It’s AD 936, and the great warrior, Einar Unnsson, wants revenge. His mother’s assassin has stolen her severed head and Einar is hungry for his blood. Only one thing holds him back. He is a newly sworn in Wolf Coat, and must accompany them on their latest quest. The Wolf Coats are a band of […]
The HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition 2021 shortlist and winner
The HWA and the Dorothy Dunnett Society are delighted to announce the shortlist and winner for the 2021 HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition! Six stories were shortlisted and the winner and highly commended entries were selected from these. Winner His Mother’s Quilt by Naomi Kelsey A gothic gem. A woman trapped in bed fights the […]
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 […]
Review: The Forgotten by Mary Chamberlain
Sarah Day reviews Mary Chamberlain’s new novel, The Forgotten, a “compelling mystery” set in Berlin in 1945 and London in the late 1950s. Most of us encounter the history of the Second World War at some point in the school curriculum. I remember learning about the rise of Nazism, the horrors of the Holocaust, the […]
Sisterhood by VB Grey
It is 1944 in war-battered London. Freya and Shona are identical twins, close despite their different characters. Freya is a newly qualified doctor treating the injured in an East End hospital, while Shona has been recruited by the SOE. The sisters are so physically alike that they can fool people into thinking that one is […]
The Honey and the Sting by EC Fremantle
George Villiers is rich, powerful and has the King’s ear. Doctor’s daughter Hester is a mere servant – to be cast aside when he has done with her, especially since she is pregnant. Returning to her family, Hester vows that Villiers will never lay eyes on their son. She and her sisters Melis and Hope […]
Some reasons why history gets lost
The revealing – or reappraisal – of ‘forgotten’ histories, from national to family ones, is a recurring theme in historical fiction, as several recent features in Historia have shown. Often this burying of the past is an attempt to cover events which people have considered shameful, but that’s not always the reason for history getting […]
Historia giveaway! Sisterhood by VB Grey
Historia’s giveaway for August 2021 is for three copies of Sisterhood by VB Grey, which is published on 19 August, 2021. Entries open at 6pm on 15 August, 2021, and close at 11.59pm on 24 August, 2021. Three winning entrants will each receive one copy of Sisterhood. Follow the instructions below to enter. You’ve got up […]