by Carlos Ruiz Zafon trans. by Lucia Graves 'Years later, on his deathbed, old Sempere would explain how at that very instant he thought he saw Andreas Corelli shed a tear which, when it hit Cervantes's tomb, turned to stone. He knew then that on that rock he would embark upon building a sanctuary, a …
Category: Historical Fiction
The Evening and the Morning
by Ken Follett 'A moment later [Edgar] realized he was looking at something even worse than a monster: it was a Viking ship, with a dragon head at the tip of its long curved prow.' It is more than thirty years since Ken Follett published Pillars of the Earth, his first successful full length historical …
Art vs. Morality
Literary standards, like everything else, have changed a lot in the past century or so. Writers are not like crystal-gazers. They can fantasize and invent improbable futures, but in the end they can only write in, and of, the world as it is in their own times. And the world of the past is not …
In the Name of Religion
The City of Tears by Kate Mosse A Review 'The assassin watched the whore sway, then saw the blossoming of red on green as she fell. He exhaled then relaxed his shoulders. He could not be sure she was mortally wounded but it was a palpable hit. Thanks be to God, his shot had found …
The Dark Side of the Fylfot
(A Short Extract #2) by Andrew G. Lockhart Gretl July, August and September were always busy months and that year they were more hectic than ever. All summer, my father and Roland were preoccupied with affairs on the farm. The crops had come under threat from unusually large numbers of rats that descended on us …
The Dark Side of the Fylfot
(A Short Extract #1) by Andrew G. Lockhart Gretl I awoke on a bed of straw. It was just past daybreak, and there was enough light for me to see I was in a peasant cottage. The woman who had befriended me the evening before was bending over me. She handed me a cup. Thinking …
Sistersong
by Lucy Holland ‘I am as light and am as dark, I am as birth and am as breath, I am as flesh and bone and brain, Look inside and know my name.’ Just as I was beginning to think no one writes stories like that any more, along comes Lucy Holland’s tale of war, …
Hamnet
by Maggie O'Farrell 'A boy is coming down a flight of stairs. The passage is narrow and twists back on itself. He takes each step slowly....' After The Tale of Genji, Hamnet is a nice, easy read. Based on the life, and death, of the only son of William Shakespeare, it is a fictionalised account …
Stormbird
by Conn Iggulden (Wars of the Roses) Set in England and France during the years after 1443, Stormbird is best described as an historical thriller. It has a large cast of characters, most of them real people, though the author, by his own admission, takes the odd liberty with them. The novel's main historical theme …
The Road to Bosworth Field
The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory A Review ' "You are a girl; girls have no choice. You could never choose your own husband; you are of the royal family .... It is forbidden for one of royal blood to marry their own choice." ' Margaret Beaufort knows she is chosen by God for a …
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