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 […]
Menewood by Nicola Griffith
Hild is no longer the bright child who made a place in Edwin Overking’s court with her seemingly supernatural insight. She is 18, honed and tested, the formidable Lady of Elmet, now building her personal stronghold in the valley of Menewood. But Edwin needs his most trusted advisor. Old alliances are fraying. Younger rivals are […]
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, […]
The Orphans on the Train by Gill Thompson
1939. A girl with auburn hair looks anxiously out of the train window, watching the mountains of Europe pass by. War is on the horizon at home, and Kirsty finds herself heading to neutral Hungary to help in a school for Jewish children. Little does she know that in leaving everything behind, she is about […]
A Day of Reckoning by Matthew Harffy
In AD796, sailing in search of an object of great power, Hunlaf and his comrades are far from home when they are caught up in a violent skirmish against pirates. After the bloody onslaught, an encounter with ships from Islamic Spain soon sees them escorted under guard to the city of Qadis, one of the […]
Brávellir: the greatest battle… that never was
Angus Donald, author of King of the North, writes about the Battle of Brávellir, a famous Viking conflict… which probably never happened. But, he says, we can still enjoy the epic story, a 12th-century piece of historical fiction which inspired his own novel. “Then the trumpets sounded, and both sides engaged in battle with all […]
King of the North by Angus Donald
An ambitious king… Spring, AD777, and Sigurd Hring, new King of the Svear, is summoning all the greatest warriors of the North to his banner, promising them riches and glory. He invites Bjarki Bloodhand, the famous berserkr who can summon the fury of a wild bear in battle, to swear an oath of fealty to […]