Berlin, 1944. ‘No! Not my child!’ Annaliese screams, her voice breaking as she pounds the window uselessly. But no-one looks up as the man in the SS uniform cradles her precious baby and strides away… She lies unmoving on the threadbare cot, her throat hoarse from long hours of screaming but her tears keep falling. […]
Making room for the master race: the true scope of Himmler’s Lebensborn programme
Catherine Hokin writes about the Nazi Lebensborn programme, the background to her latest novel. What did it involve? And how did the Third Reich plan to make room for the ‘master race’ babies they envisaged being born? “The living space of the Nazis has become the dying space of Europe.” When Karl Frank – an […]
The Legacy of Foulstone Manor by JC Briggs
Westmorland, 1970. Dark and imposing in a bleak landscape, Foulstone Manor stands abandoned on the edges of the Lake District. Reclusive Joan Goss inherited Foulstone, but her fragmented memories of her childhood there still disturb her and she keeps her distance in a cottage on the outskirts of the land. Joan was brought up by […]
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 […]
The Austrian Bride by Helen Parusel
Austria, 1938 After years of hardship, Ella is full of hope for a better future for Austrians, and when Hitler marches into Linz, she can’t help but become swept up in the euphoria of her boyfriend, Max. But she soon realises her mistake. When she witnesses a woman being shot in the street and a […]
The Guinea Pig Club – a WWII RAF pilot elite
The Guinea Pig Club was formed in 1941 by a group of remarkable RAF pilots, men who survived both life-altering injuries during action and the surgery, by a charismatic virtuoso doctor, which followed. They were an elite, modest but courageous, whose stories inspired LP Fergusson to write her latest novel. The Fever Box is a […]
The Fever Box by LP Fergusson
When Clara Cooper’s abusive husband is lost in action during the Fall of France, she grabs the opportunity to disappear, secretly returning to nursing. Although Britain is on the brink of invasion, she finds a comforting anonymity working in the vast military hospital on the south coast. However, more than pain and suffering lurk in […]
Historical books to look out for in 2024
Welcome to Historia’s most popular regular feature, our round-up of books published by members of the Historical Writers’ Association (HWA) to look out for during the coming year. For 2024, there are more than 200 books covering history, biography, and historical fiction and spanning eras from Ancient Greece and Egypt to the 1980s. They sweep […]