Historia Live in September – our next author event

Do you love books and history? Would you like to hear your favourite HWA authors talking about all things historical fiction at an in-person event in a historic London pub? Then join us at Historia Live in September!

After the successful launch of Historia Live in June, the HWA brings you three more much-loved authors for readings and discussion on Thursday, 21 September, from 7 to 10pm.

We’re back in our room above the Wheatsheaf pub at 25 Rathbone Place, London W1T 1JB. It’s on the north side of Oxford Street, about three minutes’ walk from Tottenham Court Road station.

Tickets are available now.

Speakers will be:

Louise Hare, whose Harlem After Midnight comes out on 14 September, 2023
Elizabeth Fremantle, author of Disobedient, published on 27 July
Vaseem Khan, whose Death of a Lesser God is out on 10 August

Our chair is Emma Darwin, author, writing tutor, and Historia’s own agony aunt, Dr Darwin.

The event starts at 7pm, but it’s best to arrive early to get your drink and a seat beforehand.

Space is limited, so it’s ticket-holders only. Please book your ticket in advance to avoid being disappointed; they’re £5 per person.

The authors

Louise Hare

Louise is a London-based writer and has an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London. Originally from Warrington, she has found inspiration in the capital for much of her work, including This Lovely City and Miss Aldridge Regrets.

This Lovely City was featured on the inaugural BBC Two book club show, Between the Covers, shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize, and longlisted for the HWA Debut Crown Award in 2020. Louise was selected for the Observer‘s Top 10 Best Debut Novelists list in 2020, securing her place as an author to watch.

Harlem After Midnight

It’s 1936; 17 September, to be precise.

In the middle of Harlem, in the dead of night, a woman falls from a second storey window. In her hand, she holds a passport and the name written on it is Lena Aldridge.

Nine days earlier:

Lena arrived in Harlem less than two weeks ago, full of hope for her burgeoning romance with Will Goodman, the handsome musician she met on board the Queen Mary. Will has arranged for Lena to stay with friends of his, and this will give her the chance to find out if their relationship is going anywhere. But there is another reason she’s in Harlem – to find out what happened in 1908 to make her father flee to London.

As Lena’s investigations progress, not only does she realise her father lied to her, but the man she’s falling too fast and too hard for has secrets of his own. And those secrets have put Lena in terrible danger.

Harlem After Midnight, the sequel to Miss Aldridge Regrets, is published on 14 September, 2023.

Elizabeth Fremantle

Elizabeth is the critically acclaimed author of four Tudor historical novels: Queen’s Gambit (now the feature film Firebrand), Sisters of Treason, Watch the Lady and The Girl in the Glass Tower. As EC Fremantle she has written two historical thrillers: The Poison Bed and The Honey and the Sting.

Disobedient

Rome in 1611 is a jewel-bright place of change, with sumptuous new palaces and lavish wealth on display.

A city where women are seen but not heard.

Artemisia Gentileschi dreams of becoming a great artist. Motherless, she grows up among a family of painters — men and boys. She knows she is more talented than her brothers, but she cannot choose her own future.

She wants to experience the world, but she belongs to her father and will belong to a husband.

As Artemisia patiently goes from lesson to lesson, perfecting her craft, she also paints in private, recreating the women who inspire her, away from her father’s eyes.

Until a mysterious tutor enters her life. Tassi is a dashing figure, handsome and worldly, and for a moment he represents everything that a life of freedom might offer. But then the unthinkable happens.

In the eyes of her family, Artemisia should accept her fate. In the eyes of the law, she is the villain.

But Artemisia is a survivor. And this is her story.

Disobedient was published on 27 July, 2023.

Vaseem Khan

Vaseem is the author of two award-winning crime series set in India: the Baby Ganesh Agency series set in modern Mumbai, and the Malabar House historical crime novels set in 1950s Bombay. His first book, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was selected by the Sunday Times as one of the 40 best crime novels published 2015–2020, and is translated into 17 languages. The second in the series won the Shamus Award in the US. In 2018, he was awarded the Eastern Eye Arts, Culture and Theatre Award for Literature.

In 2021, Midnight at Malabar House won the Crime Writers Association Historical Dagger, the world’s premier award for historical crime fiction. When he isn’t writing, he works at the Department of Security and Crime Science at University College London. Vaseem was born in England, but spent a decade working in India. He also co-hosts the popular crime fiction podcast The Red Hot Chilli Writers. Vaseem has just become chair of the Crime Writers’ Association.

Death of a Lesser God

In the fourth thriller in the Malabar House series, Persis and Archie travel to the old colonial capital of Calcutta, where they collide head on with the prejudices and bloody politics of an era engulfed in flame.

James Whitby, sentenced to death for the murder of prominent lawyer and former Quit India activist Fareed Mazumdar, is less than two weeks from a date with the gallows. In a last-ditch attempt to save his son, Whitby’s father forces a new investigation into the killing.

The investigation leads Inspector Persis Wadia of the Bombay Police to the old colonial capital of Calcutta, where, with the help of Scotland Yard criminalist Archie Blackfinch, she uncovers a possible link to a second case, the brutal murder of an African-American GI during the Calcutta Killings of 1946.

Are the cases connected? And if Whitby didn’t murder Mazumdar, then who did?

Death of a Lesser God is published on 10 August, 2023.

Emma Darwin, chair

Emma was born and brought up in London, with interludes in Manhattan and Brussels, and studied Drama and Theatre Arts at the University of Birmingham.

Her debut novel, The Mathematics of Love, is probably the only novel to have been simultaneously listed for the Commonwealth Writers’ Best First Book and the Romantic Novelists’ Association Book of the Year. It has also been translated into many languages. Her second novel, A Secret Alchemy, reached the Sunday Times Bestsellers list, and was named as one of The Times Top 50 Paperbacks of 2009. Her first non-fiction book, Get Started in Writing Historical Fiction, was published in 2016 as part of the well-known Teach Yourself imprint.

Her latest book, This is Not a Book About Charles Darwin, was published on Darwin Day — 12 February — in 2019. The paperback edition came out on 12 February, 2022.

Meet our authors

The discussion and Q&A session lasts about an hour, and the authors will be staying afterwards to sign their books. They all love meeting readers, so do go and say hello. Indie bookseller Primrose Hill Books will be there to supply copies of their books if you haven’t got them yet. Last time was so enjoyable we all hung around chatting until 10pm! I hope to see you there in September.

Get your tickets via Eventbrite.

We’ll be returning to Historia Live in November with another group of acclaimed authors, and it’ll be held every two months after that.

If you’d like to see other books by HWA authors — and there are over 150 of them being published this year — we’ve got a round-up of books coming out in 2023 to browse. Historia’s Latest releases column also has information about the newest books, updated every publication day.

We’re hoping to start Historia Live events in other parts of the UK. If you’d like to get involved, please contact Gill Paul.