As we commemorate Armistice Day, Vanessa Lafaye looks back on the devastating fallout of the First World War – and the unseen enemy waiting in the wings. With the cruelest of ironies, even as the Armistice bells were ringing in every town and village, another attack was under way. The enemy wore no uniform, was invisible […]
The Ghosts of Silent Film
I’ve long had a fascination with the art of Victorian photography – how those grainy old sepia images enable us to peer straight through a historical mirror into the past: for the very first time to be able to see exactly how people looked back then. Even the sparkle in their eyes. Because of this […]
Historia Interviews: Alex von Tunzelmann
Alex von Tunzelmann’s new book Blood and Sand is a gripping account of the sixteen days in 1956 which saw both the Suez crisis and the bloody suppression of the Hungarian revolution by the Soviets. Following the action hour by hour, the book allows the reader to follow events as they unfolded and see the […]
Historia Interviews: Chris Moore
We talk to Chris Moore about his HWA Goldsboro Debut Crown shortlisted novel, The Hoarse Oaths of Fife. The HWA Goldsboro Debut Crown celebrates new voices in historical fiction. Have you always been interested in history? Always. My dad was one of those guys who stops in the street to gawk every time he comes […]
Historia Interviews: David Gilman
Historia talks to David Gilman, author of the Master of War series, about his new novel, The Last Horseman. Your new book takes you away from the Hundred Years War to the turn of the 20th century and the Anglo-Boer War. That’s quite a jump. What was the seed of inspiration for the book? Writers […]
The Somme 1916 – From Both Sides of the Wire
About two thirds of the way through the first episode of The Somme 1916 – From Both Sides of the Wire (BBC2; six parts starting 18 July; prod/dir: Alastair Laurence) there is a sequence which could stand as a paradigm of what can be done with history on television. Peter Barton stands in the field […]
Historia Interviews: Steven Knight
With a cast that reads like Hollywood movie credits, a score like a 6 Music playlist and suits as sharp as razor blades, gangster drama Peaky Blinders packs a trendsetting punch. Since it first hit our screens in 2013 the nation has fallen for Tommy Shelby and his charismatic family. Birmingham has a new hero. […]
Ireland’s Revolutionary Sisterhood
On the 2nd April 2014, over 100 women gathered in Wynn’s Hotel Dublin at a gathering presided over by Agnes O’Farrelly, Professor of Irish Language at University College Dublin and Ireland’s first female Irish-language novelist. Their purpose was to discuss the role of women in the lead up to revolution and on into the fight […]