Sixty years ago this month, the River Arno burst its banks and catastrophically flooded Florence. Angela M Sims recalls the events of 4 November, 1966, and the salvage operation that followed. The ground-breaking work of art experts and young European ‘mud angels’ in rescuing and restoring the city’s terribly damaged treasures pioneered conservation methods used […]
The 2025 HWA Crown Awards shortlists
The Historical Writers’ Association (HWA) has great pleasure in revealing the 2025 Crown Awards shortlists, celebrating the best in historical writing, fiction and non-fiction, published during 2024–2025. There are three awards categories — HWA Gold Crown, HWA Non-fiction Crown, and HWA Debut Crown — and six shortlisted books in each category. The books shortlisted for […]
A Divine Fury by DV Bishop
Florence. Autumn, 1539. Where Cesare Aldo was once an officer for the city’s most feared criminal court. Following a period of exile, he is back – but demoted to night patrol, when only the drunk and the dangerous roam the streets. Chasing a suspect in the rain, Aldo discovers a horrifying scene beneath Michelangelo’s statue […]
The Maiden of Florence by Katherine Mezzacappa
Florence, 1584. Rumours are spreading about the virility of a prince marrying into the powerful Medici family. Orphan Giulia is chosen to put an end to the gossip. In return she will keep her life — and start a new one with a dowry and her own husband. Cloistered since childhood and an innocent in […]
Ritual of Fire by DV Bishop
Florence in the summer of 1538. A night patrol finds a wealthy merchant hanged and set ablaze in the city’s main square. More than mere murder, this killing is intended to put the fear of God into Florence. Forty years earlier, puritanical monk Girolamo Savonarola was executed the same way. Does this new killing mean […]
Ritual of Fire by DV Bishop
Florence. Summer, 1538, and a night patrol finds a wealthy merchant hanged and set ablaze in the city’s main square. More than mere murder, this killing is intended to put the fear of God into Florence. Forty years earlier, puritanical monk Girolamo Savonarola was executed the same way. Does this new killing mean his fanatical […]
Historia extract: Ritual of Fire by DV Bishop
To celebrate the publication of Ritual of Fire, DV Bishop’s third Cesare Aldo crime thriller set in 16th-century Florence, Historia is publishing an extract from the book – the whole first chapter. Thursday, May 23rd 1538. Cesare Aldo could still smell flesh burning, even from this distance. In Florence it would have been one scent […]
The Darkest Sin by DV Bishop
Florence. Spring, 1537. When Cesare Aldo investigates a report of intruders at a convent in the Renaissance city’s northern quarter, he enters a community divided by bitter rivalries and harbouring dark secrets. When a man’s body is found deep inside the convent, stabbed more than two dozen times, the case becomes even more complicated. Unthinkable […]