The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
Attorney and award-winning author David O. Stewart, the Independent’s former president, has long written about history in both nonfiction works and novels. What’s unusual this time around is that his latest book, The New Land, was partly inspired by his own ancestors,...
From the beginning of Turpin’s Prize, Foreman’s aim is clear. The very first scene shows his skill at creating a twist, which can be seen throughout the book, when it becomes clear that Dick Turpin is not the highwayman chasing the coach. Instead, Turpin is a...
Richard Foreman presents five short stories in a collection entitled The Die Is Cast - a reference to his lengthiest tale of the five. Sword of Rome: Rubicon is set in Ancient Rome and, already by the title, fans of Roman history will, perhaps, appropriately guess...
Summer Reads from Aspects of HistoryTimothy Ashby Author of Elizabethan Secret Agent: The Untold Story of William Ashby (1536-1593)At the top of my favourites list of recent historical books is Leanda de Lisle´s The White King. Although non-fiction, the book reads...
In one of Lin Manuel Miranda’s catchiest tunes in the musical Hamilton, Hamilton’s doppelganger Aaron Burr sings longingly about being in “the room where it happens,” on the inside, shaping momentous actions. Anyone who has spent time around political types will...
Richard, congratulations with Turpin's Prize. Why did you choose Dick Turpin as your protagonist? What was your inspiration? I enjoy creating anti-heroes, as well as heroes. Turpin fits that bill. I did flirt at one point with writing a series about Robin Hood, but a...
As soon as I picked up this book I knew it was a brilliant idea, and wondered why no-one had thought to do it before. The answer lies in the book itself, which is that the amount of research taken is enormous. Writing as an amateur, and not a historian, it is a...
Margaret Willes, what inspired you to write about this subject, a book not about the cathedral, but about its surrounding area? My first memory of St Paul's Churchyard was emerging from the Underground into an area of devastation. It was probably in 1953, when my...
In his fascinating book Inheritance, Leo Hollis shines a light on a unique period in English history when, as he puts it, London went from a dilapidated backwater to the largest city in the world, all within the span of a single lifetime. The life in question was that...
London: Origins of a Modern City If there ever was a revolution in 17th century Britain, it did not occur on the battlefields of the 1640s between the forces of the Royalists and the Parliamentarians. It was a slower, more evolutionary transformation that spanned a...
