Now settled in Crieff with his wife Annie, Bob Kelty is busy preparing for the Rover Scout Moot, which will see thousands of Rover Scouts from all over the world pitch tents on the Monzie Estate in Perthshire. Murder is the last thing on his mind. That is, until a burnt-out tent is discovered on […]
The Red Hollow by Natalie Marlow
Warwickshire, 1934. Deep in a hamlet in the Warwickshire countryside, Red Hollow Hall is a male-only sanatorium run by the charismatic psychiatrist Dr Moon. However, all is not well, and Dr Moon’s patients are leaving Red Hollow in droves. Recent disturbances, which originally appeared to be pranks, have descended into something more sinister, and now […]
Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau by Sheena Wilkinson
April McVey hasn’t a romantic bone in her body. So how has she found herself at the door of Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau, job application in hand? Matchmaker Martha hopes the lively Irish girl will breathe fresh air into a business struggling to keep with the times amid the tumult of 1930s Britain. So when […]
Under The Eye by Marilyn Pemberton
Cairo, 1936. Effie, a 10-year-old orphan from London, turns up in a packing case at the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. All her life she has dreamed that her mother is an Egyptian princess, but she is faced with cruelty and crushing disappointment before she finds what she is looking for. Beattie Trevethan is the daughter […]
American Wings by Elizabeth Wein and Sherri L Smith
In the years between World War I and World War II, aviation fever was everywhere, including among Black Americans. But what hope did a Black person have of learning to fly in a country constricted by prejudice and Jim Crow laws, where some previous Black aviators like Bessie Coleman had to move to France to […]
Harlem After Midnight by Louise Hare
1936, September 17th, 1am, and in the middle of Harlem, in the dead of night, a woman falls from a second storey window. In her hand, she holds a passport and the name written on it is Lena Aldridge… Nine days earlier: Lena arrived in Harlem less than two weeks ago, full of hope for […]
Sinners of Starlight City by Anika Scott
Madame Mystique is a performer extraordinaire, come to work her scandalous magic at the glittering 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. Of African-American and Sicilian heritage, Mystique – aka Rosa Mancuso – and her fellow performers move on the margins. Her ambiguous status serves a hidden vendetta: she awaits the arrival of Paolo Amanta, the dashing pilot […]
Mussolini meets the World’s Fair
While researching the Chicago World’s Fair of 1933 for her new novel, Anika Scott came across an episode of political public manipulation which took her aback – for its present-day resonances as well as its impact at the time. She tells Historia what happened when the Fascists flew to the Fair. Sometimes, a piece of […]