In 1937, fisherman’s son, John Norman’s first encounter of Felicity MacDougall, the daughter of a retired tea planter, is prickly at best. But a chance meeting during a London air raid leads to a tentative romance, which becomes long distance when John joins the Navy and Felicity takes a job at the infamous, secretive Bletchley […]
A surprising gap in Second World War fiction
When Liz MacRae Shaw was researching her third novel, Had We Never Loved So Blindly, a love story set during the Second World War, she thought the background to her story would be well-covered in historical fiction. But, she tells Historia, she was in for a surprise. The Second World War is such a popular […]
The Girl from the Island by Lorna Cook
1940: When the island of Guernsey is invaded by the Nazis, two sisters are determined to rebel in any way they can. But when forced to take in a German soldier, they are shocked to find a familiar face on their doorstep – a childhood friend who has now become their enemy. 2016: Two generations later, Lucy returns to Guernsey after […]
HWA Crowns winners interviews: Jane Healey
Jane Healey’s The Animals of Lockwood Manor won the 2020 HWA Debut Crown Award, which celebrates new voices in historical fiction. In this atmospheric gothic tale of family madness, long-buried secrets and hidden desires, a young woman is given the task of safeguarding a natural history collection as it is transported out of London during […]
People Like Us by Louise Fein
Hetty Heinrich is a perfect German child. Her father is an SS officer, her brother in the Luftwaffe, herself a member of the BDM. She believes resolutely in her country, and the man who runs it. Until Walter changes everything. Blond-haired, blue-eyed, perfect in every way Walter. The boy who saved her life. A Jew. […]
The Unwanted Dead by Chris Lloyd
Paris, Friday, 14 June, 1940. The day the Nazis march into Paris, making headlines around the globe. Paris police detective Eddie Giral – a survivor of the last World War – watches helplessly on as his world changes forever. But there is something he still has control over. Finding whoever is responsible for the murder […]
Review: The Lifeline by Deborah Swift
Tom Williams reviews The Lifeline by Deborah Swift, an adventure story with a dash of romance set in German-occupied Norway during a lesser-known episode of resistance to Nazi rule. Deborah Swift’s latest continues the Second World War theme of her latest books. We’re in German-occupied Norway in 1942. We are thrown into the action practically […]
The Diplomat’s Wife by Michael Ridpath
It’s 1936. Devastated by the death of her beloved brother Hugh, Emma seeks to keep his memory alive by wholeheartedly embracing his dreams of a communist revolution. But when she marries an ambitious diplomat, she must leave her ideals behind and live within the confines of embassy life in Paris and Nazi Berlin. Then one […]