This is the story of a Saxon boy who sets out to find and rescue his father who has been taken by Viking slavers. Set in 877, as the people of Wessex are forced to fight not just for their very lives but for their freedom, their religion and for their right to live as […]
Omdurman by Griff Hosker
Being a soldier of the Queen at the end of the 19th century meant spending much of your time abroad. Jack Roberts is a hero and a good soldier but he is torn between his career and his son who is looked after in England. When the Mahdists begin to enlarge their empire Jack is […]
Rising Tide by Alan Bardos
November 1940, and Lieutenant Daniel Nichols, a former pacifist turned crusader, is wounded taking part in the Royal Navy’s carrier born air raid on the Italian Battle Fleet in Taranto. Six months later Sándor Braun, a British double agent, escorts a Japanese delegation around Taranto and discovers that they are planning a similar attack. But […]
War Cry by Ian Ross
It’s 1265, and England has a new master. Simon de Montfort’s victory at the Battle of Lewes has made him king in all but name. He has vowed to restore the rights and liberties of the kingdom, but now even his friends grow wary of his power. As old alliances break down, new rebellions gather […]
Edinburgh’s New Town and the 200-year history of 10 Scotland Street
Leslie Hills looks back at what intrigued her about her house, and how it set her off on a decades-long search for the history of 10 Scotland Street in Edinburgh’s New Town — the subject of her newly-published book. When finally I paid off the mortgage on my home, number 10 Scotland Street, a Georgian […]
Poetic Justice by Fiona Forsyth
It’s AD9 and Rome’s celebrated love poet Ovid finds himself in exile, courtesy of an irate Emperor, in the far-flung town of Tomis. Appalled at being banished to a barbarous region at the very edge of the Empire, Ovid soon discovers that he has a far more urgent — and potentially perilous — issue to […]
10 Scotland Street by Leslie Hills
10 Scotland Street – the story of an Edinburgh home and its cast of booksellers, silk merchants, sailors, preachers, politicians, cholera and coincidence and its widespread connections over two centuries across the globe. 10 Scotland Street by Leslie Hills is published on 1 December, 2023. With a foreword by Val McDermid, this is her first […]
Ancient Rome’s Worst Emperors by LJ Trafford
Between 27BC and AD476 a series of men became Roman Emperor, ruling a domain that stretched across Europe, North Africa and the Near East. Some of them did this rather well, expanding Rome’s territories further, installing just laws and maintaining order within the city. Others, however, were distinctly less successful at the job. Ancient Rome’s […]