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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
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  • 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

Rose & Renzo by Carolyn O’Brien

14 May 2026

The Jewel Keepers by Sara Sheridan

14 May 2026

The Art of Occupation by Chris Lloyd

14 May 2026

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Joanna Plantagenet, the lionhearted woman

20 March 2025

The Hundred Years’ War – a novel approach

1 February 2024

The women of the Gunpowder Plot

5 November 2022

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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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  • Rose & Renzo by Carolyn O’Brien
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