In 11th-century Scotland, feral wolf-child Wulva is brought up by witches and then sent to live at a Scottish castle, where she falls under the spell of cruel, ambitious Lord Macbeth. Three hundred years later, gentle Brother Rowan goes on a strange and perilous journey to a remote and ancient monastery to write a history […]
Dead On by Bryan J Mason
In Belfast in 1990, everyone knows who they are and what side they are on. Or do they? Harry Burnard and The Squad are back looking for new criminal cases to work. They are not allowed to work on terrorist cases, only crime. But there is no crime. Only terrorism. Carlo Fontaine leads the IRA’s […]
The troubles with history
How best to write a novel about events in recent — and still sensitive and painful — history? That was the question Bryan J Mason faced when he began his trilogy set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. His solution may be surprising, but it reflects the reality of life there. Although a recognisable period […]
Hunter Class by Alan Bardos
July 1943, and Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, is under way. Lieutenant Daniel Nichols has been recruited by Ian Fleming into 30 Commando, a specialist unit that goes in ahead of the main assault to capture top secret enemy material. Nichols discovers evidence of a secret which could change the course of the conflict. […]
Marianne by Alice McVeigh
When Marianne – still beautiful, still impulsive and not yet twenty-one – returns to London, she is rich, with a house in Mayfair and an estate in Dorsetshire. Despite her resolve to remain single, she finds herself besieged with admirers, including the dangerously attractive Willoughby and the charming and irreverent Crawford. Then Marianne’s younger sister, […]
Sacrifice by Griff Hosker
In the heart of a fractured Rome, as Pompey the Great triumphs in Hispania against a sea of rebellion, a fire stirs on the slopes of Vesuvius. Here, in the shadow of the mighty volcano, an unprecedented alliance of slaves and gladiators dares to challenge the very foundations of power. Their thirst for freedom is […]
Daughter of the Stones by Alexandra Walsh
When Caitlin King’s father collapses on the eve of the summer solstice, she’s drawn back into the tangled web of her already fragile family – and strange visions begin to haunt her. Visions of another life, another time and a woman who looks uncannily like herself. In Iron Age Britain, Cordelia is the third daughter […]
Why do we tell stories? Finding Cordelia
While writing her latest book, a reimagining of the story of Cordelia, Alexandra Walsh was struck by the way some figures reappear in different tales through the ages. Why, she wondered, do we tell and retell these stories? So she set about finding Cordelia. Towards the end of my new novel Daughter of the Stones, my […]