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 […]
The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk
Born in Leadenhall Street in London in 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 […]
The strange death of the Levant company (and how a clock taught me about it)
Sean Lusk’s debut novel, The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley, was inspired by an 18th-century clock he found in a back alley of Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. Why would British clockwork be of interest in the Ottoman Empire? So began his interest in the Levant Company, once a powerful force, now hardly remembered. Almost everyone knows […]
The Charioteer by Jemahl Evans
Constantinople, AD550. The Roman Empire is in crisis with war in Italy and plague ravaging the cities. Emperor Justinian’s reconquest of the west has stalled, and his treasury is bankrupt. Porphyrius the Charioteer, a bitter former slave, is the greatest competitor to ever ride in the Hippodrome, but when he loses his last race an […]
International trade in the early Middle Ages
After the fall of the Roman Empire, trade in Europe declined, roads fell into disrepair and commerce was centred on small towns and local markets; but by the 11th century new routes were opening up, Ironhand author Hilary Green tells Historia.