As 2012 draws to a close and the New Year beckons, I thought it was time that I unveiled some more of my top reads from the the past twelve months. So, following on from Barry Unsworth’s The Ruby in Her Navel and Jared Diamond’s Collapse in
It’s that time of year again! Following on from 2011’s top historical reads, I’ve selected a few of the books that I’ve most enjoyed in 2012: new releases as well as old favourites, some of them historical and some of them not. Here are a couple to get
First copies of The Splintered Kingdom arrived recently and look amazing, as I hope you will agree. Although of course the words contained within its cover and even the jacket design are now very familiar to me, seeing the finished book in the flesh, so to speak, is still a tremendous thrill. I’m looking forward
As many of you will have heard, the Festival of History at Kelmarsh Hall on 14-15 July had to be cancelled after heavy overnight rain led to the local river bursting its banks and flooding the site. If you want to get some idea of just
During the course of 2006-7, when I was first laying pen to paper on the early drafts of the manuscript that would become Sworn Sword, I was fortunate enough to read a number of historical novels that really inspired me. In recent weeks I’ve been revisiting a few of those novels, to see if they
