The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
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...
Dead Ground is a World War II thriller of the highest order and continues Graham Hurley’s “non-linear” The Spoils of War series, with each book covering a different aspect of World War II. The last book The Blood of Others was set around the Dieppe Raid in 1942. The...
Rising Tide, by Alan Bardos, is the first novel in the Daniel Nichols Spy Thriller Series - the author’s second historical fiction series. Bardos’ first book, The Assassins, was received with great acclaim - this trend was then continued throughout the rest of his...
Blood Debt is the first book in Adam Staten’s Honour Bound trilogy and is a coming-of-age story set in the tumultuous years leading up to the battle of Hastings in 1066. The story moves at a steady pace before speeding up in the final third of the book as it...
Our hapless hero, son of the king’s late black trumpeter John Blanke, is once again pressed into service as a spy by Cardinal Wolsey, the second most powerful figure in the land. Wolsey is pre-occupied with preparations for the forthcoming opening of Parliament at...
The War for the Soul of the Nation When the tide of the Eastern Front turned at Stalingrad and the Red Army rolled over the territory of Poland in pursuit of the rapidly retreating German forces, some Poles saw it as an invasion; others welcomed it as a liberation....
Richard, can you first tell us about the genesis of Turpin's Tales and why you decided to revisit the character? I wanted Dick Turpin to ride again. Turpin's Prize finished the series off nicely, but I had written a couple of Turpin short stories for other...
Richard, firstly can you tell us a little about your latest book, Spies of Rome: Blood and Poison? I wanted to write a short, entertaining novella which introduced readers to the character of Rufus Varro (his humour and the age he lives in). At the same time, Blood...
Do you think Bill Slim’s ideas surrounding courage and morale can be applied to modern-day warfare? Absolutely. They’re timeless. All soldiers need to be motivated to fight. Napoleon described ‘the moral to the physical as three is to one’. To be motivated, soldiers...
Summer Reads from Sharpe BooksAlan Bardos Author of The Dardanelles ConspiracyThe Unseen Enemy by Tom Walker, is a perfect summer read invoking Sunday afternoons watching a black and white war film. Tom Walker effortlessly brings to life an RAF squadron in World War...
