1346, France, and King Edward III is restless. Despite earlier victories the French crown remains intact. Determined to bring France under his own rule, Edward has devised a new plan of attack – one which he believes will finally bring the French army to its knees: a final, cataclysmic battle. Berenger Fripper, Vintener of a […]
The hidden stories of the First World War
When Lucy Steeds was researching her debut novel, The Artist, she realised that writing about art in the 1920s was impossible without an understanding of how the First World War had left its mark — physical or mental — on everyone who lived through it. One powerful source was nurses’ testimonies. Here she writes about […]
The Artist by Lucy Steeds
Provence in 1920. Ettie moves through the remote farmhouse, silently creating the conditions that make her uncle’s artistic genius possible. Joseph, an aspiring journalist, has been invited to the house. He believes he’ll make his name by interviewing the reclusive painter, the great Edouard Tartuffe. But everyone has their secrets. And, under the cover of […]
Licensed brothels in France during the First World War
Alec Marsh writes about the licensed brothels used by British troops in France during the First World War. They’re part of the background to his new novel, Cut and Run. One of the surprising and little known things about the Great War was the involvement, to a degree at least, of the British state in […]
Cut and Run by Alec March
March, 1916, and the Great War rages across Europe. In the British Army garrison town of Bethune in northern France, a woman’s body is found in a park. Her throat has been cut. Marie-Louise Toulon is a prostitute at the Blue Lamp, the brothel catering exclusively to officers of the British Army stationed in the […]
The Paris Peacemakers by Flora Johnston
1919 in Paris. And as the guns fall silent, people attempt to start afresh while the fabric of Europe is stitched together for good or ill. Stella Rutherford, desperate to staunch her grief, has thrown herself into her work at the International Peace Conference, while the crucial negotiations play out. Her sister Corran is also […]
A Cheesemonger’s Tour de France by Ned Palmer
Charles de Gaulle famously said it was impossible to govern a country with 246 different cheeses. And perhaps he was right. Every French cheese carries an essence of the place where it’s made — its history, identity and landscape. Sometimes that’s a physical thing, as the hard texture of Comté echoes its rugged Alpine home. […]
Courting the Sun by Peggy Joque Williams
France, 1670. On her 16th birthday, Sylvienne d’Aubert thinks her dream has come true. She holds in her hands an invitation from King Louis XIV to attend his royal court. However, her mother harbours a long-time secret she’s kept from both her daughter and the monarch, a secret that could upend Sylvienne’s life. In Paris, […]