Throughout the 10th century, England, as it would be recognised today, formed. No longer many Saxon kingdoms, but rather, just England. Yet this development masks much in the century in which the Viking raiders were seemingly driven from England’s shores by Alfred, his children and grandchildren, only to return during the reign of his great-great-grandson, […]
Hecate’s Daughter by Jo Tiddy (the 2023 HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story winner)
Jo Tiddy’s story, Hecate’s Daughter, won the 2023 HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition. “A clever story, written deftly and colourfully, showing the cruelty and ignorance (and small kindnesses) of the period,” the judges said. “[We] adored this original and subversive take on a well-worn tale, told in such a vivid and powerful voice that […]
Lilith by Nikki Marmery
Lilith and Adam are equal and happy in the Garden of Eden. But when Adam decides Lilith should submit to his will and lie beneath him, she refuses – and is banished forever from Paradise. Demonised and sidelined, Lilith watches in fury as God creates Eve, the woman who accepts her submission. But Lilith has […]
Finding the decadent women of the 1890s
The historian and author Jad Adams has been researching the remarkable women of the 1890s for many years. But it was only when he concentrated on contributors to the famous — and decadent — Yellow Book that the project came into focus. Even then, there were many difficulties, as he tells Historia. I like writing […]
Decadent Women: Yellow Book Lives by Jad Adams
During the 1890s, British women for the first time began to leave their family homes to seek work, accommodation, and financial and sexual freedom. Decadent Women is an account of some of these women who wrote for the innovative art and literary journal called the Yellow Book. For the first time, based on original research, […]
Mothers of the Mind by Rachel Trethewey
Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie and Sylvia Plath are three of our most famous authors. For the first time this book tells in full the story of the remarkable mothers who shaped them. Julia Stephen, Clara Miller and Aurelia Plath were fascinating women in their own rights, and their relationships with their daughters were exceptional; they […]
Disobedient by Elizabeth Fremantle
Rome in 1611 is a jewel-bright place of change, with sumptuous new palaces and lavish wealth on display. A city where women are seen but not heard. Artemisia Gentileschi dreams of becoming a great artist. Motherless, she grows up among a family of painters — men and boys. She knows she is more talented than […]
The stigma of illegitimacy: forced adoption
Mary Chamberlain’s new novel, The Lie, exposes the truth about the stark choice faced by pregnant unmarried women before contraception was widely available. It’s all so different now, we think. But, she asks, will the rolling back of abortion rights in America revive the stigma of illegitimacy — and the practice of forced adoptions — […]