The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
The love stories of the Tudors have been fodder for historical fiction for centuries. Few do not know the stories of Henry VIII’s wives, Mary I’s marriage to Philip of Spain, and Queen Elizabeth’s array of courtships and succession of favourites. One might be forgiven...
Merchants, in the literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, are ubiquitous. One finds them represented on the stage, for example, in the works of Shakespeare and Jonson (‘let’s see him creep!’). The word itself conjures up a host of senses: the jingling...
Edmond Smith, what inspired you to write about these early entrepreneurs, the subject of your new book, Merchants? My PhD set out to explore how individual investors shaped the infamous East India Company, but the more I dug into this, the more links I discovered with...
Humour and heart-racing tension are brought to the forefront as author Steven Veerapen concludes his Elizabethan spy thriller series with Assassination, a story packed with plot twists amid a compelling and fully realised historical backdrop. Following the journey of...
If you ask someone to describe Henry VIII’s appearance, they will likely be quick to supply an answer: the king was tall, fat, leonine, with a spade-shaped face, piggy eyes, hands insolently on his hips, and gargantuan legs spread wide. They might not, however, know...
Franny Moyle, welcome to Aspects of History. You’ve written a fantastic book, The King's Painter: The Life and Times of Hans Holbein, but when did you first “discover” Holbein, and what encouraged you to write biography of him? I have been aware of Holbein for as long...
In this lyrically written, highly anticipated novel, E C Fremantle cements her place as one of Britain’s foremost writers of historical fiction. She is to be especially commended for her exploration of periods which are not well covered (her Jacobean The Poison Bed...
Continuing his passion for sixteenth century history, Steven Veerapen takes the reader on a thrilling adventure with his latest spy novel, The Queen’s Gold. Based on historical figures and events, accompanied with a fast pace and unexpected turns, Veerapen has created...
The personal reign of Mary Queen of Scots is an endless source of fascination to historians and fans of historical mystery alike. The reasons why are obvious: her relatively brief period of rule offers romance, political drama, murder mystery, and high tragedy. I am...
What prompted you to choose the period that you wrote your first book in? In my case, I was following the old strategy of ‘write what you know’. I’d been researching and teaching this period for years and it seemed fertile ground for trying fiction. Once I knew I...
