The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
Pirate, The Redeemed Detective is the latest of your Inspector Lafarge novels, but we’re now in 1947 and he’s been through much. How has his character changed since The Tortured Detective which starts in 1942? He has certainly been through the wringer, emotionally...
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...
Review: Kate Barton’s Fast In today’s society, questionable holistic health trends, hapless weight-loss pills, and the latest Ozempic craze, have capitalised modern medicine, influenced by uninformed celebrities and social media. Nonetheless, such medicinal...
Between the Clouds and the River is Dave Mason’s latest historical fiction, with a dual timeline narrative set between 1942 and 1965. Spanning continents and decades, this book is a sweeping and moving tale of life, love, loss and everything in between. In 1942,...
Lucy, Clara & Olivia was your debut novel. Was the idea for the book long in gestation? While Clara & Olivia is my first published novel, I did write two novels in the twenties that I never managed to get published. I think of these as my practice novels, my...
Blithe and Spirited The run is as short as Labour's honeymoon period so head over to Ealing's The Questors Theatre to catch their production of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit as soon as you can. In one sense the play is a ghost story, but one which is played for laughs...
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...
Robert Harris’ new novel Precipice begins in the long summer of 1914 when Europe sleepwalked into a disastrous war and the stalemate of the Western Front. Harris moves between romance, espionage and political intrigue, placing at the centre of these events the affair...
Leaving Fatherland is journalist Matt Graydon’s debut novel and begins in Halbe, Germany during the inter-war period and is set against the rise of the Nazis. We are introduced to Oskar Bachmann, a shy schoolboy desperate to gain his father’s approval but often...
The first thing that strikes you about KAOS is its audacious tone. Writer Charlie Covell, known for their work on The End of the F**ing World*, infuses the series with a sharp wit and a modern sensibility. The standout performances come from the gods themselves. Janet...
