Widowland and Queen High are a publishing phenomenon and among the most critically-acclaimed novels of recent years. Widowland, set in 1953, has been described as the most important feminist novel for decades and tells of an alternate history where instead of Nazi defeat, there has been a Grand Alliance between Great Britain and Germany. The […]
Read MoreGoldster
Inside Story with Humphrey: Monique Roffey
Monique Roffey is a writer, lecturer, professor of contemporary fiction and founding member of Writers Rebel which combats climate change. Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Monique has had life-long links to the Caribbean region and has set four of her six novels there. Her latest The Mermaid of Black Conch won the 2020 Costa Book of […]
Read MoreInside Story with Humphrey: John Hands
John Hands is a scientist, novelist, creative writing tutor and the author of substantive and much-lauded non-fiction works Cosmosapiens: Human Evolution from the Origin of the Universe and The Future of Humankind: Why We Should be Optimistic. After teaching physics for Britain’s Open University devoted more than ten years to evaluating scientific theories about how we evolved from the […]
Read MoreInside Story with Humphrey: Danièle Cybulskie
Danièle Cybulskie has been making the Middle Ages fun, entertaining, and accessible for over a decade. She is the author of four books and hundreds of articles on medieval history. The creator and host of The Medieval Podcast, Danièle brings expertise and a sense of humour to the airwaves to dispel common myths about the […]
Read MorePurpose, Passion, Grit with Humphrey: Lucinda Hawksley – Live from Riverstone
As an art historian, Lucinda was interested in Princess Louise as a sculptor and part of the Aesthetic art world of late 19th-century London, but it soon became apparent that this was going to be a very different research journey from that of her two previous biographies (of the artists Lizzie Siddal and Kate Perugini). […]
Read MoreInside Story with Humphrey: Peter Tonkin
A new series by acclaimed historical novelist, Peter Tonkin, brings us into the heart of Elizabethan intrigue, power struggles and local colour. Beginning in 1599, The Shadow of the Axe richly imagines Queen Elizabeth’s court in its twilight years with plots to unseat the monarchy. In 1603, there follows The Shadow of the Tower where, even on her death […]
Read MoreInside Story with Humphrey: Jack Barsky
Jack Barsky grew up in the old East Germany and became a Soviet spy living undercover in the United States. No, this is not the plot of a fictional thriller movie. Jack Barsky’s book Deep Undercover: My Secret Life and Tangled Allegiances as a KGB Spy in America gives us a picture of his austere, but […]
Read MoreInside Story with Humphrey: John and Mary James
For almost a quarter of a century, The Aldeburgh Book Shop has been owned by husband-and-wife team, John and Mary James who have expanded it and created the now famous Aldeburgh Literary Festival (March 3rd -5th 2023) which has hosted, among many others, Harold Pinter and A.S. Byatt, together with two Nobel Prize Winners. In […]
Read More