1236. Beautiful Ailenor of Provence, cultured and intelligent, is only thirteen when she marries Henry III. Aware of the desperate importance of providing heirs to secure the throne from those who would snatch it away, she is ruthless in her dealings with Henry’s barons. As conflict escalates between them, Ailenor’s shrewd and clever Savoyard uncles […]
The Crescent and the Cross by SJA Turney
An epic battle of the Reconquista; a personal struggle to survive; a fight for glory. War is brewing, and the Pope has summoned a crusade. The nations of Christendom are rallying to fight the Almohad caliphate, but they are a formidable foe. Meanwhile, behind Moorish lines, a fortress held by Castile is under siege. As […]
Victoriana: a HWA short story collection
The short stories in Victoriana bring the 19th century richly to life, with crime, murder and scandal set against the backdrop of the Boer War and a rapidly changing society. Read about some of your favourite characters from established series, or be introduced to new writers in the genre. This striking new collection, brought to […]
Tell Me How It Ends by VB Grey
Delia Maxwell is an international singing sensation, an icon of 1950s glamour who is still riding high on the new 60s scene, adored by millions. All men want to be with her, all women want to be her. But one woman wants it maybe a little too much… Lily Brooks has watched Delia all her […]
Tell Me How It Ends: writing a film noir novel
VB Grey pays homage to the post-war American movies that inspired her novel, Tell Me How It Ends. Tell Me How It Ends is set in London in that moment in 1963 when the 1950s finally gave way to the Swinging Sixties. The young men and women who swept to fame in music, film, photography […]
The Peer and the Gangster: A Very British Cover-up by Daniel Smith
In July 1964, the Sunday Mirror ran a front-page story headlined: Peer and a Gangster: Yard Enquiry. While the article withheld the names of the subjects, the newspaper reported that the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police had ordered an investigation into an alleged homosexual relationship between ‘a household name’ from the House of Lords and […]
Half Lives: The Unlikely History of Radium by Lucy Jane Santos
Of all the radioactive elements discovered at the end of the 19th century, it was radium that became the focus of both public fascination and entrepreneurial zeal. Half Lives tells the fascinating, curious, sometimes macabre story of the element through its ascendance as a desirable item – a present for a queen, a prize in […]
Beware of Greeks: when Homer meets Holmes
Peter Tonkin, author of many adventure and murder mystery books, takes his skills to another age: mythical Ancient Greece. Homer’s epic tales of Odysseus and the Trojan war have been favourite holiday reading for many years. What, he wonders, would happen if he took Sherlock Holmes and dropped him into the Mycenaean Bronze Age? July […]