Season’s Greetings!
Next Friday (when my blog post would usually come out) will be Christmas Eve. What do you mean, you knew that already? It snuck up on me so fast I can hardly believe it. That's the trouble with retailers starting the run-up to Christmas in October – I just blank it...
Books for Christmas
Last week I posted here to say that books make excellent Christmas presents. I'm not about to start recommending a list of books for Christmas, but by pure coincidence I have a couple of reviews that I need to post, so I'm going to put these up here and if the books...
It’s that time of year again …
We somehow made it into December without my mentioning the dreadful C-word. Do I get a prize? Anyway, we can't put it off any longer so here is my annual reminder that books make ideal Christmas presents. Amazon has now introduced the option to send Kindle books as a...
Do historical novels exist?
Another historical novelist was asking recently what historical novelists could do to market their genre. I'm not sure it's entirely the right question. Is there really a genre of historical novels? I keep reading that historical novels are madly popular right now....
Back Home
Back Home is available on Kindle from tomorrow, 27 November. It Is the last of the three books in which John Williamson tells of his adventures since he left his home in Devon. Now, after his time in Borneo and the horrors of the Indian Mutiny, he has returned to...
The John Williamson books are about colonialism. That can be a tricky subject these days.
I've always been quite surprised that at a time of "political correctness" I have had very little criticism of my John Williamson books set in the Age of Empire. Recently there was a ripple on Twitter when someone complained about my use of the term “Indian Mutiny (as...
The John Williamson Papers – completing the trilogy
It's time! I'm republishing Back Home on 27 November. What's it all about? Back Home completes the trilogy of books narrated by John Williamson. In The White Rajah he leaves his home in Devon and takes up life as a sailor, eventually ending up in Borneo with the...
Book review: Britannia’s Innocent
Palmerston is supposed to have said of the Schleswig-Holstein question that only three people understood it and by then one was dead, one had gone mad and he was the third and had “forgotten all about it”. I vaguely remember touching on it in school history lessons...
Meeting other writers
I haven’t done a post about the writing life for a while and I know some people like that sort of thing. (Hey, I don’t judge: I just go with things that people respond to.) So, for any would-be writers wondering how to meet other writers (or even if they want to...
And now for something (almost) completely different.
The trouble with being known for one series of books is that it can be tricky to take people with you when you publish something slightly different. In my case, I have a following – unspectacular but much appreciated – for my James Burke books, but that following is...