Stephanie Merritt (SJ Parris) is the author of the bestselling historical thriller series about Giordano Bruno. The latest book in the series, Execution, is out now. She is also the tutor of Curtis Brown Creative’s six-week online Writing Historical Fiction course. For Historia, she shares six tips on how to get going with your historical […]
Battling with history: how to write fight scenes and battles in historical fiction
How do you write a battle scene which engages your readers and drives the story on? It’s a question many authors of historical fiction fight with. Matthew Harffy, well known for his action-filled Bernicia Chronicles series, gives Historia his advice. All good stories need conflict, and what better way to convey conflict than to have […]
Historia interviews, 2020 Crown Awards shortlists: John Larison
John Larison is the author of Whiskey When We’re Dry, a remarkable novel which, with its compelling voice, challenges the traditional values of the Western and which is shortlisted for the HWA Gold Crown Award. This is the fourth in Historia’s series of interviews with writers shortlisted for the 2020 Crown Awards. Congratulations on being […]
Historia interviews, 2020 Crown Awards shortlists: Anita Frank
Anita Frank’s first novel, The Lost Ones, is shortlisted for the 2020 HWA Debut Crown Award. She tells Historia about her love of history, the inspiration for her book – including big houses, spiritualism and the First World War – and passes on some tips for new writers. The HWA Debut Crown celebrates new voices […]
Historia interviews: Clare Mulley and Carolyn Kirby
The biographer Clare Mulley has been in the news recently for her success in obtaining an English Heritage blue plaque to commemorate wartime SOE agent Krystyna Skarbek, also known as Christine Granville, who was said to be ‘Churchill’s favourite spy.’ Krystyna was the subject of Clare’s bestselling 2012 biography The Spy Who Loved and Clare […]
Writing historical fiction to an anniversary: some tips
If you’re writing a novel to mark the anniversary of a historical event – perhaps the most unmovable deadline there is – you may find these tips from Carolyn O’Brien, who learned them the hard way, will help you succeed. When my debut novel The Song of Peterloo was published in August 2019 to coincide […]
Historia interviews: Alexandra Walsh
Author Alexandra Walsh talks to Historia about her books, writing, research, women’s friendships, and her links with historical figures
How much should I explain? And how?
Dear Dr Darwin, As a reader of historical fiction I want to be in a place which may resonate in my world, but is not my world. That’s not only about politics and clothes, and how the people think and feel and believe, but in how they talk and write, and what they talk and […]