Hanna Reitsch and Melitta von Stauffenberg were talented, courageous and strikingly attractive women who fought convention to make their names in the male-dominated field of flight in 1930s Germany. With the war, both became pioneering test pilots and both were awarded the Iron Cross for service to the Third Reich. But they could not have […]
Search Results for: Clare Mulley
Historia Q&A: Clare Mulley
Clare Mulley is the award-winning author of three biographies: The Woman Who Saved the Children, The Spy Who Loved and her latest, The Women Who Flew For Hitler. She writes and reviews for publications such as The Spectator, The Telegraph and History Today, is a busy public speaker and chair of judges for the Historical Writers’ Association 2017 non-fiction prize. What […]
Review: The Women who Flew for Hitler by Clare Mulley
Clare Mulley has written a fascinating biography about two fascinating women. You would have thought that two women who grew up in post-World War One Germany with a love for flying and an intense urge to succeed in becoming pilots, would have been allies, even friends. Instead, Hanna Reitsch and Melitta von Stauffenberg (nee Schiller) […]
Under cover for Britain: two female WWII agents, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade and Barbara Bertram
Marie-Madeleine Fourcade led a French intelligence network supplying information to MI6. Barbara Bertram ran a secret safe house for agents in Surrey. They met several times. Here, Rachel Hore writes about how the two women sparked the idea for her new novel, and the challenges of writing fiction about real people. My new novel, The […]
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 […]
Historia interview: Carolyn Kirby
Carolyn Kirby, award-winning author of When We Fall and The Conviction Of Cora Burns. talks to AD Bergin about her new novel, Ravenglass. A sweeping adventure with a cross-dressing main character, Kit, it’s set against a backdrop of 18th-century social and industrial revolution, the lesser-known regional slave trade, and the Jacobite rising of 1745. AB: […]
The 2025 HWA Crown Awards longlists
The HWA is delighted to announce the Crown Awards longlists for 2025, celebrating the best in historical writing, fiction and non-fiction, published during 2024–2025. There are three awards categories: HWA Gold Crown, HWA Non-fiction Crown, and HWA Debut Crown, and 12 books in each category. The books longlisted for the HWA Crown Awards for 2025 […]
Historia interview: Luke Pepera
Luke Pepera’s debut Motherland: A Journey through 500,000 years of African Culture and Identity is a ground-breaking exploration of Africa’s uniquely long history and diverse cultures, interwoven with Luke’s experiences of growing up in a Ghanaian family. Luke talks to novelist Carolyn Kirby about the genesis of his remarkable book. CK: Motherland is such a […]







