Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of the new biography Thomas Cromwell: A Life, is speaking at the Yorkshire Museum, York, on Friday, 14 December 2018. Tickets are £12 and available on their website. The event is presented by friends of the HWA, the York Literature Festival. Imogen Robertson, Chair of the HWA, spoke to him last week. I’ve […]
A Step to Publication
As HWA team up with the Dorothy Dunnett Society to launch a brand new short story competition (Dorothy Dunnett pictured above), here’s Imogen Robertson on how competitions helped her get published. Have you heard that the Historical Writers’ Association are launching a new open short story competition for Historical Fiction with the Dorothy Dunnett Society this […]
Revolution: Russian Art 1917–1932
One hundred years on from the Russian Revolution, Imogen Robertson reviews a new Royal Academy exhibition that explores the period through its art. Want to find yourself in a crowd surrounded by slogans demanding revolution or exhorting devotion to a new strong man leader? Want that and a gift shop? Then leave twitter and the American Embassy […]
Historia Interviews: Alex von Tunzelmann
Alex von Tunzelmann’s new book Blood and Sand is a gripping account of the sixteen days in 1956 which saw both the Suez crisis and the bloody suppression of the Hungarian revolution by the Soviets. Following the action hour by hour, the book allows the reader to follow events as they unfolded and see the […]
Fire! Fire!
On the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire, Imogen Robertson visits the Museum of London’s dedicated exhibition. London is thick with the memory of flames this month. As you might have noticed given the flurry of events, programmes, talks and books currently available, it’s 350 years since the Great Fire tore through the city destroying […]
Historia Interviews: Robyn Young
28 July sees the launch of Robyn Young’s new book Sons of The Blood: New World Rising. This terrific novel, the first of a series, is set in 1483, as Richard of Gloucester seizes the reins of power after the death of his brother Edward IV. It is a rich tapestry of intrigue and adventure […]
A Brief History of Underwear
Imogen Robertson reviews Undressed, the latest hot ticket at the V&A. When I was a child, my mother discovered that no matter the size of strop I’d managed to get myself into, if she said the word ‘knickers’ enough in a very serious voice, I’d crack and start giggling. I have a nasty feeling it would […]
Kings and Queens
The Price of Blood by Patricia Bracewell (HarperCollins) I’m afraid I knew nothing about Emma of Normandy until I came across this splendid series from Patricia Bracewell. In the first volume, Shadow on the Crown, the young Emma arrives in a hostile country to marry Æthelred of England with little but her own wits to defend […]