In 1887 young Nellie Bly sets out for New York and a career in journalism, determined to make her way as a serious reporter, whatever that may take. But life in the city is tougher than she imagined. Down to her last dime and desperate to prove her worth, she comes up with a dangerous […]
Sharpe’s Assassin by Bernard Cornwell
Paris, 1815. Richard Sharpe is a man with a reputation. Born in the gutter, raised a foundling, he’s the army’s loose cannon – but also its most formidable weapon. With violence brewing in the aftermath of Waterloo, and a secretive group of revolutionaries hell-bent on avenging Napoleon’s defeat, Sharpe is called to the front line: […]
Circus of Wonders by Elizabeth Macneal
1866. In a coastal village in southern England, Nell picks violets for a living. Set apart by her community because of the birthmarks that speckle her skin, Nell’s world is her beloved brother and devotion to the sea. But when Jasper Jupiter’s Circus of Wonders arrives in the village, Nell is kidnapped. Her father has […]
Commander by Paul Fraser Collard
Egypt, 1869. Jack Lark has reinvented himself once more. Working as an unofficial agent for the Consul-General, he moves among the most powerful men in Cairo. But when the opportunity arises to join legendary explorer Sir Samuel White Baker on his expedition into the Sudan, Jack can’t resist a new adventure. Jack assumes command of […]
Reconstructing Emma Hardy’s secret diaries
The Chosen is Elizabeth Lowry’s new novel about the days immediately following the death of Thomas Hardy’s first wife, Emma, in November, 1912, and of Hardy’s writing of Tess of the d’Urbervilles some 20 years earlier. It’s also the story of how some of the greatest love poems in English, Hardy’s Poems of 1912–13, came […]
Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter by Lizzie Pook
The Brightwell family has sailed from England to make their new home in Western Australia. Ten-year-old Eliza knows little of what awaits them on these shores beyond shining pearls and shells like soup plates – the things her father has promised will make their fortune. Ten years later and Charles Brightwell, now the bay’s most […]
The bloody history of pearls
Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter, Lizzie Pook’s debut novel, takes us on a journey to 19th-century Western Australia. She tells Historia about her immersive research process and what drew her to writing about the dangerous pearl diving industry. A pearl cleaner’s job is a meticulous one. To remove the visible blemishes on the gem they […]
Tangled Souls: Love and Scandal among the Victorian Aristocracy by Jane Dismore
Outrageously handsome, witty and clever, Harry Cust was reputed to be one of the great womanisers of the late Victorian era. In 1893, while a Member of Parliament, he caused public scandal by his affair with artist and poet Nina Welby Gregory. When she revealed she was pregnant, horror swept through their circle known as […]