79 years after the occupation of the Channel Islands ended, novelist and journalist Kate Thompson writes about visiting Jersey, where she uncovered an island full of stories about wartime resistance. I fell in love with Jersey on a trip to the Jersey Festival of Words in September 2019. I defy anyone who visits not to. […]
Operation Fortitude by Hilary Green
France, 1944, and Agent Kim Maxwell has a new mission. She’s investigating the death of Bernard Leblanc, a local SOE leader. It looks like an accident, but Kim knows better. Her HQ is the Bistro Le Renard Rouge. The Red Fox. And the chef is none other than her lover and fellow agent Roland, AKA […]
Paris Requiem by Chris Lloyd
Paris, September 1940, and after three months under Nazi Occupation, not much can shock Detective Eddie Giral. That is, until he finds a murder victim who was supposed to be in prison. Eddie knows, because he put him there. The dead man is not the first or the last criminal being let loose onto the […]
The bureaux d’achats: how the Nazis bled France dry
After the fall of France, the occupying Nazi regime began to bleed the country dry through blatant financial exploitation. Parisians found even the most basic foodstuffs hard to get, largely because of the activities of the notorious bureaux d’achats. Chris Lloyd, author of Paris Requiem, explains what happened. “Ils nous prennent tout.” As Parisians queued […]
Historia extract: Paris Requiem by Chris Lloyd
In an exclusive extract for Historia readers, we bring you the beginning of award-winning historical crime author Chris Lloyd’s new book, Paris Requiem, the second in his Eddie Giral series of noir novels following a troubled Parisian policeman in the early days of Nazi occupation. The Unwanted Dead, which won the HWA Gold Crown Award […]
The French Resistance: shadier than you think
Chris Lloyd, author of the HWA Gold Crown Award-winning The Unwanted Dead, talks about his fascination with the German occupation of France and the concepts of resistance and collaboration; topics in which, he says, “the grey areas become shadier” the deeper you look. His novel was selected as Waterstones Welsh Book of the Month for […]
The French House by Jacquie Bloese
In Nazi-occupied Guernsey, the wrong decision can destroy a life. Left profoundly deaf after an accident, Émile is no stranger to isolation – or heartbreak. Now, as Nazi planes loom over Guernsey, he senses life is about to change forever. Trapped in a tense, fearful marriage, Isabelle doesn’t know what has become of Émile and […]
The women agents behind the D-Day invasion
The Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June, 1944 – D-Day – is one of the most recognisable events of the Second World War, thanks not just to its importance militarily but to its coverage in books and films. Less well known is the complex and secret process of planning the invasion, and the significant […]