The historian Dan Jones looks at the “gripping” story of the Siege of Calais in 1347, which has had little attention from English historians. It’s part of the background to his new book, Wolves of Winter. In front of the town hall in Calais today stands a magnificent sculpture by Auguste Rodin. It depicts six […]
Roman Ancient Origins edited by Lindsay Powell
Ancient Rome began as a village of humble dwellings on the Palatine and grew to be one of the mightiest and most successful empires of human history, before collapsing in the West under invasions of barbarian nations attracted by Rome’s wealth and land, over a thousand years later. The legacy of Rome continues in the […]
The 2023 HWA Crown Awards shortlists
It’s a pleasure to announce the HWA Crown Awards shortlists for 2023: 18 books celebrating the best in historical writing, fiction and non-fiction, published during 2022–2023. There are three awards categories: HWA Gold Crown, HWA Non-fiction Crown, and HWA Debut Crown. The books shortlisted for the HWA Crown Awards for 2023 are: Debut Crown Award […]
Historia Live in November – author event
Historia Live, the HWA’s series of author events showcasing historical fiction and history writing, is back at the Wheatsheaf in London on Wednesday, 15 November, at 7pm. This month we welcome Nikki Marmery, whose novel Lilith has just been published; Francesca Peacock, author of Pure Wit, a biography of Margaret Cavendish; and Lola Jaye, whose […]
Henrietta Maria by Leanda de Lisle
Henrietta Maria, Charles I’s queen, is the most reviled consort in British history. Condemned as the ‘Popish brat of France’ and a ‘notorious whore’, she remains in popular memory the woman who turned the king Catholic — and so causing a civil war — and a cruel and bigoted mother. Leanda de Lisle unpicks these […]
The history of werewolves
How do werewolves come to be in a historical novel about 8th-century Vikings? Easily, says Theodore Brun, author of A Savage Moon. He explains why in this history of wolf-men, which goes back in time as far as around 2100BC. The mind of a historical fiction author is full of random snags on the memory […]
Finding the decadent women of the 1890s
The historian and author Jad Adams has been researching the remarkable women of the 1890s for many years. But it was only when he concentrated on contributors to the famous — and decadent — Yellow Book that the project came into focus. Even then, there were many difficulties, as he tells Historia. I like writing […]
Decadent Women: Yellow Book Lives by Jad Adams
During the 1890s, British women for the first time began to leave their family homes to seek work, accommodation, and financial and sexual freedom. Decadent Women is an account of some of these women who wrote for the innovative art and literary journal called the Yellow Book. For the first time, based on original research, […]