History and Fiction Archives - Aspects of History

Sawadika American Girl: A Conversation with Daria Sommers

Drawing on her own experience as a Third Culture Kid in Bangkok during the Vietnam War, the novelist tells Ella Beales about memory, identity and the little-known world of American families living in Southeast Asia during the conflict.

Daria Sommers

Welcome Daria. Congratulations on the publication of your first novel Sawadika American Girl. What made you decide to write a historical fiction inspired by your own experiences as a Third Culture Kid (TCK) in Bangkok during the Vietnam War? Thank you so much. I’m...

Archduke at The Royal Court Theatre – Review

Raj Joseph retells the story of Sarajevo in the summer of 1914 and the outbreak of war in a new drama directed by Lyndsey Turner

Alan Bardos

I was very interested to see Archduke, as I have spent years researching and writing about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The Royal Court warned me that the play was not entirely historically accurate. So it would be bad form to list all the historical...

Monarchs Anonymous at The Other Palace Theatre

A review of the historical comedy show which forces famous historical figures into a group therapy session.

Richard Foreman

Monarchs Anonymous is a fun, frenetic show that should appeal to a variety of ages. The premise is a therapy session involving multiple monarchs. The figures taking part are Marie Antionette, Mansa Musa, Charles II, Henry VIII and Princess Sophia Duleep Singh....

Fiction Book of the Month: Alan Bardos on Rising Tide

An interview with the author on the stories and historical background that shape the first in his Daniel Nichols Spy Thrillers series.

Alan Bardos

Alan, your novel Rising Tide is set during World War II, prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, whereas your earlier series focused on World War I. What inspired you to explore a new conflict in your writing? In my previous First World War series I looked at how waging...

Sex, Psychoanalysis, and the Big Freeze of 1963

1963 acts as a pivot in the author’s new novel, one which brings into focus the strain between the previous decade’s conservatism and the approach of both female freedom and societal change, all against the backdrop of wintry weather.

Lucy Ashe

Philip Larkin in his poem Annus Mirabilis highlighted the year 1963 as a time of momentous transition. The end of the Lady Chatterley ban, the rise of The Beatles, the beginnings of the sexual revolution, all seductive ingredients for me, an author writing a novel...

The Overlooked History of the Vietnam War

Drawing on a childhood spent in 1960s Bangkok, a new novel blends fictional characters and plot with authentic people, places and experiences to recreate life for American families based in Thailand during the conflict.

Daria Sommers

I’m frequently asked how much of my novel Sawadika American Girl is drawn from real life. A work of historical fiction, it is the story of a 17-year-old American woman coming-of-age in 1968 Thailand when the country served as a major US military outpost for America’s...

2026 Summer Reads from Aspects of History

Our authors and contributors recommend books to take on your summer holidays.

Aspects of History

Summer Reads from Aspects of HistoryZeb Baker-Smith Editor at Aspects of HistoryPaul Knox’s Lost London offers a captivating itinerary of 25 buildings which are no longer, but whose lifespan shaped the capital’s architectural story, revealing how the perennial cycle...

Episode 274

Can Aethelred the Unready Be Rehabilitated?

The author asks whether he was England’s most incompetent king, or whether history unfairly blames him for Viking successes and overlooks his achievements?

Adam Staten

Aethelred II of England, known to history as Aethelred the Unready, is considered to be one of our most hopeless monarchs. For a thousand years he has had a reputation for failure that is perhaps only outdone by Bad King John. Yet Aethelred was the longest reigning...

Fiction Book of the Month: Jim Loughran on The Bratinsky Affair

A discussion of the people, places and history that inspired the author's debut, a thriller exploring exile, identity and the ties between Ireland and Russia.

Jim Loughran

Welcome back to Aspects of History, Jim. The Bratinsky Affair, our Fiction Book of the Month, combines murder mystery, espionage thriller, and historical fiction. What first inspired the book, and how did the story evolve from that earliest conception? Serendipity...