The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
Operation Berlin is the first of a new historical mystery series set in 1930s Europe which is to be known as The Foreign Correspondent series. Its author is Michael Ridpath, an extremely accomplished one, several of whose previous books I have read and enjoyed. I...
As I understand it, Blood Feud is the first book in your second trilogy (Rebellion). Set the scene for us. That’s right. We begin in a small village (Acum or Acomb as it is today) in the far north of England, situated close to Hadrian’s Wall and the River Tyne. The...
Lincolnshire often seems to be a forgotten county even though it is the second largest in England. It has no motorways, a sketchy rail network post-Beeching and is stereotyped as a place of flat agricultural land and cheap seaside holiday resorts. That is to ignore...
In 1783 (or in some accounts 1793), three men were allegedly playing cards in the Chequers Inn, Holbeach, and talking about a friend who had recently died and who used to make up a foursome with them. They hatched a plan that must have seemed like a bloody good one...
Peter Tonkin continues his deep dive into the sometimes grim and sometimes fabulously opulent world of sixteenth-century Europe as he returns to spymaster Robert Poley’s adventures. In this novel, spanning Paris, London, Eyemouth, Sheffield, and more, he brings to...
Congratulations on your new mystery novel Operation Berlin, Michael. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have read several of your books. You started out with a series of financial thrillers, which I read and remember with pleasure, but I am less familiar with your more recent...
There are novels that inform you, and there are novels that transport you. Anna M Holmes's Dance of the Earth does both with rare confidence, depositing the reader into the smoky gaslight of a Victorian music hall and then sweeping them forward, through the...
Anna M Holmes – great to have the opportunity to chat about Dance of the Earth on behalf of Aspects of History. One of your characters, Rose begins life abandoned at a stage door – a very dramatic and symbolic entrance into the world of performance. What does it mean...
Annie Elliot crafts an intimate glance into the life and marriage of one of the most celebrated English writers of the 19th century, Charles Dickens. Within Mr & Mrs Charles Dickens: Her Story: “So The World May Know He Loved Me Once.”, Elliot masterfully explores...
Andrew Taylor, A Schooling in Murder, sees you revisit to the 20th century, the dying embers of WW2 and a rural setting. Give us a brief outline of your most recent book. It’s a Golden Age whodunit set in a third-rate girls’ boarding school in the closing months of...
