Andrew Taylor profiles Louise de Keroualle, the Breton ‘baby faced’ girl who became one of Charles II’s most long-lasting mistresses, Nell Gwynn’s worst enemy — and a French spy. She appears in his latest book, The Shadows of London. Who is often described as the Merry Monarch? The answer of course is Charles II, who […]
Uncovering Jersey’s wartime resistance
79 years after the occupation of the Channel Islands ended, novelist and journalist Kate Thompson writes about visiting Jersey, where she uncovered an island full of stories about wartime resistance. I fell in love with Jersey on a trip to the Jersey Festival of Words in September 2019. I defy anyone who visits not to. […]
The magic of full moons
Kate Griffin explores the lore of full moons and explains why she chose moon magic to deepen the character of Marta, the protagonist of her latest novel, Fyneshade. Writing is a strange and solitary activity. Locked in their dens (or in my case chained to the kitchen table), most authors feel that they are howling […]
Historia exhibition review: Legion: life in the Roman army
Legion: life in the Roman army is the British Museum’s latest big exhibition. The historian Lindsay Powell reviews it for Historia and finds it “has seemingly achieved the remarkable and the impossible.” The Romans knew that their way of war was special. Their legendary legion was different from forms of military unit deployed by other […]
The Hundred Years’ War – a novel approach
David Gilman, whose acclaimed Master of War novels are set during the Hundred Years’ War, looks at the early years of the long-drawn-out conflict between England and France and how real events helped shape his books. Family arguments can stir up trouble and sometimes go beyond a family member not being invited to the next […]
The royal women of 10th-century England
Apart from two well-known women, Æthelflæd and Elfrida (Ælfthryth), there’s a lack of information in books about the royal women of 10th-century England, says MJ Porter. So MJ decided to write a book about them. Here are some of the women it covers, including the impressive Eadgifu. In recent years, I’ve set about fictionalising the […]
Bringing Jane Austen to life
Jessica Bull has a confession. She didn’t set out to write a novel about Jane Austen. She’s been obsessed with her, though, for years — to the point that the only way to find out more about her favourite author was to bring her to life… in Jessica’s own book. Her debut novel, Miss Austen […]
Making room for the master race: the true scope of Himmler’s Lebensborn programme
Catherine Hokin writes about the Nazi Lebensborn programme, the background to her latest novel. What did it involve? And how did the Third Reich plan to make room for the ‘master race’ babies they envisaged being born? “The living space of the Nazis has become the dying space of Europe.” When Karl Frank – an […]