A girl known only as Red, the daughter of a Cornish fortune-teller, travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient method: the Square of Sevens. When her father suddenly dies, Red becomes the ward of a gentleman scholar. Now raised as a lady amidst the Georgian splendour of Bath, her fortune-telling […]
What We Leave Behind by Siôn Scott-Wilson
In this sequel to Some Rise By Sin, Sammy and Facey are pulled back into the gritty world of London’s criminal underworld. This time, the stakes are higher than ever as the fate of Sammy’s young adopted son hangs in the balance. Coerced into the hunt for a notorious gemstone, Sammy and Facey are torn […]
Savage Beasts by Rani Selvarajah
Calcutta in 1757. Bengal is on the brink of war. The East India Company, led by the fearsome Sir Peter Chilcott, is advancing and nobody is safe. Meena, the Nawab’s neglected and abused daughter, finds herself falling under the spell of James Chilcott, nephew of Sir Peter, who claims he wants to betray the company […]
Medea in India: savage colonialism
Rani Selvarajah’s novel Savage Beasts takes the story of Medea and reimagines it set in 18th-century India. She tells Historia how she wanted to explore the treatment of women and of foreigners under colonialism; universal themes, both in myth and in history. I first studied the play Medea at school and was instantly mesmerised by […]
A Thief’s Justice by Douglas Skelton
London, 1716. The city is caught in the vice-like grip of a savage winter. Even the Thames has frozen over. But for Jonas Flynt – thief, gambler, killer – the chilling elements are the least of his worries… Justice Geoffrey Dumont has been found dead at the base of St Paul’s cathedral, and a young […]
The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk
Leadenhall Street, London, 1754. Raised amongst the cogs and springs of his father’s workshop, Zachary Cloudesley has grown up surrounded by strange and enchanting clockwork automata. He is a happy child, beloved by his father Abel and the workmen who help bring his father’s creations to life. He is also the bearer of an extraordinary […]
Hawkhurst by Joseph Dragovich
In south-east England in the 1740s war and heated politics bring the old practice of smuggling to new and dangerous heights. Violent gangs of smugglers terrorise communities and confound government attempts to stop them. The most famous of these, the Hawkhurst Gang, operates like a modern drug cartel fuelled by illegal tea. They threaten witnesses […]
Bonny & Read by Julie Walker
The Caribbean, 1720. Two extraordinary women are on the run — from their pasts, from the British Navy and the threat of execution, and from the destiny that fate has written for them. Plantation owner’s daughter, runaway wife, pirate — Anne Bonny has forged her own story in a man’s world. But when she is […]