Beatrice Cenci is elusive. Even ‘her’ portrait isn’t a painting of her. Executed for murdering her abusive father, was she an innocent victim or a cunning killer? Both, says Elizabeth Fremantle, whose novel, Sinners, is a powerful reinterpretation of her story. But above all, she says, Beatrice was human. Elizabeth won the 2024 HWA Gold […]
Historical books for summer reading, 2025
We asked five well-loved authors to each suggest a couple of books they recommend for history lovers to enjoy reading over the summer. Their choices include novels about the eve of the Roman Conquest and the eve of the Norman one; non-fiction about the long history of Black people in Britain and the island’s first […]
Historia giveaway: the 2024 HWA Crown Awards winners
Historia is giving away all three winning books in the 2024 HWA Crown Awards to two lucky winners! These awards celebrate the best in recent historical writing, fiction and non-fiction. The two winners of our 2024 HWA Crown Awards winners giveaway will each receive: Disobedient by Elizabeth Fremantle.Our judges called this book “the masterful telling of […]
Sinners by Elizabeth Fremantle
In 16th-century Rome, Beatrice Cenci – youngest daughter of a powerful nobleman – is destined for a life of gilded insignificance. Wealth talks within the city’s grand palazzos, and women must remain silent. Then her brother is found murdered by a rival family, and Beatrice’s domineering, tyrannical father insists they flee to La Rocca. But […]
The winners! The HWA Crown Awards 2024
We’re delighted to announce the winners of the 2024 HWA Crown Awards, celebrating the best in recent historical writing, fiction and non-fiction! The winners of the Gold Crown for fiction, the Non-fiction Crown and the Debut Crown were revealed on Wednesday, 20 November at an awards party at St Ethelburga’s Centre in Bishopsgate. We’d like […]
Historia film review: Firebrand
Nice costumes, says Linda Porter, can’t rescue this bizarre adaptation of Elizabeth Fremantle’s historical novel about Katherine Parr, first published as Queen’s Gambit in 2013. I should perhaps begin this review by confessing that I’m a great admirer of Liz Fremantle’s historical novels. She has covered major figures and events of the 16th and 17th […]
Firebrand by Elizabeth Fremantle
Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded… will she survive? My name is Katherine Parr. I’m 31 years old – already twice widowed. I love a man I can’t have. I’m to wed a man no one would want. He has cast aside two wives and watched another die in childbirth. Two more have had their heads […]
Disobedient by Elizabeth Fremantle
Rome in 1611 is a jewel-bright place of change, with sumptuous new palaces and lavish wealth on display. A city where women are seen but not heard. Artemisia Gentileschi dreams of becoming a great artist. Motherless, she grows up among a family of painters — men and boys. She knows she is more talented than […]