Stand-out historical novels to read now: The Pretender By Jo Harkin, The Golden Hour By Kate Lord Brown, The Midnight Carousel By Fiza Saeed McLynn
The Pretender By Jo Harkin (Bloomsbury £18.99, 464pp)
It's 1480, and England is undergoing a particularly thorny patch as the warring factions of Lancaster and York look to the throne, fight bloody battles, imprison princes in the tower and indulge in mayhem and machinations in the quest for power.
Meanwhile in a quiet little hamlet, naive, endearing ten-year-old farmer's son John Collan is about to have his life upended.
He's taken from his home by canny political operators and transformed into Lambert Simnel, a pseudonym for his 'real' identity – Edward Plantagenet, who'll become king of England once Henry VII is disposed of.
Ambitious, mischievous and well written, Jo Harkin's stand-out second novel's boldly drawn characters and their ruthless aspirations make for an entertaining read.
The Golden Hour By Kate Lord Brown (Simon and Schuster £18.99, 448pp)
Heady and romantic, Kate Lord Brown's escapist tale heads to 1939 Cairo in the company of gilded, headstrong Juno Munro and handsome, intuitive Max Aeberhardt as they search for the tomb of the legendary queen Nefertiti on an archaeological dig.
Heat, dust and forbidden passion play their part in this swoony story, but there's also a stalwart friendship alongside the sexual tension – one based on long-held secrets, as Lucie Fitzgerald discovers when she visits her dying mother Polly in 1970s Beirut.
Best friends with Juno since childhood, Polly slowly unspools the tragic story of Juno, her whirlwind marriage to troubled Alec and her overwhelming obsession with Max who, like an old-style Hollywood hero, declares of their love: 'We redraw the maps. We realign the stars' with the Valley of the Kings as a backdrop.
The Midnight Carousel By Fiza Saeed McLynn (Michael Joseph £16.99, 368pp)
There's a dark, magical glimmer to this enthralling debut from Fiza Saeed McLynn, which opens in 1900 in a foundry workshop in Paris as grieving carousel maker Gilbert Cloutier hurries to finish his beautiful, uncanny masterpiece in time for the city's Great Exhibition.
Ensconced in the wilds of Essex, living in rural poverty, outsider Maisie Marlowe is fascinated by a flyer for the mysterious carousel, little realising that it'll play a central role in her intrepid story.
In a series of quietly discombobulating events, she ends up in prohibition-era Chicago, helping to run an amusement park, where Cloutier's strange merry-go-round seems linked to the unsolved disappearances of people in both France and America.
It adds an eerie edge to an already beguiling tale of a brave woman claiming her hard-won happiness against the odds.
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Telegraph
a day ago
- Telegraph
The new George RR Martin? How Joe Abercrombie became the dark lord of fantasy
James Cameron fans are blue in the face begging the director of Terminator and Aliens to do something other than churn out new Avatar films – as he has been doing remorselessly since 2008. It appears they may at last have their wish. While he is to revisit Avatar's world of elongated Smurf-like aliens with – groan – a further three sequels, Cameron has also announced he is scripting an adaptation of The Devils by Lancaster fantasy writer Joe Abercrombie. To quote another fantasy author, the road goes ever on and on – but in the case of Cameron, it has finally veered in a more interesting direction. Cameron's swerve into epic fantasy is a thrilling development and, not only because it potentially means less Avatar in our lives. Described only half-jokingly by its author as 'medieval Suicide Squad ', Abercrombie's The Devils is set in a semi-fantastical medieval Europe in which a 10-year-old girl is Pope, and an Elven army is about to invade. Our hero, Brother Diaz, is a man of the cloth who must work with a group of monsters – among them a vampire, a werewolf and a necromancer – to save humanity. As Abercrombie says, Suicide Squad is a reference, but the book could also be thought of as Game of Thrones meets The A-Team or The Dirty Dozen as scripted by a blood-thirsty JRR Tolkien. A Devils movie scripted by an figure of the calibre of James Cameron would be a crowning achievement for Abercrombie, who, since publishing his first novel in 2006, has quietly become a leading voice in British speculative writing. Not that he needs Hollywood's blessing: The Devils topped this year's bestseller list and was also a success in the United States, where it reached number five in the New York Times hard-cover bestseller charts – adding to the estimated five million books he has already shifted. Want to hear more about @LordGrimdark 's upcoming fantasy sensation #TheDevils? Who better to tell you than the man himself? Shop now: — Gollancz (@gollancz) March 31, 2025 Those are blockbusting figures for an author operating in the relatively stodgy field of epic fantasy – which has lately been eclipsed by more voguish genres such as ' Romantasy ' (think Mother of Dragons meet Mills & Boon) and authors such as Sarah J Maas (who has sold 40 million books and counting). 'His writing has a charisma to it. There's a cynical wit and a bit of tongue-in-cheek self-awareness. So many of his characters have colourful and iconic internal monologues that lend some levity to whatever horrible atrocity is currently taking place,' says Hiu Gregg, the fantasy blogger behind the website The Fantasy Inn, who says that a Devils movie would need to be in the roguish, semi-jokey vein of films such as James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy. 'That's where I think the challenge will be in adapting something like The Devils. You need the casting to be spot-on. You need to take the text only as seriously as it takes itself. You can't play it 100 per cent straight, or it will flop. The three-word pitch for this book is 'Papal Suicide Squad', but if James Cameron is going make this movie, he needs to understand that we're talking the James Gunn version.' Abercrombie is often compared to George RR Martin and, speaking to the Telegraph in 2022, revealed that reading Martin's A Game Of Thrones in his early 20s had a huge impact. Both he and Martin had grown up on Tolkien's vision of fantastical worlds defined by a battle between good and evil. Martin turned the concept on its head by suggesting true evil was not a dark lord in a shadowy tower – but a rival noble prepared to shiv you in the back if it meant advancing their own position. 'I found expressed in that book, what I felt had been missing in epic fantasy,' said Abercrombie. 'It had that scale and depth [familiar from Tolkien], but it also had the sort of arresting, surprising characters. It had shocks, the surprises: the good guys don't always win. And suddenly everything felt dangerous and unpredictable. It was the kind of things that I'd seen in other genres. But I've never seen it applied to classic epic fantasy in that way. And it really made me think, 'Wow, you can do something shocking and exciting and character-focused within epic fantasy'.' He put those ideas into practice with his first novel, The Blade Itself. Written while he was working as a freelance film editor, the book was rejected by multiple publishers and agents. But then a friend happened to be on a course with a woman who worked for fantasy publisher Gollancz: she agreed to throw an eye over the novel, and a few weeks later, Abercrombie had his first book deal. The Blade Itself didn't set the world alight in 2006, but the story of a down-on-his-luck barbarian named Logen Ninefingers and a former torturer named Inquisitor Glokta earned a following over the following years. It had arrived at the perfect time: with the success of George RR Martin and other authors such as Robin Hobb, gritty, violent storytelling had become the hot new trend in fantasy – a milieu that came to be known as 'grimdark'. 'Grimdark' was initially used as an insult – but Abercrombie jokingly embraced the term by taking the Twitter handle 'Lord Grimdark'. 'At that time, when people use the word grimdark, they were taking the piss,' he would explain. 'They were saying something was bad. They were using it in as a pejorative: risible, ridiculous, over the top, too much violence, too much cynicism, too much nihilism. I was taking the piss out of myself.' Beyond the humour, he will have known that his writing had too much flair and inventiveness to be corralled into any one genre. 'A large part of Abercrombie's success is that his books are not just grimdark. He was of course a huge part of the mid-noughties to mid-tens peak of grimdark fantasy popularity, but he broke a lot of rules within that sub-genre,' says the Fantasy Inn's Hiu Gregg. 'He dared to be funny. He could make a character death or a betrayal feel like a punchline. Rather than extinguishing hope completely, he understood how to use it for dramatic or comedic contrast. And for me, that gives his books a longevity beyond being just another set of grimdark stories.' Did my biggest US event yet with @BrandSanderson in Salt Lake City last night. 450 people including a gate crashing @Pierce_Brown . On to Seattle with @robinhobb tonight… — Joe Abercrombie (@LordGrimdark) May 21, 2025 Abercrombie's work also wrestles with big ideas – but in a way that feels organic rather than preachy. For instance, his Age of Madness trilogy – which began with A Little Hatred in 2019 – is set in a fantasy world in the midst of an Industrial Revolution. It has wizards and warriors, but also explores the tension between capitalism and workers, between those who want to defend the status quo and those eager to burn it to the ground. It is Middle-earth meets Les Misérables. 'I try to stay in characters' heads. It's the story of those people. And so you don't want to make it 'message-y', if you can avoid it,' he said in 2022. 'You don't want it to be too on the nose. At the same time, you're living in the modern era, and you're writing for an audience of people who are living in the modern age. So everyone brings their current day to the reading of it and you can't avoid what's going on in the world around you while you're writing it. And nor would you want to. Part of the fun of fantasy, as opposed to historical fiction, is that it is really about now. People in fantasy don't tend to be people with a medieval mindset. Generally, they're quite modern in their thinking and their talk and so on – that allows you to hold up a glass darkly if you like, and investigate some things that might feel a little bit much in a modern setting.' The big difference between Abercrombie and George RR Martin is obviously that Abercrombie has finished what he started. In the 14 years since Martin's most recent Game of Thrones novel, A Dance with Dragons, the Englishman has published six novels and two short-story collections. Martin says it will take another two books to conclude his A Song of Ice and Fire saga, but at age 76, there are question marks about those volumes ever seeing the light of day. There is precedent in fantasy for authors leaving audiences hanging on. When Martin's friend Robert Jordan died with his Wheel of Time series unfinished, author Brandon Sanderson completed the tale working from Jordan's notes. It has been suggested Abercrombie would be the perfect writer to do likewise with A Song of Ice and Fire. But while he admires what Sanderson did with Wheel of Time, he has always poured cold water on the idea that he might carry on Martin's work for him. 'It's flattering in the sense that it's a series I really love,' he said in 2022. 'It's [also] weird and macabre. It's so personal, writing a book. The thing that makes a book great is that authorial voice that cannot be imitated, that no one else has. The task of trying to imitate that would be both extremely difficult. Probably quite frustrating. And maybe in the end a bit disappointing because you'd never quite do it. And you'd be suppressing your own voice a little bit in order to get there.' So no Game of Thrones sequels from Abercrombie. Instead, he is working on the next book in the Devils series. Which can only be good news for fans of beautiful, dark, twisted fantasy. Five essential Joe Abercrombie novels 1. The Heroes, 2011 A gritty tale of courage, betrayal and redemption taking place against the background of a three-day battle between the 'civilized' Union from the South and the wild and lawless warriors of the North and centred on a group of ancient standing stones referred to as 'The Heroes'. Set in the same universe as the author's First Law trilogy, Abercrombie's ability to conjure action and violence without tipping into sadism is on full display while characters such as noble barbarian warrior Curnden Craw are fully realized and brimming with human flaws. 2. The Devils, 2025 It's Medieval Europe as we've never seen it before. The Church consists of female clergy, headed by a 10 year old Pope, while in the lands beyond, hordes of cruel elves are massing and planning an invasion. The only way to save civilization is for a rag bag crew of freaks and outlaws – led by mild-mannered Brother Diaz – to travel to the equivalent of ancient Troy to return a princess to her throne. The Middle Ages filtered through Abercrombie's Quentin Tarantino-does-fantasy sensibility, The Devils is a pure thrill ride. No wonder James Cameron is so keen on it. 3. The Blade Itself, 2006 Abercrombie's debut combined Games of Thrones grimdark sensibility with a very British sense of humour that owed a little to Terry Pratchett and a lot to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was fantasy – with all the po-facedness stripped away. 4. A Little Hatred, 2019 Fantasy novels can often feel trapped in an eternal stasis: why after thousands of years has nobody in Middle-earth or Westeros invented the flintlock pistol, for instance? Abercrombie however pushes onwards with A Little Hatred, a thrilling novel of intrigue and backstabbing set in a fantasy universe experiencing the first aftershocks of an Industrial Revolution. 5. Red Country, 2012 Doing for fantasy what Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven did for the Western, Red Country is the third standalone novel set in the author's First Law world (as debuted in The Blade Itself). It introduces Shy South, a former brigand who sets out to find her missing brother and sister.
BBC News
a day ago
- BBC News
The York woman who has won a place at circus school
A teenager with a talent for aerial acrobatics has secured a place at "circus school" to study clowning and Thomas, 18, from Rufforth near York, will enrol on a showmanship course at the National Centre for Circus Arts in only started taking aerial classes at Studio Cloud Nine in York four years ago, but immediately fell in love with the adrenaline-fuelled activity."When I finished school and everyone was saying, 'what do you want to do now' and mentioning different things, I just wanted to do circus," she said. Miss Thomas takes trapeze, hoop and silk classes, all of which involve being suspended from the ceiling using various apparatus, performing movements and holding of the most well-known is the drop, when an aerialist will perform a controlled fall into a different pose. This can include free falls, rolls, or other rotations but the emphasis is on the moment of the descent, which is a test of strength and control."On your first time doing a drop you think 'oh gosh I can't do this', it's that rollercoaster feeling," Ms Thomas explained."But after a few times, it's just fun."After encouragement from her aerial teacher Zoe Partington, Miss Thomas decided to apply to study at the centre. She described her family as supportive, if a bit surprised, that she wanted to pursue a career in performing arts. "I think at first it was a bit of a shock, but I've always been the crazy child," she said."After a while I just decided 'I want to do this' and I told my teacher and she'd mentioned this university and I thought it was so amazing, I just had to apply."Places on the three-year course are highly sought after - the centre only accepts 30 students per year - and she had to go through a rigorous application included submitting videos showcasing her capabilities, before being invited to an audition day in London with other hopefuls. Ms Thomas will be starting in September, and will graduate with a BA Hons in Circus Arts. The curriculum includes theory, juggling, clowning and even mastering the art of the teeter board, an apparatus that looks like a graduated, Miss Thomas hopes to follow in the footsteps of previous alumni, and join the Cirque du Soleil or the entertainment team on a cruise on behalf of herself and Studio Cloud Nine co-founder Dmytro Kulyk, Ms Partington said: "We couldn't be prouder of Beccy and what she has achieved and we were both thrilled to find out she had received a place."Her journey is a testimony to her dedication and hard work, an inspiring reminder that impossible is nothing."Reflecting on the "lightbulb moment" that convinced her to turn her love for circus arts into a future career, Ms Thomas added: "I was just so into it. I was just completely obsessed and still am." Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Daily Mail
Princes Eugenie reveals the most important lesson she learned from her mother Sarah Ferguson
Princess Eugenie has revealed the most important life given to her by her mother, Sarah Ferguson. During a recent interview for Cressida Bonas's podcast, Lessons From Our Mothers, the youngest of Prince Andrew's brood said learning to harness one's inner strength was one of the most important lessons she had gleaned from her mother. The daughters of the Duchess of York, Princessess Eugenie, 35, and Beatrice, 36, are known to share a close bond with Sarah and even refer to themselves as the 'tripod '. Both appeared on the podcast last month, joined by hosts Cressida and Isabella Branson, to reflect on what thy had learned from Sarah over the years. Revealing the most important takeaway from her upbringing, Eugenie said: 'I think for me, it's the fire inside, you know, the strength inside of you. And how to bring that out, and to pull it in when you most need it'. The sisters emphasised the importance of 'collaborating' with one another to source solutions, something else they had picked up from Sarah, affectionately known as Fergie. 'The forced collaboration, you're slightly annoyed about because she's pushing on a bit of a nerve, but the forced collaboration and that joy of the making up at the end was a big part of what she instilled in us,' Beatrice said. 'This sense that it's OK to feel, it's OK to push on those emotions, but you have to figure out what the resolution looks like as well. So she was very resolution-driven,' the royal added. 'The more I get to know her in my life, the more incredible this woman is becoming. As a mum, she is becoming more effervescent in her ability to bring joy,' she gushed, adding that Sarah was now 'reaching her greatness' aged 64. Achievements that Beatrice was particularly proud of given 'what's she been through in the last year', predominately related to her various 'health issues'. The Duchess, who shares Beatrice and Eugenie with ex-husband Prince Andrew, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023, just months before receiving another diagnosis for malignant melanoma. Though she remains positive, having recently described feeling 'better than ever', the mother-of-two has been told by doctors to avoid the phrase 'cancer free'. Reflecting on Sarah's strength and compassion for other's battling cancer, Beatrice said: 'She loves nothing more than meeting people and those that are also suffering from cancer because there's so much empathy there.' She added that she was grateful to still have her mother 'around' for when she herself 'needs mothering'. Reflecting on their own bond, Beatrice and Eugenie credited their close relationship to their mother's lose ties to her sister, Jane. It comes just days after Princess Eugenie shared a rare glimpse into her own life as a mother, sharing a sweet tribute to her 'golden boy', Ernest, as she celebrated his second birthday with husband, Jack Brooksbank. On Friday, she shared a series of photographs of her sons Ernest, two, and August, four, to mark her youngest's birthday on Friday. In one photograph, Ernest is thrown into the air by his father while on a snowy ski trip. In another, he plays in the mud with his four-year-old brother. Ernie is also seen being held by his mother while on a ski trip, the youngster bundled up in a bright teal snowsuit and holding firmly to a lion-shaped comforter. And in another, he adorably wears a pair of sunglasses upside-down. The mother-of-two said: 'Happy Birthday my darling Ernie. 2 today! And what an incredible two years it's been. 'Always smiling, always laughing, always giving hugs and hello's and making everyone happy. 'My golden boy, we love you!' In other pictures from the rare snapshot, Ernie and August are seen holding hands as they walk down a street in London, with another picturing them together on an airplane. Eugenie recently opened up about the 'sense of shame' she felt when she first saw her scoliosis scar. In a rare, wide-ranging interview, the royal mother-of-two, 34, also discussed how her Sarah Ferguson raised her to be proud of her scar after she went underwent surgery at the age of 12. In 2002, Queen Elizabeth II's granddaughter had rods inserted into her spine after she was diagnosed with scoliosis (curvature of the spine), and told that she would need corrective surgery. After the eight-hour operation, Prince Andrew's daughter spent three days in intensive care, a week on a spinal ward and six days in a wheelchair before she was able to walk again. Speaking to The Telegraph, Eugenie revealed she had a 'sense of shame' when she couldn't wash or dress herself and was shown her scar, which runs down her neck and spine. However, she claimed her mother, the Duchess of York, removed all the stigma about the scar and helped her see it in a positive light. Eugenie said: 'She was amazing. She'd ask me if she could show it to people, then she'd turn me around and say, "my daughter is superhuman, you've got to check out her scar". 'All of sudden it was a badge of honour – a cool thing I had. It trained my brain that it's ok, scars are cool.'
