The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
I’m not sure who it was that first used this particular formula for good historical fiction – and especially espionage fiction. The idea is that you choose a peculiarly mysterious or ambiguous moment in recent history and then you weave your plot around it. William...
Books of 2021 from Aspects of HistoryAlan Bardos Author of The Dardanelles ConspiracyLaw of Blood is the first in R.N. Morris’s new Empire of Shadows series, featuring magistrate Pavel Pavlovich Virginsky. In Law of Blood, Virginsky investigates the murder of a...
Sharpe's cavalry sword is still being sheathed into the guts of his enemies. Harper's volley gun is still reverberating like thunder. Wellington is still grumpy. The British army can still fire three shots a minute. And the word "bastard" still litters the air like...
Starting to write a new novel is both an overwhelming and, contrarily, exciting experience for me as I never know which path the book will take me. In my latest novel, The Orphan’s Secret, Lily Armstrong, enlists in the Women’s Timber Corps – something of which I had...
This collection of short stories encapsulates everything that makes Ben Kane one of the very best writers of historical fiction around at the moment. Though the stories are very much linked by the theme of Rome, there is considerable variety here and a welcome...
Alex Gerlis, Agent in Berlin opens with the attack on Pearl Harbor – you’ve described it brilliantly – did you research provide you with first hand accounts of this shocking event? With Pearl Harbor I was more concerned to get the details of the day correct,...
Tom Palmer, many congratulations on your new book, Arctic Star. Can you tell us a bit about your characters, Frank, Joseph and Stephen? They’re composite characters, so their stories are made up of the memories of several men who took part in the Arctic Convoys, all...
Appointment in Tehran In his apartment several blocks from the university campus, Abdul Mezad knelt on a carpet facing the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina and prayed. He was one of the few people in the city who knew what was about to happen. Although the Shah had...
Suzanne Kelman, what first of all drew you to write about Hedy Lamarr? I've always been captivated by the golden age of Hollywood, and the '30s and '40s are my favourite period in film history. So, it has been fascinating to connect the timeline of World War II with...
When the Nightingale Sings In 1930s London, by pure chance, Judy Morgan meets Hedwig Kiesler. Judy Morgan has just finished her studies of Physics at Cambridge University. Hedwig Kiesler has just left her beloved home in Austria to escape from her ex-husband. Hedwig...
