A derelict, long-abandoned cottage has lain undisturbed in the woods for almost half a century. Known to the local children as Creepy Cottage, its reputation means that even the toughest of the local kids keep away from its boundaries. Years before, as the children’s skipping rhyme recalls, a young boy had gone in through a […]
Traitor’s Game by Rosemary Hayes
1808, and Captain Will Fraser has just returned from the Front in the Peninsular War. He is disgraced and penniless, the victim of a conspiracy led by a jealous and influential officer. Fraser has been falsely accused of insubordination and cowardice and dismissed from his regiment. Fraser and Duncan Armstrong, his wounded sergeant, arrive in […]
Red brick women: 1930s university pioneers
What was life like at university for the pioneering women who went to a red brick institution in the 1930s? Lizzie Bentham, who writes mysteries set against this background, draws on family experiences to explain. Each autumn, thousands of students will begin studying at so-called red brick universities, the nine civic universities founded in the […]
The 2024 HWA Crown Awards longlists
We’re delighted to announce the HWA Crown Awards longlists for 2024, celebrating the best in historical writing, fiction and non-fiction, published during 2023–2024. There are three awards categories: HWA Gold Crown, HWA Non-fiction Crown, and HWA Debut Crown. Here are the 36 longlisted books and what our judges say about them. The books longlisted for […]
Circus of Mirrors by Julie Owen Moylan
It’s Berlin in 1926. After the death of their parents, sisters Leni and Annette only have each other. Desperate, but dreaming of better days, Leni finds work at a notorious cabaret: the Babylon Circus. From the dancer’s barely-there costumes, to the glimmering mirrors that cover the walls, the Babylon Circus is where reality and fantasy […]
Operation Tulip by Deborah Swift
Holland, 1944: Undercover British agent Nancy Callaghan has been given her toughest case yet. A key member of the Dutch resistance has been captured, and Nancy must play the role of a wealthy Nazi to win over a notorious SS officer, Detlef Keller, and gain crucial information. In England, coding expert Tom Lockwood is devastated […]
The Knight’s Redemption by Ethan Bale
Europe, Spring, 1486. Facing a grisly death if captured alive, veteran mercenary and Plantagenet henchman Sir John Hawker and his unlikely band of misfits return to Venice to attempt to free the woman he left behind there months before. Braving the spies and militia of the Serene Republic, Hawker must somehow reach his beloved Chiara, […]
A Court of Betrayal by Anne O’Brien
The Welsh Marches, 1301. Strong-willed heiress Johane de Geneville is married to Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, at just 15 years old. Soon Johane finds herself swept up in a world of treacherous court politics and dangerous secrets as her husband deposes Edward II and rules England alongside Queen Isabella. Yet when Roger is accused […]