Intelligencers, Spies, and Secret Agents: The King’s Intelligencer

Spies and secret agents are today the stuff of film, television and novels. We are more than intrigued by the countless documentaries and non-fiction accounts of espionage, deception secret operations, especially featuring gadgets, communications and tradecraft. Well, today Elizabeth St.John visits my blog to tells us that nothing really isn’t new under the […]

Amy Maroney in 'Exile'

I’m delighted to welcome Amy Maroney back to the blog to talk about being in ‘Exile’. Amy studied English Literature at Boston University and worked for many years as a writer and editor of nonfiction. She lives in Oregon, U.S.A. with her family. When she’s not diving down research rabbit holes, she enjoys hiking, dancing, […]

Anna Belfrage in 'Exile'

Anna Belfrage

I’m delighted to welcome Anna Belfrage back to the blog, this time to talk about her short story, The Unwanted Prince. Had Anna been allowed to choose, she’d have become a time-traveller. As this was impossible, she became a financial professional with three absorbing interests: history, romance and writing. Anna always writes about […]

Plagues ancient and modern

Statue of recumbant Roman woman

Recently, I caught Covid-19. Not a unique story these days, but I’d dodged it until last month. Vaccinated five times and an avid mask wearer, I’d been hyper-careful. I was nervous last year when I started to go to author events, either to speak or take part. I was a rare person at the London […]

Unpicking a legend by a legendary writer

Writing friend Helen Hollick is no stranger to this blog, nor to publishing. This week, she’s celebrating not only her 70th birthday, but also her 30th year of publishing books. (And I thought I was doing well with my 10th year!)

First accepted for traditional publication in 1993, Helen became a USA Today […]