In this sixth and final interview with authors shortlisted for the 2019 HWA Crown Awards, Anna-Marie Crowhurst, shortlisted for the HWA Debut Crown, talks about the background to her novel, The Illumination of Ursula Flight. She also has some tips for other first-time writers. The HWA Debut Crown celebrates new voices in historical fiction. Have […]
The Emerald Cross by Jemahl Evans
It’s 1646. Blandford Candy, rake and spy, travels to the colonies on family business. He becomes embroiled in a quest for a priceless emerald cross, once destined for the Pope in Rome but lost in the American wilderness. Our hero has to escape a mutinous pirate crew, warring settlers, and hostile native tribes, but Blandford […]
Good Boye or devil dog? Prince Rupert’s poodle
Boye, a white poodle belonging to Prince Rupert of the Rhine, was killed at the Battle of Marston Moor. Frances Owen looks at the stories that grew up around this famous ‘devil’ dog.
The Poison Bed by EC Fremantle
Autumn, 1615. Frances Carr is imprisoned in a cold, lightless room. She is accused of murder. In a cell nearby is her co-accused – her husband Robert. Kept apart, Frances can only tell her side of the story. How did she come to be here? Can she somehow prove her innocence? And what lengths will […]
The Devil’s Slave by Tracy Borman
Frances Gorges has already survived the accusation of witchcraft. But if her torturers at the court of King James knew of her love for Tom Wintour, one of the executed members of the Gunpowder Plot, it would mean certain death. Pregnant with Tom’s child, hiding under the reluctant protection of her spiteful and ambitious brother, […]
And so to bed – a goodbye to Pepys’s diary
Exactly 350 years ago, on 31 May, 1669, Samuel Pepys stopped writing his diary and our intimate view of life in London in the 17th century was suddenly cut short, writes novelist Deborah Swift. She tells Historia what we’re missing as a result.
The monarch with the magic touch
Author Andrew Taylor writes for Historia about the King’s Evil and the royal ritual surrounding this disease.
The King’s Evil by Andrew Taylor
London 1667. In the Court of Charles II, it’s a dangerous time to be alive – a wrong move may lead to disgrace, exile or death. The discovery of a body at Clarendon House, the palatial home of one of the highest courtiers in the land, could therefore have catastrophic consequences. James Marwood, a traitor’s […]