For wealthy young British men in the 18th century, travelling around Europe was not always just about education, culture, and adventure. Politics — sometimes quite dangerous politics involving a threat to the established order in Britain — were a draw as well. Dr Jérémy Filet, author of The Jacobites and the Grand Tour, explains. Art, […]
A Thief’s Blood by Douglas Skelton
A family is found butchered in a dismal room in the Rookery, London’s poorest district. Not even their small children are left alive. Most of the authorities pay scant attention, except for Thieftaker General Jonathan Wild. Intrigued by this development, Colonel Nathaniel Charters tasks his most trusted operative, Jonas Flynt, with discovering why. When another […]
The Tiger and the Thief by Griff Hosker
Although he’s now hidden in a company of East India soldiers, Bill ‘Smudger’ Smith still harbours an intention to escape. These plans are put on hold, however, when his former life as a wharf rat comes back to haunt him. Bill is a skilled thief with a sharp talent for deception. When the Company needs […]
A Woman of Opinion by Sean Lusk
Mary longs for adventure, freedom and love. When her powerful father schemes to marry her off to a foolish aristocrat, she has to find a man who will offer her the independence she craves. Never one to fear a scandal, she elopes with Edward Wortley Montagu. Mary uses her charm and connections to live a […]
The Jacobites and the Grand Tour by Jérémy Filet
In the first monograph to fully examine the intersecting networks of Jacobites and travellers to the continent, Filet considers how small states used official diplomacy and deployed soft power — embodied by educational academies — to achieve foreign policy goals. This work uses little-known archival materials to explain how and why certain small states secretly […]
The magic and science of 18th-century Wales
Wales in the 18th century was a land where old magical beliefs and new science met, clashed, mixed and evolved, says Susan Stokes-Chapman, author of The Shadow Key. Her book explores the possibilities of this tension – and is also a “love letter to Wales and the Gothic”. The 18th century was a time of […]
Writing and researching naval fiction
Researching naval history at the time of Nelson involves taking in a lot of technical details. But, as Katie Daysh points out, when writing naval fiction, character must come first. The Age of Sail, typically seen as between the mid-16th century into the mid-19th, has been a popular subject in fiction since the time of […]
On Starlit Seas by Sara Sheridan
Celebrated writer and historian Maria Graham must make the treacherous voyage from Brazil to London to deliver her latest book to her publisher. Having come to terms with the loss of her beloved husband, Maria is now determined to live her life as she pleases, free from the smothering constraints of Georgian society. For a […]