview: Luke Pepera
Luke Pepera’s debut Motherland: A Journey through 500,000 years of African Culture and Identity is a ground-breaking exploration of Africa’s uniquely long history and diverse cultures, interwoven with Luke’s … Continue Reading
Historia interview: AD Bergin
AD Bergin’s debut novel The Wicked of the Earth is set against the background of Newcastle’s 1650 witch trials. He talks to novelist and fellow North-Easterner Carolyn Kirby about the reasons behind witch hunts, the … Continue Reading
Reviews
Review: Elizabeth Heyrick by Jocelyn Robson
Rachael Tearney reviews the first biography of Elizabeth Heyrick, Quaker, campaigner and abolitionist. The women of the Abolitionist movement are far less well-known than the men, and this timely book highlights one … Continue Reading
Review: The Mare by Angharad Hampshire
Carolyn Kirby reviews The Mare by Angharad Hampshire, an “astonishingly good” debut novel which tells the true story of the first woman to be extradited from the United States for Nazi war crimes. What would you … Continue Reading