historical | Alison Morton Author

Getting the 'feel' of your book's setting

Jennifer in Stirling Castle

This week’s guest is Jennifer C. Wilson, a marine biologist by training, who has developed an equal passion for history and historical fiction whilst stalking Mary, Queen of Scots on childhood holidays. (She has since moved on to Richard III.) Enrolling on an adult education workshop on her return […]

Historical mystery novelist Susan Grossey says 'knickers'

Today’s guest is Susan Grossey, the inventor of Constable Sam Plank, one of my favourite law enforcers. “I have been in love with words ever since I realised, at age three, that those squiggles on the page actually meant something,” she says. Susan edited the school newspaper and managed to do lots more reading and […]

Antoine Vanner's historical mission: “The past is a foreign country…”

I’m delighted to welcome Antoine Vanner, author of the Dawlish Chronicles, for a return visit to the blog. Set in the late Victorian period, the series of naval adventures are linked closely to real historical events, and sometimes personalities, of the period and in most feature a high degree of moral ambiguity and ethical […]

Meet Paul Bennett, writer of American historical fiction

Darryl and Paul Bennett

Today, my guest is the delightful Paul Bennett who lives in the New England town of Salem, Massachusetts with his wife Daryl and writes historical fiction, the first of which The Clash of Empires is set during the French and Indian Wars.

Discovering his future did not include the […]

Being realistic in historical fiction

My guest today is Antoine Vanner is author of the Dawlish Chronicles, naval fiction set in the 1870s and 1880s. His latest novel, Britannia’s Gamble, was published last month (October 2017). Royal Navy officer Nicholas Dawlish is a fascinating character, very much in the mould of Hornblower, something that attracted me to Antoine’s novels. The […]