The bestselling author Florence Olajide writes about the difficulties of researching pre-colonial African history for her novel, The Stolen Daughter, including the language the Victorians used about her ancestors. Authors face many challenges when it comes to their writing, but my experience with African historical fiction involved some unique and personal difficulties. My first task […]
The Drummond Affair: Murder and Mystery in Provence by Daniel Smith and Stephanie Matthews
1950s France. A British establishment figure. A shocking crime. A miscarriage of justice. The search for truth. In 1952, in a peaceful corner of Provence, a farmer’s son stumbled upon a terrible scene. Three bodies: a husband and wife shot dead, their ten-year-old daughter savagely beaten to death. They were all British. So begins one […]
The Lost Queen by Sophie Shorland
Despite Catherine of Braganza’s crucial place in British history, and that of its Empire, she has since been overshadowed by stories of the king’s many mistresses and forgotten as Charles II’s boring, powerless wife. This could not be further from the truth. Historian Sophie Shorland not only tells the full story of this long-overlooked figure […]
Sarah Siddons by Jo Willett
Sarah Siddons grew up as a member of a family troupe of travelling actors, always poor and often hungry, resorting to foraging for turnips to eat. But before she was 30 she had become a superstar, her fees greater than any actor — male or female — had previously achieved. Her rise was not easy. Her London debut, […]
Mary, Queen of Scots: royalty and reputation
The reputation of Mary, Queen of Scots, has swung wildly over the centuries, from adulteress and murderer to romantic tragic royalty, from manipulator to puppet. Little survives in the historical record of what she had to say for herself. Anna Legat, author of The Queen’s Avenger, argues that she was a ‘smart’ politician, diplomat and […]
Why do we remember D-Day?
Even after 80 years people remember D-Day. Adrian Goldsworthy, author of Hill 112, which is set during the Normandy landings, examines why we do — and dispels some myths surrounding this memorable turning point in the Second World War. D-Day. 6 June, 1944, Operation Overlord and the invasion of France by the Western Allies led […]
Agent Zo by Clare Mulley
This is the incredible story of Elżbieta Zawacka, the WW2 female resistance fighter known as Agent Zo, told here for the first time. Agent Zo was the only woman to reach London from Warsaw during the Second World War as an emissary of the Polish Home Army command. In Britain she became the only woman […]
Historia interview: Clare Mulley
Acclaimed biographer Clare Mulley’s latest book, Agent Zo: the Untold Story of Fearless WW2 Resistance Fighter Elżbieta Zawacka, is published on 16 May, 2024. Clare talks to novelist Carolyn Kirby about the long and remarkable life of Elżbieta Zawacka, or Agent Zo, Polish freedom fighter and one of most successful female spies of the Second […]