When nobleman Thomas Boleyn, lord of Hever Castle, is called to London in 1509 to present himself to a newly-anointed King Henry VIII, he sets in train events that ensure the Boleyn name will never be forgotten. Years later, as Henry VIII relentlessly pursues Thomas’s daughter Anne Boleyn to be his queen, Hever Castle becomes […]
For King and Country by Griff Hosker
In September, 1905, Captain Roberts has returned to England, feeling uncertain of his future after the exploits of Fort Farafra. Recently married and on the cusp of fatherhood, he hopes to revert to a career with the regular army. Instead, his life takes a perilous turn when he is assigned as a bodyguard to a […]
Evil in High Places by Rory Clements
In 1936 all eyes are on Munich for the upcoming Olympic Games. As athletes fight for gold and the Nazis fight for power, Detective Sebastian Wolff faces a battle of his own. A famous actress has disappeared and Wolff has been ordered to find her, fast. But Elena Lang is no ordinary film-star: she is […]
Faith and love in fiction
Emma Darwin examines the importance of faith during a turbulent period of European history, and how difficult it is to convey the “visceral” quality and power of religious belief when writing historical fiction. Evoking love comes more easily to us, yet love and faith have often been in conflict, as in her latest novel, The […]
A Miracle of Deliverance: A Dunkirk Short Story Anthology by Patrick Larsimont and others
Seven authors. Nine stories. One Dunkirk collection. This anthology commemorates the Dunkirk evacuation in a series of linked short stories. A young girl flees war-ravaged Belgium, while a German tanker progresses closer to the beaches, and a British soldier reflects on the chaos of war as he faces his final battle. A French artilleryman gets […]
Operation Berlin by Michael Ridpath
in 1930 historian Archie Laverick, scarred mentally and physically by the Great War, travels to Berlin to research a famed Prussian general. His quiet study is shattered when he crosses paths with Esme Carmichael, a spirited young American intent on making her name as a foreign correspondent. When a shooting at a Saxon castle leaves […]
The Enemy’s Wife by Deborah Swift
When Zofia’s beloved husband Haru is conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army in 1941, she is left to navigate Japanese-occupied Shanghai alone. Far from home and surrounded by a country at war, Zofia finds unexpected comfort in a bond with Hilly, a spirited young refugee escaping Nazi-occupied Austria. As violence tightens its grip on the […]
Dangerous by Essie Fox
Living in exile in Venice, the disgraced Lord Byron revels in the freedoms of the city. But when he is associated with the deaths of local women, found with wounds to their throats, and then a novel called The Vampyre is published under his name, rumours begin to spread that Byron may be the murderer. As events escalate and […]