by TCW | Dec 13, 2024 | Uncategorized
I’ve been using my blog recently to suggest that you might like to consider buying some of my books as Xmas gifts. This week, I thought I’d take the opportunity to feature some other historical novelists whose books you might enjoy.
Penny Hampson
Penny is one of the contributors to Tales of Empire which features four short stories by different writers, including me. At just £2.99 in paperback, it is a stocking filler at a stocking filler price.
Penny writes (amongst other things) Regency novels with a strong romantic element. She’s chosen to feature her latest, An Adventurer’s Contract.
A man on the hunt for a traitor. A woman in search of the truth.
Gabrielle Mercer is in trouble. Her cousin is missing, her father’s death looks like murder, and now there are rumours she is spying for the French. With no one to turn to, dare she accept help from a man she doesn’t like?
Jack Ashdown is on a mission to unmask a ruthless spy. Could it be the reclusive young Frenchwoman who has made no secret of her contempt for Englishmen like himself? Perhaps Gabrielle’s predicament will be the perfect opportunity to win her trust and do some spying of his own.
Getting close to one’s enemy is a dangerous option, but the stakes for Jack and Gabrielle are too high to ignore. Will their gamble to trust one another lead to disaster, or will they discover that neither of them is what they seem?
You can buy An Adventurer’s Contract at https://mybook.to/AnAdventurersContract
Deborah Swift
I’m in awe of Deborah Swift whose books range from the Civil War to World War II. She’s chosen to feature one of my favourites, The Poison Keeper.
Discover the story of Giulia Tofana, Renaissance poisoner. When Giulia’s mother is accused of attempting to poison the Duke de Verdi, Giulia must go on the run. She goes to her Aunt Isabetta, a courtesan, but the Duke has his spies, and will not let her go so easily.
BookViral Gold Medal Winner and Wishing Shelf Book of the Decade.
Universal link http://mybook.to/PoisonKeeper
Jennifer Ash
Jennifer Ash is one of the pseudonyms of Jenny Kane, who uses different names to differentiate her books in different genres. Her Jennifer Ash persona is my favourite. Behind the plot line of her Folville Chronicle series sits a huge amount of historical research she did over twenty-five years ago when she studied for a PhD in fourteenth century English crime.
The Folville Chronicles is a set of four novels (The Outlaw’s Ransom, The Winter Outlaw, Edward’s Outlaw and Outlaw Justice). This fourteenth-century, historical crime, series features Mathilda of Twyford, a 19 year old potter’s daughter, who suddenly finds herself a prisoner in the Folville brother’s manor in Ashby-Folville, Leicestershire.
This series of murder-mysteries are set in the winter months, with book two, The Winter Outlaw, featuring the Christmas period – but before Mathilda and the brothers can celebrate, they need to find out just who the winter outlaw is…
The Folville Chronicles (4 book series) Paperback edition
Lynn Bryant
Lynn writes the hugely popular Peninsular War Saga, following the adventures of a fictional Light Division brigade fighting under Wellington as the French are driven out of Spain. The brigade might be fictional but the details of the military history are painstakingly accurate and she provides a brilliantly clear picture of the campaign. Personally I prefer the naval adventures in her less well known Manxman books. I raved about the first in the series, An Unwilling Alliance, when it first came out (my review is HERE). It centres on the British attack on Copenhagen in 1807 and I can wholeheartedly recommend it.
You can buy the paperback HERE.
Antoine Vanner
Antoine Vanner’s novels, about naval warfare in the early days of steam, follow the adventures of the fictional Nicholas Dawlish as he rises up the ranks in battles in locations from Denmark, Turkey, Paraguay and the United States to Cuba, Korea, Britain, East Africa and the Sudan. This year is his first venture into non-fiction, with a book about naval exploits in the age of sail. Broadside and Boarding is a collection of some eighty stories, ideal for coffee breaks, or whenever you want a short but fascinating read. Buy it now in paperback and get it in time for Christmas. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Broadside-Boarding-Small-action-Fighting/dp/1943404550.
by TCW | Oct 4, 2024 | Writing life
Tales of Empire is free on Kindle until Saturday 5 October. If you’re reading this after that, you will have to fork out a whole 99p. Here’s why you should grab a copy.
Tales of Empire is a book of four short stories showcasing the work of four very different but uniformly excellent historical fiction writers. (Well, three excellent writers plus me.)
The authors were asked to submit a story set anywhere from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the end of the century. Although they all write conventional historical fiction with no revisionist agenda, all four stories ended up challenging some of the more traditional approaches to Empire.
These are the authors and what they write about.
Antoine Vanner is the author of the Dawlish Chronicles, a series of novels (and the odd short story) about the adventures of Nicholas Dawlish who joins the Royal Navy in the second-half of the 19th century as the Navy is moving from wooden sailing vessels to the modern world of ironclad steamers. The stories show Dawlish developing from a very young man to a seasoned mariner, his own progress mirrored in the development of the ships that he sails in. Vanner is fascinated by the technology of naval warfare and his stories are full of solidly researched detail, but they are adventure stories too with Dawlish caught up in espionage and fighting alongside regular army forces as well as engaging in the sea battles that you would expect of a naval series.
Antoine’s contribution to this collection is a story about the Royal Navy’s attempt to suppress the slave trade and how difficult this could turn out to be in practice.
Jacqueline Reiter is a professional historian whose biography of John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, The Late Lord, is the definitive work on his life. The Late Lord is a joy to read and Reiter’s affection for, and understanding of, her subject shines through. A fictional account of a real episode in Pitt’s life is her contribution to this collection.
Penny Hampson writes mysteries set during the Regency. A Gentleman’s Promise is the first book in her Regency Gentlemen Series. She also enjoys writing contemporary mysteries with a hint of the paranormal, because where do ghosts come from but the past?
Her story looks at how social and technological change during the Regency led us from the world of the 18th century to the country we live in today.
Tom Williams (that’s me) writes the James Burke stories about a James Bond figure during the wars with France. The Burke stories have an enthusiastic following but the books he is most proud off are the John Williamson Papers which deal with more serious issues at the height of the Age of Empire. The first, The White Rajah is about the real-life James Brooke who became the absolute ruler of a chunk of Borneo in the mid-19th century. The novel looks at how his idealistic approach to government collided with the realities of the day. The short story is about a fictional tiger hunt that shows the kind of person he was and the effect his style of rule had on those around him. It was written after The White Rajah but it could well have been a chapter in that book. I hope it will encourage you to read the novel.
So there you go: four writers presenting their talents in the hope that you might read more of their work. And free. I do hope you pick up a copy. Here’s a link: mybook.to/TalesofEmpire
by TCW | Sep 9, 2022 | James Brooke, Writing life
Tales of Empire is free on Kindle next week (12 – 16 September). Here’s why you should grab a copy.
Tales of Empire is a book of short stories. There are only four, which is why even when you have to pay for it, it costs only 99p. The four showcase the work of four very different but uniformly excellent historical fiction writers. (Well, three excellent writers plus me.)
The authors were asked to submit a story set anywhere from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the end of the century. Although they all write conventional historical fiction with no revisionist agenda, all four stories ended up challenging some of the more traditional approaches to Empire.
These are the authors and what they write about.
Antoine Vanner is the author of the Dawlish Chronicles, a series of novels (and the odd short story) about the adventures of Nicholas Dawlish who joins the Royal Navy in the second-half of the 19th century as the Navy is moving from wooden sailing vessels to the modern world of ironclad steamers. The stories show Dawlish developing from a very young man to a seasoned mariner, his own progress mirrored in the development of the ships that he sails in. Vanner is fascinated by the technology of naval warfare and his stories are full of solidly researched detail, but they are adventure stories too with Dawlish caught up in espionage and fighting alongside regular army forces as well as engaging in the sea battles that you would expect of a naval series.
Antoine’s contribution to this collection is a story about the Royal Navy’s attempt to suppress the slave trade and how difficult this could turn out to be in practice.
Jacqueline Reiter is a professional historian whose biography of John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, The Late Lord, is the definitive work on his life. The Late Lord is a joy to read and Reiter’s affection for, and understanding of, her subject shines through. A fictional account of a real episode in Pitt’s life is her contribution to this collection.
Penny Hampson writes mysteries set during the Regency. A Gentleman’s Promise is the first book in her Regency Gentlemen Series. She also enjoys writing contemporary mysteries with a hint of the paranormal, because where do ghosts come from but the past?
Her story looks at how social and technological change during the Regency led us from the world of the 18th century to the country we live in today.
Tom Williams (that’s me) writes the James Burke stories about a James Bond figure during the wars with France. The Burke stories have an enthusiastic following but the books he is most proud off are the John Williamson Papers which deal with more serious issues at the height of the Age of Empire. The first, The White Rajah is about the real-life James Brooke who became the absolute ruler of a chunk of Borneo in the mid-19th century. The novel looks at how his idealistic approach to government collided with the realities of the day. The short story is about a fictional tiger hunt that shows the kind of person he was and the effect his style of rule had on those around him. It was written after The White Rajah but it could well have been a chapter in that book. I hope it will encourage you to read the novel.
So there you go: four writers showcasing their talents in the hope that you might read more of their work. And free. I do hope you pick up a copy. Here’s a link: mybook.to/TalesofEmpire
