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Historia Magazine

The magazine of the Historical Writers Association

  • Features
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • TV, Film and Theatre
    • One From The Vaults
  • New books
  • Columns
    • Doctor Darwin’s Writing Tips
    • Watching History
    • Desert Island Books
  • Advertising
  • About
  • Contact
  • Historia in your inbox

From Disturbing to Disney: the Strange Tale of the Nutcracker

6 December 2017 By Catherine Hokin

Catherine Hokin investigates the history of festive favourite, The Nutcracker ballet. A deeply creepy inventor ‘uncle’, a seven-headed mouse, a little girl who tears her arm open on broken glass and a curse which traps first a queen and then a boy inside the misshapen body of a giant nutcracker: what better story to entertain your […]

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New books by HWA members

Before Dorothy by Hazel Gaynor

20 November 2025

Cover Story by RN Morris

20 November 2025

Annie’s Day by Apple Gidley

18 November 2025

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Alexander II: love and death in Imperial Russia

9 December 2024

Giulia Tofana: poisoner, murderer, saviour?

10 July 2024

From Taranto to Pearl Harbor – spies and inspiration

6 December 2023

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Historia Magazine is published by the Historical Writers’ Association. We are authors, publishers and agents of historical writing, both fiction and non-fiction. For information about membership and profiles of our member authors, please visit our website.

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ISSN 2515-2254

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  • How Ian Fleming’s secret war work inspired James Bond
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