Liverpool, 1940, and Alice King stands on the deck of SS Carlisle, waiting to escort a group of children to Canada as overseas evacuees. She is finally doing her bit for the war. In London, as the Blitz bombs rain down and the threat of German invasion looms, Lily Nicholls anxiously counts the days for […]
The Rooster by Sibel Roller
This poignant story begins when the author discovers a secret manuscript by her late father about his incarceration in Jasenovac, the notorious WWII concentration camp run by Croatian ultranationalists. Thus begins her painful journey into the realities of the terrifying secrets her father kept from his family during his lifetime. The Rooster: Discovering My Father’s […]
Historia Live in Dublin, 1 May, 2024
Historia Live Dublin returns on 1 May with four more bestselling authors of historical fiction. The theme is When History Meets Mystery featuring Sinéad Crowley, Amanda Geard and Carmel Harrington. The discussion, led by Hazel Gaynor, will look at novels with dual or multiple timelines and narrators, the skill of creating suspense on the page, the difficulties of weaving a […]
How I discovered my war hero uncle’s secret
Douglas Jackson’s Polish uncle was a bit of a family legend. But it was only while researching his Warsaw Quartet series that Doug discovered that Uncle Kazimierz was a war hero, a secret that he’d kept after the Second World War. The perennial question that eventually faces every writer is: Where do I go next? […]
Blood Roses by Douglas Jackson
Warsaw in September 1939. A city ruled by fear. A population brutalised by restrictions and reprisals. Amid the devastation, another hunter begins to prowl. What are a few more deaths amid scores of daily executions? Former chief investigator Jan Kalisz lives a dangerous double life, forced to work with the occupiers as he gathers information […]
Secrets of Malta by Cecily Blench
Malta, 1943. The war in the air above Malta is over, but the battle for Europe is about to begin. Margarita, a young singer in a Valletta nightclub, has seen her former lover Henry Dunn only once since breaking off their affair. His wife Vera, an enigmatic archaeologist, arrives at the club to tell her […]
The Wartime Book Club by Kate Thompson
Jersey, 1943, and, in what was once a warm and neighbourly community, German soldiers now patrol the cobbled streets, imposing a harsh rule on the people of the island. Grace La Mottée, the island’s only librarian, is ordered to destroy books which threaten the new regime. Instead, she hides the stories away in secret. Along […]
The Shadow Network by Deborah Swift
England, 1942. Having fled Germany after her father was captured by the Nazis, Lilli Bergen is desperate to do something pro-active for the Allies. So when she’s approached by the Political Warfare Executive, Lilli jumps at the chance. She’s recruited as a singer for a radio station broadcasting propaganda to German soldiers – a shadow […]