Sean Lusk’s Final Score won the 2025 HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition. It’s with great pleasure that we publish it here in Historia. The competition judges called it: “A brilliantly-crafted and poignant story set in the wake of WWI. The dry, courageous narrator delivers a heart-rending and thought-provoking story of a veteran playing piano […]
Christmas reading 2025 – historical books to give or to treat yourself to
We asked 12 well-loved authors to each suggest a couple of historical books to give, receive, or treat yourself to for Christmas 2025. There are ideas for history-reading children and teens as well. Newly-published or classics, fiction and non-fiction, their choices range from Ancient Rome to a history of Black British culture, via the Crusades, […]
The 2025 HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition winner and shortlist
It gives us great pleasure to announce the winning and shortlisted stories in the 2025 Historical Writers’ Association (HWA) Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition. The winning story in the 2025 HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition The winner of the 2025 HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition: Final Score by Sean LuskThe judges say: “A […]
A Woman of Opinion by Sean Lusk
Mary longs for adventure, freedom and love. When her powerful father schemes to marry her off to a foolish aristocrat, she has to find a man who will offer her the independence she craves. Never one to fear a scandal, she elopes with Edward Wortley Montagu. Mary uses her charm and connections to live a […]
Christmas reading 2024 – top historical books to give or to treat yourself to
We asked eight much-loved authors to each recommend a couple of historical books for Christmas 2024 to give, receive, or treat yourself to — fiction and non-fiction. There are ideas for history-loving children and teens as well. We hope these suggestions help to inspire your Christmas reading. Sharon Bennett Connolly For fiction, it has to […]
A Woman of Opinion by Sean Lusk
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu longs for adventure, freedom and love, believing that only by truly living can she ever escape the stalking crow of Death… An aristocratic woman in 18th-century England is expected to act in certain ways. But Mary has never let society’s expectations stifle her: she writes celebrated poetry and articles advocating for […]
How Mary Wortley Montagu and other great 18th-century women were forgotten
Diminished, disparaged, derided. That’s how Sean Lusk describes the fate of Mary Wortley Montagu and other great women of the 18th century. He looks at how they came to be forgotten. I had not intended to write a novel about Mary Wortley Montagu. Her Turkish Embassy Letters were the inspiration for the character of Aunt […]
The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk
Leadenhall Street, London, 1754. Raised amongst the cogs and springs of his father’s workshop, Zachary Cloudesley has grown up surrounded by strange and enchanting clockwork automata. He is a happy child, beloved by his father Abel and the workmen who help bring his father’s creations to life. He is also the bearer of an extraordinary […]