H for History Posts

Prologue THE BRISTOL CHANNEL JANUARY 1606   The old man, sitting, sucking on his pipe on the quayside, was first to see it, or rather he did not see it. And that was what puzzled […]

  We can’t wait for the return of Private Investigator Flavia Albia in Lindsey Davis’ gripping and witty new murder mystery set in Ancient Rome, A Comedy of Terrors. Read on for a sneak-peek extract […]

The notorious Lady Rochford was born Jane Parker, the daughter of learned Henry Parker, Lord Morley; her mother, Alice St John, was a distant cousin of King Henry VIII on his grandmother Margaret Beaufort’s side. […]

In late 2018, shortly before the publication of The Gown, my son came to me with a question. He’d been studying the Second World War, and with it the Holocaust, in history class at school. As […]

  A TOMB WITH A VIEW is available now in paperback, ebook, and audio.

Henry VIII always kept the feast of Christmas with ‘much nobleness and open court’. It was incumbent upon kings to dispense hospitality throughout the twelve days of the festival, and in Henry’s reign more than a thousand […]

  ‘The most calamitous event ever to afflict the royal family of England.’   25th November 1120-2020   There have been many anni horribili in the annals of the English monarchy, but none that inflicted […]

  The Gobelins Manufactory or the Manufacture Royale des Meubles de la Couronne, to give its official title, is the setting for my new novel, A Fine Tapestry of Murder. Founded by Louis XIV in […]

As a historical novelist, you’re always coming across interesting nuggets – things that you could put in novels, be they set pieces, events, characters or even lines of dialogue. (I wrote about this in a […]

Set amid the turmoil of the Irish Civil War and the brittle glamour of 1920s London, The Glorious Guinness Girls is inspired by one of the most fascinating family dynasties in the world – an unforgettable […]

Everyone remembers the Battle of Trafalgar and indeed ‘Trafalgar Day’ is celebrated every October 21 with commemorative dinners and ceremonies around the UK. But in the course of research for my latest Kydd tale Balkan […]

If I ask if you have heard of the British Army’s campaign in Abyssinia, to free European prisoners taken by Emperor Tewodros II, then I suspect many of you would look rather perplexed. However, if […]