Articles
Original features from our print magazines.
Towards Beauty: Stephanie Storey’s Raphael, Painter in Rome
WRITTEN BY LUCINDA BYATT Raffaello Santi of Urbino died in Rome, 500 years ago, aged just 37. His artistic genius is being celebrated there in ...Read Article
New Voices: Molly Aitken, Finola Austin, Gretchen Berg & Katie Hutton
WRITTEN BY MYFANWY COOK The ‘undercroft’ of history and its events, people, & places are revealed through the writing of novelists Molly Aitken, ...Read Article
History & Film: Creature Feature: The Historical Fantasy of Ray Harryhausen
WRITTEN BY BETHANY LATHAM I share with Ray Harryhausen a fascination with creatures, especially dinosaurs, and a birthday – 29 June 2020 would have been his 100...Read Article
Capturing Senses: The Sound of the Middle Ages
WRITTEN BY TRACEY WARR Historical novelists draw on a wide range of research to help them touch the past and create credible fictional ...Read Article
Negotiating History & Imagination: Sue Monk Kidd’s The Book of Longings
WRITTEN BY JOHN KACHUBA Sue Monk Kidd is the author of the best-selling The Secret Life of Bees (2001) and several other notable works. ...Read Article
What’s in a Name?: Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet Will Make You Think Again about Hamlet
WRITTEN BY LUCINDA BYATT Maggie O’Farrell’s latest novel was launched on Twitter during the lockdown. However, when the Hay Festival (normally ...Read Article
Truth Cast into Symbol and Metaphor: Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light
WRITTEN BY RICHARD LEE There are three main criticisms of Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell novels. The first, that her style is confusing; ...Read Article
Behind the Headliners: Mrs. Lincoln’s Sisters by Jennifer Chiaverini
For author Jennifer Chiaverini, one of the great joys of writing historical fiction is the opportunity to bring little-known or forgotten historical figures ...Read Article
Lucia Runs through Finnegans Wake Like an Artery: The Joyce Girl by Annabel Abbs
Since the publication of Phyllis Rose’s beloved Parallel Lives in 1984, which revealed in startling clarity what it meant to be the wife ...Read Article
Three Women and a Storm: The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton
In her new historical novel The Last Train to Key West (Berkley, June 2020), Chanel Cleeton describes the days before the Great Labor Day ...Read Article