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 […]
Résistance: The Corps Franc Pommiès by Paul StJohn Mackintosh
The Corps Franc Pommiès (CFP) was founded on 17 November 1942 by its namesake, André Pommiès. It operated in south-western France, becoming one of the largest and most important Resistance units in the south. After initial work in the sabotage of rail and road networks, factories and power plants, on 15 April 1944 it sabotaged […]
Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest by Sharon Bennett Connolly
The momentous events of 1066, the story of invasion, battle and conquest, are well known. But what of the women? Harold II of England had been with Edith Swanneck for twenty years but in 1066, in order to strengthen his hold on the throne, he married Ealdgyth, sister of two earls. William of Normandy’s Duchess, […]
Medieval women’s family lives
Medieval women’s family lives varied widely, as did the work they carried out daily. Rank in society was a factor, as was whether they lived in a town or the country, but the most important influence on their lives was their position in a family, the historian Catherine Hanley explains. Family was the concept and […]
The Family Lives of Medieval Women by Catherine Hanley
Women in the Middle Ages led fascinating and often wildly differing everyday lives, depending on their social class and family situation. Yet their wealth of experience has long been obscured and overshadowed by the experiences of men, with history books often relegating women to a single, catch-all chapter, as if their lives formed a unified […]
Thoughtlands by Jacky Colliss Harvey
In the literary footsteps of such walkers as Rebecca Solnit and Lauren Elkin, and in the character of the ‘rambleuse’, Jacky Colliss Harvey traverses the county of Suffolk from west to east, from velvety farmlands to uncompromising sea. She is in excellent company – her fellow walkers range from Daniel Defoe and Robert Louis Stevenson […]
Princesses of the Early Middle Ages by Sharon Bennett Connolly
Daughters of kings were often used to seal treaty alliances and forge peace with England’s enemies. This book explores the lives of these young women, how they followed the stereotype, and how they sometimes managed to escape it. It looks at the world they lived in, and how their lives and marriages were affected by […]
Historian or novelist? Writing fiction based on facts
Is the historical fiction author a historian or novelist? Julie Owen Moylan considers her own experience of writing a novel based on the known facts about two iconic women in the 1950s. Writing about real people is a challenging enterprise for both novelist and historian. How can we best sum up a life of many […]