How well does bestselling historical fiction transfer to the TV screen? James Burge reviews Apple TV’s adaptation of Lessons in Chemistry and finds it “well-crafted, effective and intelligent”. Films and novels are very different things. Broadly speaking, a novel consists of dialogue, descriptions of action and the inner world of characters, and narration. When it […]
Reviews
Looking for your next read? HWA members review the best new historical writing, recommend their desert island books and revisit some old favourites.
TV review: I, Claudius
The historian and novelist LJ Trafford, who knows the seedier, scurrilous side of Roman history as well as anyone does, reviews the BBC’s repeat of the 1976 series I, Claudius and finds that it’s still “brilliant”. There’s this thing that happens whenever movies and TV get their hands on ancient Rome: they just can’t resist […]
Historia review: Oppenheimer
David Boyle, author of a recent biography of Robert Oppenheimer, reviews Oppenheimer the film. No movie in recent history can have been quite so hyped like Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer, released in the UK on 21 July. But I don’t believe any of the other contenders can have lived up to the hype as this one […]
Review: The Last Kingdom – Seven Kings Must Die
Essie Fox reviews the last TV screen appearance of Uhtred of Bebbanburg in Seven Kings Must Die, the final episode of the long-running The Last Kingdom series. She finds much to admire. Seven Kings Must Die is the one-off Netflix film that finally concludes the historical TV series, The Last Kingdom. These enthralling screen adaptions […]
Review: Battle Song by Ian Ross
Carol McGrath finds Ian Ross’s latest book, Battle Song, “a thrilling ride plunging headlong into a fabulous recreated historical world of chivalry and adventure.” Read her review to see what impressed her so greatly. Battle Song by Ian Ross is set during the mid-13th century. Henry III has been king for many years but has […]
Review: The Lost Man of Bombay by Vaseem Khan
In the latest in the Malabar House series, Vaseem Khan gives us a brilliant insight into Europeans’ involvement in post-partition India, as well as a cracking good mystery, Alis Hawkins writes. On one level, The Lost Man of Bombay can be seen as a straightforward serial killer story; on another it’s a glimpse into a […]
Review: Henrietta Maria by Leanda de Lisle
Annie Whitehead, the historian and novelist, reviews Leanda de Lisle’s new biography of Henrietta Maria and finds it a “triumph”. Henrietta Maria, known to most with even a passing interest as the French, Catholic, wife of Charles I, has been perceived as, at best, a bad influence; at worst, “the most reviled consort to have […]
Review: The Bookseller of Inverness by SG MacLean
Having spent the best part of a decade in London with her brilliant CWA dagger-winning creation, Damian Seeker, SG MacLean is very firmly back in her Scottish wheelhouse with The Bookseller of Inverness, says Alis Hawkins. This is a book about the power of an idea. It’s about the revival of a man left hollowed […]