Paris, 1936, and when Dora Maar, a talented French photographer, painter and poet, is introduced to Pablo Picasso, she is mesmerized by his dark and intense stare. Drawn to his volcanic creativity, it isn’t long before she embarks on a passionate relationship with the Spanish artist that sometimes includes sadism and masochism and ultimately pushes […]
The surprising joys of armchair travel
The novelist Elizabeth Buchan usually looks forward to travelling to research a new novel. But when she became ill while starting work on her latest, Bonjour, Sophie, she had to rethink… A new novel to write usually triggers the anticipatory thrill of travelling for research. Many summers have seen me, rucksack on back, tracking down […]
Paris Requiem by Chris Lloyd
Paris in 1940. As the city adjusts to life under Nazi occupation, Detective Eddie Giral struggles to reconcile his job as a policeman with his new role enforcing a regime he cannot believe in but must work under. He’s sacrificed so much in order to survive in this new world, but the past is not […]
Historia giveaway: Chris Lloyd novels
Historia is giving away five prizes to celebrate Paris Requiem, Chris Lloyd’s World War Two noir novel, coming out in paperback! Five winners will each get copies of both of Chris’s Eddie Giral novels, set in the opening months of the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1940. The first in the series, The Unwanted Dead, […]
Paris Requiem by Chris Lloyd
Paris, September 1940, and after three months under Nazi Occupation, not much can shock Detective Eddie Giral. That is, until he finds a murder victim who was supposed to be in prison. Eddie knows, because he put him there. The dead man is not the first or the last criminal being let loose onto the […]
The bureaux d’achats: how the Nazis bled France dry
After the fall of France, the occupying Nazi regime began to bleed the country dry through blatant financial exploitation. Parisians found even the most basic foodstuffs hard to get, largely because of the activities of the notorious bureaux d’achats. Chris Lloyd, author of Paris Requiem, explains what happened. “Ils nous prennent tout.” As Parisians queued […]
Historia extract: Paris Requiem by Chris Lloyd
In an exclusive extract for Historia readers, we bring you the beginning of award-winning historical crime author Chris Lloyd’s new book, Paris Requiem, the second in his Eddie Giral series of noir novels following a troubled Parisian policeman in the early days of Nazi occupation. The Unwanted Dead, which won the HWA Gold Crown Award […]
The Clockwork Girl by Anna Mazzola
In the midst of the icy winter of 1750, as birds fall frozen from the sky above Paris, chambermaid Madeleine Chastel arrives at the home of the city’s celebrated clockmaker and his clever, unworldly daughter. Madeleine is hiding a dark past, and a dangerous purpose: to discover the truth of the clockmaker’s experiments and record […]