Blog
The Girl from Bologna by Siobhan Daiko #Review #WW2 #CoffeePotBookClub
About the Book: Just last week, she read Faulkner’s words, “the past is never dead. It’s not even past,” and they resonated with her. It’s true; the past is NEVER past. She can no longer bury what happened; she can no longer forget... Bologna, Italy, 1944, and the...
Two Presidents of WW2 by Richard Marrison #HistoryTen #WW2 #Presidents
Today I welcome Richard Marrison to my blog to give us his take on the presidents of two of the most influential nations in WW2. Richard is from Budapest, Hungary and holds a degree in Cultural Anthropology from Eötvös Loránd University. Over to Richard: World War 2,...
Leningrad: The People’s War by Rachel R. Heil #CoffeePotBookClub #WW2
I'm delighted to spotlight this fascinating new WW2 novel by Rachel Heil - Leningrad: The People’s War (Leningrad, Book 1) About the Book: Leningrad, 1941. As Europe crumbles under the German war machine, the people of the Soviet Union watch. There are whispers of war...
Raleigh Tudor Adventurer by Tony Riches #CoffeePotBookClub #Elizabethan #Biographical
Tudor adventurer, courtier, explorer and poet, Sir Walter Raleigh has been called the last true Elizabethan. He didn’t dance or joust, didn’t come from a noble family, or marry into one. So how did an impoverished law student become a favourite of the queen, and...
De-clutter your description in historical fiction #HistoricalFiction #amwriting
I've just been reading a historical novel set back in Tudor times. And I was taken with the fact that often my imagination was held up by unnecessary words. These are words that don't earn their keep and merely make the prose more verbose. Often these are words about...
Extract from The Admiral’s Wife by MK Tod #CoffeePotBookClub #HistoricalFiction
The Admiral's Wife The lives of two women living in Hong Kong more than a century apart are unexpectedly linked by forbidden love and financial scandal. In 2016, Patricia Findlay leaves a high-powered career to move to Hong Kong, where she hopes to rekindle the bonds...
Review – Letting in the Light by Charlotte Betts #GreatWar #Cornwall @PiatkusBooks
LETTING IN THE LIGHT by Charlotte Betts 1914 Spindrift House, Cornwall Edith Fairchild’s good-for-nothing husband, Benedict, deserted her when their children were babies. Now the children are almost adult, Edith and Pascal, her faithful lover of two decades, are...
Extract and Review: The Missionary by Rowena Kinread #Roman #Pagan #Irish #CoffeePotBookClub
Read this atmospheric extract from The Missionary by Rowena Kinread They trudged on at a steady pace for several hours. Patricius’ initial optimism died rapidly. He had blisters on his toes and heels. The iron shackles had scoured the skin around his ankles, and they...
The Lake Pagoda by Ann Bennett – Read an Extract #WW2 #IndoChina #CoffeePotBookClub #Bookouture
Read this stunning extract from The Lake Pagoda by Ann Bennett Chapter 1 Paris, November 1946 Arielle pulled her shawl tightly around her shoulders and stepped out of the entrance to the apartment building and onto the broad pavement of Boulevard St Germaine. An icy...
The Stone Rose by Carol McGrath #medieval #historicalfiction #Review @AccentPress
This is the third in the splendid She-Wolves Trilogy and I've read them all. This one is about Queen Isabella, wife to Edward II. In my opinion this is the best and a fitting finale to an exploration of women and their role at court. From the opening where we are...
Historical Fiction Spotlight: Beheld by Christopher M Cevasco #AngloSaxons #HistoricalFiction #CoffeePotBookClub
NEW RELEASE! BEHELD ~ Godiva's Story by Christopher Cevasco A darkly twisted psychological thriller exploring the legend of Lady Godiva’s naked ride. Having survived a grave illness to become one of 11th-century England’s wealthiest landowners, Godgyfu of Coventry...
Sea of Shadows by Amy Maroney #CoffeePotBookClub #Rhodes #Greece #History
The new novel by Amy Maroney is a stunner. Here is the blurb: A gifted woman artist. A ruthless Scottish privateer. And an audacious plan that throws them together—with dangerous consequences. No one on the Greek island of Rhodes suspects Anica is responsible for her...
When the Mermaid Sings by Helen Hollick #Extract #CoffeePotBookClub #ShortStory
When the Mermaid Sings by Helen Hollick A prequel short read story to the Sea Witch Voyages of Captain Jesamiah Acorne When the only choice is to run, where do you run to? When the only sound is the song of the sea, do you listen? Or do you drown in the embrace of a...
The Carnival of Ash by Tom Beckerlegge #Historical #Fantasy #Renaissance
Today I'm welcoming Tom Beckerlegge to tell us more about his new literary novel, The Carnival of Ash. The Carnival of Ash is a historical fantasy set during the Italian Renaissance in an imaginary city called Cadenza, where poets and scholars as its most important...
Naughty Language in Tudor England by Carol McGrath #Tudor #Love #Language
I've been looking forward to my guest, Carol McGrath enlightening me about Tudor language, and particularly the naughty words! Carol McGrath is the author of the acclaimed She-Wolves Trilogy, which began with the hugely successful The Silken Rose and continues with...