Eleanor Swift-Hook thinks it’s time we remembered the Dunkirkers, the most feared pirates of the early 17th century. Forgotten by most of us, these privateers operating in the English Channel were, in their time, the terrors of the seas. My mistress, his good mother, with a daughterAbout the age of six, crossing to Jersey,Was taken […]
Roman Andalusia
Alistair Tosh has a lifelong interest in Roman history and a love of Andalusia. When he began writing historical fiction it was natural to combine the two in his Edge of Empire series. Here he looks at the history of Roman Andalusia and at some of the places he features in his books. Warrior, the […]
Al-Andalus: Islamic Spain in the 8th century
Matthew Harffy looks at 8th-century Al-Andalus, the setting for his latest book, A Day of Reckoning. Several decades after the conquest of most of Spain by Islamic armies, Al-Andalus already had a rich culture in which the arts and sciences flourished. But it was also a place of conflict and cruelty, as he discovered. The […]
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 […]
Burke in the Peninsula by Tom Williams
Things getting a bit messy in Spain. Lots of irregulars. Civilians joining in the fighting. That sort of thing. Wellesley needs all the help he can get. They need a man who can pass for a Spaniard. Someone who can make himself useful with the irregulars. Someone who is prepared to fight dirty if it […]
When my Spanish research trip went astray
Even when a trip to research your book goes ridiculously wrong, it’s still worth taking. Tom Williams, author of the Burke series of adventures set in the early 19th century, looks back at one such trip – to Talavera, site of an important Peninsular War battle in 1809 – in the days when travelling for […]
The Templars and the reconquest of Spain
SJA Turney’s Knights Templar books follow the adventures of Arnau de Vallbona as he travels across Europe to fulfil his duties as a new knight of the Temple. Simon tells Historia about the background to his latest book, The Crescent and the Cross. This is the fifth and penultimate book in a series in which […]
The Crescent and the Cross by SJA Turney
An epic battle of the Reconquista; a personal struggle to survive; a fight for glory. War is brewing, and the Pope has summoned a crusade. The nations of Christendom are rallying to fight the Almohad caliphate, but they are a formidable foe. Meanwhile, behind Moorish lines, a fortress held by Castile is under siege. As […]