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 […]
The long legacy of the First World War
Alan Bardos looks back at the long legacy of the First World War, which still causes conflict over a century later. This August marked the 110th anniversary of the start of the First World War and, with conflict in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, it seems an appropriate moment to trace how the war, […]
Stoke Field, 1487: The ‘forgotten’ battle of the Wars of the Roses
Ethan Bale looks at the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487, a ‘forgotten’ fight which finally secured the throne of England for Henry VII and the Tudor dynasty. It’s the perfect pub quiz gotcha: What is considered to be the last battle of the Wars of the Roses? If you said “Bosworth Field” you’d be […]
The Shortest History of Japan by Lesley Downer
Ever since US Commodore Matthew Perry forced Japan to open its borders in 1853, the culture of this remarkable and distant archipelago has enriched western life. At the same time the country has embraced foreign institutions, from baseball to barber shops. Yet for centuries, under the rule of the shoguns, the islands were largely sealed […]
Japan’s court ladies, warrior women and courtesans
Lesley Downer, the author of The Shortest History of Japan, looks at different roles taken by women during that country’s long history: court ladies, warrior women and courtesans. She shows how, through the ages, they have found ways to use their skills to make their voices heard. Court ladies More than a thousand years ago, […]
How bestsellers through the ages mirrored their times
Gill Paul, herself a bestselling author, looks at how top-selling books mirrored the times they were published in. They weren’t only contemporary, either; historical fiction and fantasy are high on the list, perhaps not surprisingly to those who know the genres. Gill’s latest novel, Scandalous Women, is about the authors of two of these bestsellers. […]
Female sexuality in historical fiction
Lesley McDowell wanted to show all the consequences of women’s sexuality in her novel, Clairmont — the tragic and the happy. There was plenty of both in the Shelley-Godwin-Byron circle that shaped her protagonist Claire Clairmont’s life. And female sexual desire needs to be reflected in historical fiction, Lesley says. In a letter to her […]