Historical Fiction

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In 1st century Rome, public gardens created by Julius Caesar have become dangerous haunts, especially for women alone. When her husband has to leave the city, Flavia Albia is left to supervise his building project in an old grotto. Soon it becomes apparent that a dangerous serial killer has made the Grove his killing ground. In this edition of Historical Fiction, Alice Roberts talks to Lindsey Davis, the unassailable market leader in the "crime in Ancient Rome" genre. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When the painter Edgar Degas visits his French-Creole relatives in New Orleans in the 1870s, his cousin and sister-in-law Estelle encourages him to make portraits of their family members. One hundred years later, a young artist finds connections between her ancestors and Degas while renovating a house she has inherited. When she finds two identical portraits of Estelle, she discovers disturbing truths that will change her life. In this edition of Historical Fiction, Rob Weinberg talks to Linda Stewart Henley, author of Estelle, a novel about two women whose lives are intertwined, a century apart. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the year AD312 Rome is teetering on the brink of war and Constantine's army is on the move. On the Rhine frontier, a Germanic pagan joins the Roman army as a spy, while in Rome itself the pious daughter of a senator finds her self caught in anti-Christian politics. In this edition of Historical Fiction, Tristan Hughes talks to author Bryan Litfin about his novel The Conqueror, which tells the story of the time when the Roman empire was being conquered by the sign of the Cross. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1179, rebellion was brewing against King Henry II. The King's son Richard earns his name ‘Lionheart', crushing rebels in Aquitaine but treachery and betrayal lurk around every corner. In his new novel Lionheart, Ben Kane – best-selling author of fiction set in the Roman Empire – turns his attention to the Middle Ages. In this edition of Historical Fiction, Tristan Hughes talks to Ben Kane about how he set out on this new series of thrilling historical adventures. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the aftermath of World War Two, Clara – once a Nazi icon and heiress to the Falkenberg Iron Works – finds herself on the run, accused of complicity in her father's war crimes. When she returns to her hometown of Essen, Clara finds everything she once knew in ruins. To survive, Clara must hide who she is and face up to the truth of what she has done. In this edition of Historical Fiction, Malin Hay talks to author Anika Scott about her debut novel, an intense portrayal of what it means for ordinary people to be on the losing side of a war. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 209 BC, as the most powerful empires in the world brawled over the spoils of a fading Greece, Philopoemen had a vision to stop the anarchy and endless wars. To preserve the homeland he loved, he raised an army to defend his countrymen from the powers of Sparta, Macedon and Rome. In this edition of Historical Fiction, Tristan Hughes talks to author Christian Cameron about his powerful novel charting the rise of Philopoemen, The Last Greek. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1660, with Charles II restored as King after Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth, an orphaned girl named H arrives in London, for a happier life with her Aunt. But the Plague and the Great Fire take away the people and the city that she loves. Friendless, destitute and disgraced by her lecherous cousin, H is forced to survive on the streets, in a London under quarantine. In this edition of Historical Fiction, Rob Weinberg talks to author Sarah Burton about her first, enthralling novel The Strange Adventures of H. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In August 1939, Hetty Cartwright is tasked with taking a natural history museum's collection of stuffed animals out of London, to protect it from impending air raids. When some of the animals go missing, and worse, Hetty begins to suspect someone – or something – is stalking her through the darkened corridors of the country house. Alice Loxton talks to author Jane Healey about her new novel, a gripping and atmospheric tale of family madness, long-buried secrets and hidden desires. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On 7 November 1938, 17-year old Polish Jew Herschel Grynszpan shot a Nazi official dead at the German embassy in Paris. The repercussions triggered a calamity which has been called the opening act of the Holocaust. In the novel Champion, Grynszpan's life is intertwined with that of German boxer, Max Schmeling, a poster boy of the Nazis. Rob Weinberg talks to author Stephen Deutsch about Champion, a gripping tale of two lives, which reaches a climax during Kristallsnacht. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In an alternative version of reality, Britain's culture and traditions are rooted in the legacy of Norse pagans, the Royal Family are of Scandinavian descent, and Norwegians lead the crusades. In this edition of Historical Fiction, Alice Loxton speaks to Ian Stuart Sharpe at York's Jorvik Viking Festival about his novel Loki's Wager, the second in his Vikingverse series, where Norse saga meets science-fiction. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Adolf Hitler understood that persuasion was everything and was the prime mover in the propaganda regime of the Third Reich. For Hitler, everything was a propaganda medium – from typography to architecture, from film to the design of uniforms. Hitler's mastery of his own image has resonance in today's ‘post-truth' era of fake news. History Hit's Rob Weinberg talks to Nicholas O'Shaughnessy, Professor of communication at Queen Mary University of London about his books, Selling Hitler: Propaganda and the Nazi Brand and Marketing the Third Reich: Persuasion, Packaging and Propaganda. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 2019 four novels that had long been out of print were re-published in the Imperial War Museum Wartime Classics series. It aims to give forgotten novels set in the Second World War a new lease of life. Two more have now been published, novels that take the reader right into the heart of the conflict. Rob Weinberg has been finding out more from Alan Jeffreys, Senior Curator at the Imperial War Museum. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Once a senior British diplomat in Kiev, Simon Davey lost everything after a lurid scandal. Back in London, still struggling with the aftermath of his disgrace, he is travelling on the Tube when he sees the woman he holds responsible for his downfall. Set against the 2004 Orange Revolution in the Ukraine, Independence Square is an exceptional political thriller from A.D. Miller, the bestselling author of Booker-shortlisted Snowdrops. Rob Weinberg talks to A.D. Miller about his first-hand experience of reporting from the Ukraine for The Economist and the inspiration behind his novel. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In September 1940, as Britain faced an imminent Nazi invasion, handpicked groups of ordinary men – known as scallywags – were trained in top secret to act as saboteurs and assassins. In a new series of wartime thrillers, author V.M. Knox has created the character of vicar Clement Wisdom, called upon to lead a local team of scallywags, creating a tension between his faith and his patriotic duty. V.M. Knox talks to Rob Weinberg about her novels, in which historical fact meets crime fiction and the murky world of espionage. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Few historical figures have made as much of an impact on the arts and popular culture as Napoleon Bonaparte, portrayed at times as a heroic visionary, and at others as comically short and bossy. But how does the Napoleon of novels, plays and films, compare with the real man? And how did he control his image and use the theatre for personal propaganda. Rob Weinberg talks to Dr. Clare Siviter, author of Tragedy and Nation in the Age of Napoleon. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1940, the thoughts of a captured prisoner of war return to the isolated Scottish island of St Kilda – where he once took a summer job – and to the island woman he can't forget. Alice Loxton talks to novelist Elisabeth Gifford about her new book The Lost Lights of St Kilda, a moving portrait of two lovers, a desolate island and the extraordinary power of hope in the face of darkness. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sarah Churchill – Duchess of Marlborough – was the politically influential intimate and then, blackmailer of Queen Anne. Sarah Churchill was vividly brought to life in the film The Favourite, in which she was played by Rachel Weisz. But does the film do Sarah Churchill and Queen Anne justice? How close was it to the truth of this remarkable woman? In this edition of Historical Fiction, Alice Loxton talks to Ophelia Field whose 2002 biography of Sarah Churchill, also titled The Favourite, has recently been updated and re-published in paperback. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As the threat of war with Germany hung over Britain, Winston Churchill gathered the country's brightest minds at a remote gothic mansion in Suffolk to work together on an invention that could help the Allies to victory – the Chain Home radar system. The episode has inspired a new novel of courage, belonging and hope, Under a Wartime Sky. In this edition of Historical Fiction, Malin Hay talks to its author Liz Trenow. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The new film Radioactive charts the life and career of double Nobel Prize-winning physicist/chemist Marie Curie, woven together with the scientific developments and disasters that emerged from her discovery of radioactivity. In this edition of Historical Fiction, Radioactive's director Marjane Satrapi and Marie Curie's biographer Diana Preston discuss the film, and the life and achievements of this formidable scientist. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In July 1553, 16-year-old Lady Jane Grey became de facto Queen of England and Ireland for just nine days. In a new novel Before the Reign Falls, a group of friends renovating an old barn chance upon a stash of manuscripts that reveal clues to a mystery going back more than four centuries. In this edition of Historical Fiction, Alice Loxton talks to author David Black about his story of mystery, intrigue, politics and love. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1815, Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupted, impacting the weather throughout the world. The Year Without Summer imagines its impact on six separate lives, thousands of miles away. They include a fenland farm labourer, a soldier returning from Waterloo, author Mary Shelley and painter John Constable. Laura McMillan talks to author Guinevere Glasfurd about her ingenious and poetic novel, The Year Without Summer. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Inspired by an amazing true story from World War II, a young woman with a talent for forgery helps hundreds of Jewish children flee the Nazis in an unforgettable historical novel. History Hit's Rob Weinberg talks to author Kristin Harmel about her engaging and evocative new novel The Book of Lost Names, a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of bravery and love in the face of evil. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1166, the King of Leinster in Ireland is forced into exile and throws himself at the mercy of Henry II to help regain his kingdom. His biggest bargaining tool in getting England's support is his teenage daughter Aoife who has caught Henry's eye. Author Elizabeth Chadwick talks to History Hit's Alice Loxton about The Irish Princess, a sumptuous, journey of ambition and desire, love and loss, heartbreak and survival, which takes the reader from the royal halls of scheming kings, through Welsh border fortresses, to the wild green kingdoms of Ireland. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Artist Agnes Pelton lived through the early days of modernism in America. Fame seemed inevitable but the shy and retiring Pelton retreated to a contemplative life in the California desert where she produced scores of deeply spiritual, abstract paintings. History Hit's Rob Weinberg talks to author Mari Coates about her new novel The Pelton Papers – 20 years in the writing – which creates a vivid picture of an unusual woman living through a remarkable period in history See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Have you ever thought about writing an historical novel? Perhaps you fancy setting it in Ancient Rome? But how would you start researching, for example, what the different classes of Roman would be wearing, or eating, or talking about, at different times in Rome's history? A Writer's Guide to Ancient Rome is a new book that will help you get your facts straight. Tristan Hughes has been talking to author Carey Fleiner to find out more about the resources out there to help you get your Roman history right. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What would happen if the identity of the unknown warrior, entombed in Westminster Abbey, was ever uncovered? This new novel tells the story of Sarah Harding, who discovers letters from the trenches from a British Tommy, and the 1920 diaries of Captain Peter Harding, tasked with the secret mission to bring a body back for interment in Westminster Abbey. Rob Weinberg asks author Robert Newcome whether the secret identity of the unknown warrior should ever be revealed. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Deep gives an eerie, psychological twist to the sinking of the Titanic, and the fate of her sister ship the Britannic. The American novelist Alma Katsu spent 35 years as an intelligence analyst for the US government, but after six acclaimed novels, she's now known as the Queen of Disasters, taking real events and re-imagining them – with added supernatural elements. In this edition of Historical Fiction, Alma Katsu talks to Rob Weinberg about how she turns real life tragedies into supernatural fiction. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Cleopatra was one of the most famous women of all history. For centuries she has been presented by writers and artists as a seductive temptress, a femme fatale, the tragic lover of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. But who was the real Cleopatra? How true to life are the countless representations in plays, books and films? History Hit's Rob Weinberg has been along to Shakespeare's Globe to find out more about the last Pharoah of Egypt from Farah Karim-Cooper, Head of Higher Education and Research at Shakespeare's Globe, and Diana Preston, author of Cleopatra and Antony. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Set in 1940, The Secret Guests speculates what would have happened if the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were sent to a remote stately home in Ireland to get away from the Blitz on London. When a dead body turns up, it takes every effort to uncover the truth and stop the girls' identities coming to light. In this edition of Historical Fiction, Rob Weinberg talks to the Irish, Booker Prize-winning novelist John Banville about penning historical crime novels under the name of B.W. Black, and the endlessly challenging work of being a writer. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the winter of 1617, the sea around the remote Norwegian island of Vardø was thrown into a reckless storm. The men of the island, out fishing, perished in an instant and Vardø became a place of women. Eighteen months later, a sinister figure arrives. Summoned from Scotland to take control of a place at the edge of the civilized world, Absalom Vardø as a place flooded with a terrible evil that he must root out at all costs. History Hit's Alice Loxton speaks to Kiran Millwood Hargrave about her novel, The Mercies, a story about how suspicion can twist its way through a community. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.