On 29 May, Oak Apple Day, it’ll be 396 years from Charles II’s birth in 1630 and 366 since his restoration. To mark the occasion, Historia spoke to Claire Hobson, whose biography charts those 30 turbulent years that formed the future king. Your book, Charles II: From the Cradle to the Crown, looks self-explanatory from […]
The women who plotted aircraft battles in the Siege of Malta
Tracy Cook’s debut novel was inspired by the women who plotted aircraft battles during the Siege of Malta – the only civilians to do such work during the Second World War. Though they’re largely forgotten now, their highly-skilled work helped the RAF to defend the island against German and Italian forces in the early 1940s. […]
Historia interview: Carolyn O’Brien
Carolyn O’Brien’s new novel Rose & Renzo is set in 1930s Manchester and is deeply entwined with the radical politics of the time, the backdrop to a passionate coming-of-age story. Carolyn O’Brien talks to fellow novelist Carolyn Kirby about the inspirations for her book. CK: Rose & Renzo is a wonderful read! Tell us about […]
Book theft in Nazi-occupied Paris
Chris Lloyd, author of the Occupation series of crime novels about Nazi-occupied Paris, argues that the widescale looting of books, now largely forgotten, was more sinister and insidious that the famous book-burnings of the 1930s. Because it wasn’t done for display; it was for a calculated culture war. “You don’t have to burn books to […]
The Festival of Britain, 75 years ago
Julie Anderson looks back at the Festival of Britain, held 75 years ago this summer. Seen as a “tonic for the nation” after the Second World War and years of austerity, it’s the backdrop to her latest novel. It is 1951, six years after the end of World War Two. Rationing is still in place, […]
Atlantis and the Aryan Myth
Among the many beliefs that contributed to Nazi racial doctrine, one of the facets of the ‘Aryan Myth’ was the idea that Aryans were descended from the people of Atlantis, some of whom went to live in Tibet. Elisabeth Storrs writes about a 1938 SS-led expedition to Tibet to find evidence to support this theory. […]
Faith and love in fiction
Emma Darwin examines the importance of faith during a turbulent period of European history, and how difficult it is to convey the “visceral” quality and power of religious belief when writing historical fiction. Evoking love comes more easily to us, yet love and faith have often been in conflict, as in her latest novel, The […]
Medieval women’s family lives
Medieval women’s family lives varied widely, as did the work they carried out daily. Rank in society was a factor, as was whether they lived in a town or the country, but the most important influence on their lives was their position in a family, the historian Catherine Hanley explains. Family was the concept and […]