Do you love books and history? Would you like to hear your favourite HWA authors talking about all things historical fiction at our brand new series of in-person events? Join us at the launch of Historia Live on Thursday, 15 June, for readings and discussion in a historic pub!
The launch will be held in a room above the suitably historic Wheatsheaf pub at 25 Rathbone Place. It’s on the north side of Oxford St, about three minutes’ walk from Tottenham Court Road station. It’s got a long association with writers: George Orwell, Dylan Thomas (who met Caitlin here), Edwin Muir and Quentin Crisp were all regulars at the Wheatsheaf.
Tickets are available now.
Speakers will be:
Hazel Gaynor, author of The Last Lifeboat, out on 8 June
Anna Mazzola, author of the bestselling The House of Whispers
AJ West, who won the HWA Debut Crown 2022 with The Spirit Engineer
It’s moderated by Gill Paul, whose latest novel, A Beautiful Rival, will be published on 31 August.
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
Hazel Gaynor
Hazel is an award-winning New York Times, USA Today, Globe and Mail and Irish Times bestselling historical novelist. Her debut, The Girl Who Came Home, was awarded the 2015 RNA Historical Novel of the Year, and her novels have since been shortlisted for the 2016 and 2020 Irish Book Awards Popular Fiction Book of the Year, the 2019 HWA Gold Crown Award, and the 2021 Grand Prix du Roman Historique. Her last novel, The Bird in the Bamboo Cage was a Heatseeker and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller. Her new novel, The Last Lifeboat, is out in June.
Hazel’s co-written novels with Heather Webb have all been published to critical acclaim. Their last novel, Three Words for Goodbye, was selected by Prima Magazine as a Best Novel of 2021. Their next, Christmas With The Queen, will be published in 2024.
Hazel is published in 27 territories and her books have been translated into 20 languages. Originally from Yorkshire, she now lives in Ireland with her family.
The Last Lifeboat
Liverpool 1940; Alice King stands on the deck of SS Carlisle, waiting to escort a group of children to Canada as overseas evacuees. She is finally doing her bit for the war.
In London, as the Blitz bombs rain down and the threat of German invasion looms, Lily Nicholls anxiously counts the days for news of her son and daughter’s safe arrival.
But when disaster strikes in the Atlantic, Alice and Lily – one at sea, the other on land – will quickly become one another’s very best hope. The events of one night, and the eight unimaginable days that follow, will bind the two women together in unforgettable ways.
Anna Mazzola
Anna is the award-winning and bestselling author of four Gothic historical novels. Her debut novel, The Unseeing, won an Edgar Allan Poe award. Her third novel, The Clockwork Girl, set in 18th century Paris, has been nominated for two CWA Dagger awards as well as the Dublin Literary award.
Her fourth, The House of Whispers, a ghost story set in Fascist Italy, reached number seven in the Saturday Times chart and is a Sunday Times historical fiction pick for 2023.
Anna’s first legal thriller will be published in 2024 under the name Anna Sharpe.
She is also a human rights and criminal justice solicitor and provides training to other advocates. She lives in Camberwell, South London, with one husband, two children, a cat and a snake.
The House of Whispers
Rome, 1938, and as the world teeters on the brink of war, talented pianist Eva Valenti enters the house of widower Dante Cavallera to become his new wife.
On the outside, the forces of Fascism are accelerating, but in her new home, Eva fears that something else is at work, whispering in the walls and leaving mysterious marks on Dante’s young daughter.
Soon she starts to wonder whether the house itself is trying to give up the secrets of its mysterious past — secrets that Dante seems so determined to keep hidden.
However, Eva must also conceal the truth of her own identity, for if she is discovered, she will be in greater danger than she could ever have imagined.
AJ West
AJ is an award-winning former BBC journalist, radio broadcaster and voice artist from Buckinghamshire.
The son of three primary school teachers, he grew up reading books to escape his shyness at school and discovered an early talent for writing which took him across the world working on scripts for popular radio programmes and documentaries.
In 2020, he was signed to Duckworth Books, who describe his writing as gothic, artful and thoroughly-researched.
He won the HWA Debut Crown 2022 with his first novel, The Spirit Engineer.
The Spirit Engineer
Belfast, 1914, and two years after the sinking of the Titanic, high society has become obsessed with spiritualism, attending séances in the hope they might reach their departed loved ones.
William Jackson Crawford is a man of science and a sceptic, but one night with everyone sitting around the circle, voices come to him – seemingly from beyond the veil – placing doubt in his heart and a seed of obsession in his mind.
Could the spirits truly be communicating with him or is this a parlour trick gone too far?
Gill Paul, our moderator
Gill is the bestselling author of 10 historical novels, many of them about real 20th-century women she thinks have been either marginalized or misjudged by historians. Jackie and Maria/The Second Marriage looks at the way Jackie Kennedy’s and Maria Callas’s lives began to overlap as they became rivals for Aristotle Onassis.
The Collector’s Daughter is about Lady Evelyn Herbert, a remarkable woman who was part of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. Gill has written about Romanov grand duchesses Tatiana and Maria in her novels The Secret Wife and The Lost Daughter, and about Wallis Simpson seen through the eyes of her one-time best friend Mary Kirk in Another Woman’s Husband.
Her novels have now been translated into 21 languages and topped the bestseller lists in the US, UK and Canada. She speaks at literary events on subjects ranging from Tutankhamun to the Titanic.
Gill lives in London with her partner, who is a light artist, and loves wild swimming year round.
Meet our authors
The authors will be sticking around 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.
Get your tickets via Eventbrite.
We’ll be returning to Historia Live in September after the summer holidays, 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 140 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.
