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Historia Magazine

The magazine of the Historical Writers Association

  • Features
  • New books
  • Topics
    • Writing historical fiction
    • History on your screen
    • Authors’ favourite books
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • TV, Film and Theatre
    • Classics
  • Advertising
  • About
  • Contact
  • Get our newsletter

Under cover for Britain: two female WWII agents, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade and Barbara Bertram

2 July 2026 By Rachel Hore

Marie-Madeleine Fourcade led a French intelligence network supplying information to MI6. Barbara Bertram ran a secret safe house for agents in Surrey. They met several times. Here, Rachel Hore writes about how the two women sparked the idea for her new novel, and the challenges of writing fiction about real people. My new novel, The […]

Women in science – a true story

31 July 2025 By Rachel Hore

Sometimes the inspiration for a novel is very close to home, very personal. It was the true story of her mother and aunt, both biologists and PhDs, both denied the careers they might have had, that led Rachel Hore to the idea for The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge. Here she writes about the barriers that […]

Imagining Olga Gray, a beautiful spy

11 March 2021 By Rachel Hore

The bestselling author Rachel Hore tells Historia about the time research for a new novel unearthed a character so compelling that she took over, and changed, Rachel’s thoughts about her book – which became the recently-published A Beautiful Spy. Serendipity must be the origin of many a historical novel. I was researching an idea for […]

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New books by HWA members

The Governor’s Man by Jacquie Rogers

4 September 2026

The River Warriors by Michael Arnold

3 September 2026

Princesses of the Later Middle Ages by Sharon Bennett Connolly

30 August 2026

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Editor’s picks

The Englishman who fought for Genghis Khan

22 August 2025

Dora Maar: much more than a muse

1 August 2024

In search of the animals in the Great Fire of London

21 November 2019

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The Historical Writers’ Association

Historia Magazine is published by the Historical Writers’ Association. We are authors, publishers and agents of historical writing, both fiction and non-fiction. For information about membership and profiles of our member authors, please visit our website.

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  • The Governor’s Man by Jacquie Rogers
  • Three authors on how small discoveries had big impacts on their stories
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