Deb Willet, companion to Elizabeth, the wife of Samuel Pepys, takes centre stage in this intriguing tale of love, espionage and murder in Restoration London. Deb takes the position in Pepys’ household in order to escape from the tyranny of sour-faced Aunt Beth. Deb’s father is in Ireland about his business affairs; her mother deserted […]
Reviews
Looking for your next read? HWA members review the best new historical writing, recommend their desert island books and revisit some old favourites.
The Zealot’s Bones by D.M. Mark
On August 10th, 1849, a vicious form of Asiatic cholera (which would ravage all parts of Britain) made its appearance in Hull. This terrible scourge devastated the city for three months and killed 1,860 – a rate of one in 43 of the population. D.M. Mark uses this grim year in the City of Culture’s […]
Review: Victoria and Abdul
Victoria and Abdul (dir: Stephen Frears) is the latest example of an established genre of films which has developed the trick of holding up a mirror to the British as a people, seeing a certain amount of ugliness but then managing to come up smelling of roses. The ugliness we see is usually something along […]
A Column of Fire by Ken Follett
“What a life that man had led: first a farmer in West Africa, then a soldier, then a prisoner of war, a slave in Seville, a soldier again in the Netherlands and at last a rich Antwerp iron maker.” An epic sweep of a life in an epic sweep of a book. Ken Follett’s A […]
The Woman in the Shadows by Carol Mcgrath
Carol McGrath has left the 11th century to add yet another book to the already crowded shelves of Tudor novels. As somebody who writes about the 19th-century, I have always struggled with the wild enthusiasm that people seem to feel for books about the Tudors, but The Woman in the Shadows has brought the period alive for […]
Workhouse Orphans by Holly Green
Workhouse Orphans is a fascinating and richly detailed book focusing on the poor of Victorian Liverpool and the world they live in. In mid-Victorian Liverpool, two young children, May Lavender and her brother Gus are orphaned by the death of their mother. They are sent to the Workhouse, a cruel, cold place, where they are […]
Kingmaker: Kingdom Come by Toby Clements
For those of us who love reading fiction of any kind, there is really nothing like the pleasure of literary anticipation, the knowledge that one of our favourite writers is about to publish another book. This is even more true when the new title is an addition to an existing series. I feel that way […]
Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World’s Most Infamous Diamond by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand
Green jade, glistening pearls, beryls, garnets, spinels, blood-red rubies, emeralds fine as water, and diamonds flashing fires of rainbows – this is a treasure trove of a book, a book of wonders, the story of the most famous diamond in the world, the Koh-i-Noor which now glitters in the crown of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen-mother. […]