The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
The Great Siege of Malta, by Marcus Bull The military phenomenon of the siege, Marcus Bull reminds us, has a long history in the western literary tradition. And yet, despite their famous literary instances, such as the siege of Jericho as detailed in the Old Testament...
The fifteenth century is generally accepted as beginning the Age of Discovery - or at least the discovery of the wider world by European powers. In Spice: The Sixteenth-Century Contest that Shaped the Modern World, Roger Crowley has set himself the task of bringing to...
The world of Elizabethan spiery is a crowded one – but, in Shadow of Poison, Peter Tonkin once again demonstrates why he stands head and shoulders above the crowd. Given his history of writing thrillers and Elizabethan fiction, Tonkin is a master of genre and era. His...
I was first drawn to the Great Siege of Malta, as an academic exercise, by an interest in its many eyewitness sources. How do people caught up in historical events perceive, remember and record their experiences? On a more instinctive level, however, I was powerfully...
Karen Haden, what first attracted you to the period in which you write, and historical fiction in general? Having previously worked as a consultant for intelligence and cyber security agencies, I was drawn to the Tudor and Stewart years, with their complex mix of...
Books of 2023 from Aspects of HistoryAlan Bardos Author of The Dardanelles ConspiracyIt’s been a great year for fiction and non-fiction, but these books are my first amongst equals. Every Spy a Traitor by Alex Gerlis follows Agent Archie, a Russian mole in MI6 across...
Peter Tonkin, can you first tell us about your latest Poley novel? Shadow of Poison follows Queen’s Intelligencer Robert Poley from the aftermath of his unmasking of the Babington Plot in 1586, through the next eight years as he works to counter other, secret schemes...
Summer Reads from Aspects of HistoryAlan Bardos Author of Rising TideMunich Wolf, by Rory Clements is set in 1935 Munich. When the body of a young English socialite is found, Kripo detective Sebastian Wolff is called in to solve the politically sensitive case. The...
Our hapless hero, son of the king’s late black trumpeter John Blanke, is once again pressed into service as a spy by Cardinal Wolsey, the second most powerful figure in the land. Wolsey is pre-occupied with preparations for the forthcoming opening of Parliament at...
It is generally accepted that the European Renaissance began in Italy. However, as this developed south of the Alps a historical transformation of similar magnitude began taking place in northern Europe. This ‘Other Renaissance’ was initially centred on the city of...
