Book launch Spotlight: The Jewel Keepers, by Sara Sheridan

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Men would kill for this treasure.The McKenzie women will guard it 

with their lives.

London, 1837:  When 25-year-old Araminta McKenzie-Moore is summoned from Richmond to her great aunt's deathbed in Edinburgh, it's the first time she's met her extended family. The McKenzie women, however, have been keeping a close eye on her. For they have a long, secret and dangerous history as Jewel Keepers to the Scottish Crown and they need Araminta to play her part to solve a puzzle which stretches back generations.

But the McKenzies are not alone in this high-stakes treasure hunt though history. They're being pursued. The last of her line, if Araminta succeeds, she will uncover something more valuable than mere jewels - a secret that will change the lives of all women living on this, the cusp of the Queen Victoria's rule.

Featuring real historical events and places amid its fiction, The Jewel Keepers is an immersive, evocative story tinged with romance and brimming with intrigue.

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About the Author

Sara Sheridan works in a wide range of media and genres but mostly historical and especially the stories of women. She loves exploring where our culture comes from. In 2018 she remapped Scotland according to women's history. Tipped in Company and GQ magazines, she was nominated for a Young Achiever Award. She has received a Scottish Library Award and has been shortlisted for the Saltire Book Prize and the Wilbur Smith Prize. Her work was included in the David Hume Institute's Summer Reading list 2019. She has sat on the committee for the Society of Authors in Scotland (where she lives) and on the board of '26' the campaign for the importance of words. She took part in 3 '26 Treasures' exhibitions at the V&A, London, The National Museum of Scotland and the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green. She occasionally blogs for the Guardian about her writing life, the Huffington Post about her activism as a writer and a feminist and puts her hand up to being a 'twitter evangelist'. From time to time she appears on radio, and has reported for BBC Radio 4's From Our Own Correspondent from both Tallin and Sharjah. Sara is a member of the Society of Authors and the Historical Writers Association. Find out more at Sara's website https://www.sarasheridan.com/

Book Launch Guest Post by Alison Morton, Author of HEROICA: Three women, three centuries, three reckonings (Roma Nova Thriller Series Book 12)

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Even the strongest state is vulnerable to its past: Three stories of the women of the Mitela family, descendants of the founders of Roma Nova, bound by blood and courage.

“What inspires you?” is a question I’m frequently asked in many guest posts, in podcast interviews, or at conferences. Perhaps the people asking are writers themselves, or wish to make a connection on an artistic and creative level or want to know the answer to life, the universe and everything. That last one’s easy: 42. (Apologies to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.) 

Let’s be serious. Well, for a moment.  I dread this question, not because I don’t want to reveal the secret identity of my silken-gowned muse, nor divulge her equally secret pearls of wisdom. Am I frightened she might run away, never to be seen again? No, I don’t want to let readers down with my answer. 

I confess – I don’t know. 

An inspiring thought or emotion can be anything and come from anywhere. For me, it’s like being ambushed. I often don’t have a clue until it drops into my head. When it does, it’s something shallow and mundane like being held on the phone in a queue, spotting a bargain or scoffing at a mistranslation at a tourist site. 

The long burn 

The Roma Nova books originated from a decades’ long fascination with Ancient Rome and women’s roles in the modern world but given it took more than thirty years to get the first words onto the computer screen (bypassing the typewriter), it can hardly be called a *moment* of inspiration. It was a slow-growing, but persistent, climbing plant. 

Fortuna, Capitoline Museum, Rome (Author photo)

Like all authors, whether they admit it or not, I drew on events, people and experiences from my life up to that moment to write that first book, INCEPTIO. We are all shaped by these experiences and by our background and values. 

Alison in the military 

There will always be a little bit of the author in her book however much any author claims to deny it. And if we don’t show that in our main character, we switch it into another prominent secondary character. We all live in our own little world at the centre of which is our own delightful/dreadful ego, so any self-expression like writing is bound to reflect it. 

Readers and bets 

After nine Roma Nova thrillers featuring tough and lively heroines, my readers demanded I write the foundation story of Roma Nova. Thus inspired, that spilled out into two books – JULIA PRIMA and EXSILIUM – set in the fourth century. 

In between, I wrote three modern thrillers based on Mel/Mélisende, a dual national Franco-British special forces heroine working for a European security service. Writing them was triggered (inspired?) by a bet from fellow author Conn Iggulden who had given me a fabulous front of cover endorsement for the fifth Roma Nova thriller, INSURRECTIO. 

So…HEROICA, out today(!) 

This new book of three stories was a case of inspiration via curiosity. I wanted to write a story featuring my original heroine, Carina, in one of her investigations. Her professional life wasn’t spent entirely on saving her country, but like most law enforcers had its fair number of routine cases. Of course, being Carina, the case turned out to be anything but routine.  

Why isn’t Revolution? a full-length novel? Because the story ended when it did. We can’t always insist on dragging a story out to 100,000 words when it doesn’t naturally end at 24,000. But what to do with it? It’s too long to be a short story and compared to my two novellas – CARINA (38,000 words) and NEXUS (39,000 words) – not enough for a novella. So I thought about adding a couple of historical long short stories from Roma Nova’s past, but staying within Carina’s family in order to have a connecting thread running through them.  

Honoria’s Battle is set near Vienna when that city was being besieged for the second time by forces from the Ottoman Empire. It was hailed as an existential fight by Christian Europe against the tide of Moslem Turks. Historians continue to disagree about the battle’s significance but to people of the time it was one of survival. Of course, Roma Nova was going to be involved! Researching characters such as the ebullient John Sobieski, King of Poland and the best commander of his day, was fascinating. 

The Idealist connects with Giuseppe Mazzini’s attempt to form a new Roman Republic and unite Italy in the nineteenth century – another time of crisis and transition. It’s also the story of unrealistic expectations, family secrets and pragmatism. The inspiration was curiosity about the past and wondering what a terrible threat of the past coming back to bite those in the present would do to them. 

In brief 

Inspiration for me is a formless cloud, wisps, really, wafting around in my mind with no fixed abode. It takes something to come along – a bad film, five words in an email from a Very Famous Author, idle attention to a television report of a coup – to get the cloud to clump and produce a bolt of lightning. Usually, it’s a little crackle at the back of the sky that grows into a steady blaze. 

Alison Morton

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About the Author

Alison Morton writes award-winning thrillers featuring tough but compassionate heroines. Her twelve-book Roma Nova series is set in an imaginary European country where a remnant of the Roman Empire has survived into the 21st century and is ruled by women who face conspiracy, revolution and heartache but use a sharp line in dialogue. She blends her fascination for Ancient Rome with six years’ military service and a life of reading crime, historical and thriller fiction. On the way, she collected a BA in modern languages and an MA in history. Alison lives in Poitou in France, the home of Mélisende, the heroine of her two contemporary thrillers, Double Identity, Double Pursuit and Double Stakes For the latest news, subscribe to her newsletter at https://www.alison-morton.com/newsletter/ and receive 'Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’ as a thank you gift.  Connect with Alison on her World of Thrillers site: https://alison-morton.com and Alison’s writing blog https://alisonmortonauthor.com/. You can find Alison on Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky @alisonmorton.bsky.social and Twitter/X: @alison_morton

Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell: Their Lives, Friendship and Writings, by Susan Dunne

Available from Amazon UK 

and pre-order Amazon US

Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell illuminate a powerful 19th century friendship whose influence reshaped literary legacy and critical perception.

Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell shared one of the most remarkable literary friendships of the 19th century, one that ultimately led to the creation of one of the most controversial literary biographies ever written. 

The life of Charlotte Brontë continues to spark debate over 150 years after its publication, but the deeper story of the friendship that inspired it has never been fully explored until now. In this fascinating and well-researched narrative, the intertwined lives of these two literary greats come to life. What drew them together despite their contrasting personalities? 

How did they influence each other’s work, navigate the challenges of publishing, and contend with the harsh judgment of critics? Did Elizabeth Gaskell’s well-meaning interventions, both personal and professional, shape the course of Charlotte’s life in ways never before considered? 

Through letters, historical records, and fresh insights, this book reveals the warmth, respect, and complexities of their brief but profound connection. A tale of admiration, resilience, and literary legacy, it sheds new light on the enduring impact of a friendship that helped shape our understanding of one of literature’s most beloved figures.

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About the Author

Susan Dunne was born near Manchester and lives near Haworth. A lifelong Brontë and Gaskell enthusiast, she wrote her undergraduate thesis on the portrayal of the working class in Elizabeth Gaskell and studied Victorian literature at postgraduate level. She has worked- amongst other things - as a teacher and journalist, her work appearing in numerous regional and national publications.

Book Review: Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest, by Sharon Bennett Connolly

Available from Amazon UK

and pre-order from Amazon US

Daughters of kings were often used to seal treaty alliances and forge peace with England’s enemies. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters from the Conquest explores the lives of these young women, how they followed the stereotype, and how they sometimes managed to escape it. 

Here’s a good question for when it’s a bit quiet in the pub: Who was the first royal princess? One of the many interesting things I learned from Princesses of the Early Middle Ages was ‘Princess’ was the general title ‘Princess’ wasn’t used for daughters of the monarch until 1642, when King Charles I created the title "Princess Royal" for his eldest daughter, Mary.

Having read Sharon Bennett Connolly ‘s earlier book I was surprised by this slim volume, but then found this is ‘part one of two’, with the ‘sister’ book, Princesses of the Later Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Plantagenets to follow.

Highly readable and entertaining, this is the sort of history book I wish I had as a boy. It can’t have been easy to navigate the often obscure details of the early Anglo-Saxon princesses, yet this is Sharon Bennett Connolly’s specialist area. The result is one of the most comprehensive accounts you will find.

I challenge anyone with an interest in medieval Britain to not find something they will learn from this book, and I look forward to the next instalment. Highly recommended.

Tony Riches

(I would like to thank the publishers, Pen & Sword History, for prividing an advance review copy/)

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About the Author

Sharon Bennett Connolly is the best-selling author of historical non-fiction. Her latest book, Scotland’s Medieval Queens, will be published on 30 January 2025. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, she also writes the popular history blog, www.historytheinterestingbits.com and co-hosts the podcast A Slice of Medieval with historical fiction novelist Derek Birks. Sharon regularly gives talks on Women's History; she is a feature writer for All About History, Tudor Places and Living Medieval magazines and her TV work includes Australian Television's 'Who Do You Think You Are?' You can find out more about Sharon's books on Amazon and follow her on Facebook, Twitter/X and Bluesky

Book Launch Guest Post: Guardians of the Cosmic Clocks: Wings of the Gods, by Jabril Yousef Faraj

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Dive into an adventure of epic proportions, as the Guardians brave the Greek Underworld, commune with the Oracle of Delphi and face their fate on Mount Olympus. Encounter Plato, Heracles and the ghost of Pythagoras as our champions sail the Aegean and battle mythical beings in this sprawling Young Adult Fantasy.

Before I could read, my mother read to us. She worked a paper route in the dark hours of the morning, long before the rest of the world stirred, and by the time she sat down at night with my brothers and me curled up around her, exhaustion was already starting to set in. She'd open The Chronicles of Narnia and her voice would grow softer, words slurring as sleep tugged at her eyes. But she kept reading. Page after page, night after night.

And we were transfixed. Children no older than us stepped through a wardrobe into a world of talking lions and eternal winters. They crossed dimensions. Had grand adventures. And as my mother's tired voice carried us through Narnia, I learned something I've never forgotten: stories are how we survive the ordinary. Stories are how we imagine ourselves into something more.

Narnia taught me to dream and, even as a kid, I understood there were more important things than money and toys. We didn't grow up wealthy, or well-connected. We didn’t have nice things. What we did have was each other—generous angels in our community, a neighborhood library that felt like home and long summer nights spent playing outside till the streetlights came on.

We were raised on books and wonder, and stories shaped the way I see the world. Now, I'm publishing my second novel because I believe we need new timeless stories for a contemporary audience—stories that excite and inspire the next generation of readers the way Narnia inspired me.

Yes, Guardians of the Cosmic Clocks: Wings of the Gods is about time travel, teleportation and good versus evil. But it also speaks to something deeper about the human experience. It tackles feelings of longing, loyalty, insufficiency and self-esteem. Themes of humanity vs. authority and resolve in the face of failure permeate this epic journey across Classical Greece.

At its heart, this story is a journey within. A journey to the innermost places, where we ask ourselves whether we're truly up to the task. Where we rise to the challenge and spur ourselves on to new heights. It's about loyalty to those we couldn't do without, and the transformation that occurs when we accept the path before us, no matter the cost.

I hope dreamers everywhere can see themselves in Zya and Elijah, and feel inspired to live boldly. This is why I write. Because I believe in us. Because the pen is mightier than the sword, and no matter how hard you try, you can never kill the truth.

Jabril Yousef Faraj

Guardians of the Cosmic Clocks: Wings of the Gods is the sequel to 2024's award-winning Guardians of the Cosmic Clocks: The Emerald Tablets. A finalist for the Children's Book International Award in Fantasy and runner-up at the London Book Festival, Wings of the Gods is already receiving recognition. Can the Guardians rise above and emerge victorious? Grab your copy and find out how the story ends!

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About the Author

Jabril Yousef Faraj is an award-winning Young Adult Fantasy author. Born in Los Angeles and raised in the Midwest, the nonbinary, Arab-American artist is an Edward R. Murrow award recipient and alumnus of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. His fiction debut, Guardians of the Cosmic Clocks: The Emerald Tablets, won the 2025 Literary Global Children's Book Award for Best Young Adult Novel, was a finalist for the Children's Book International Award in Fantasy, and runner-up at the New York Book Festival. The second book in the series, Guardians of the Cosmic Clocks: Wings of the Gods, has already earned international recognition. Follow Jabril on X, Instagram  and YouTube 

Special Guest Post by Louise Morrish, Author of The Library of War and Peace

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US 

1915: As the war rages on outside, it is the battle within that must be won, through the quiet strength of words. Josie Everley works on board the ill-fated RMS Lusitania, as a library stewardess. When tragedy strikes, Josie washes up in London, finding work as a library assistant at a military hospital in Endell Street. Here, Dr Lucinda Garland and her all-female team of medics provide pioneering treatment for wounded soldiers. The hospital is home to a visionary library, run by a trailblazing librarian – Miss Godson. The library is a sanctuary for soldiers haunted by the horrors of war, where literature is prescribed as medicine, helping to cure the men’s anguish.

The Library of War and Peace is my love letter to libraries. I worked as a librarian for nearly three decades, and during those years I’ve experienced all sorts of libraries – public libraries, private collections, primary and secondary school libraries, and once an eighteenth-century haunted library. (I only lasted a year there!)

Books are in my blood, ink runs in my veins, and when I discovered the true story of the Endell Street Military Hospital library, I knew I had to write this novel. Endell Street Hospital was groundbreaking in so many ways. It was set up in 1915 by Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson and Dr Flora Murray, two pioneering doctors who defied an initially sceptical War Office to establish their own Women’s Hospital Corps.

Having created an all-female-run military hospital in France (which was the inspiration behind my previous novel ‘Women of War’), the doctors and their team saved thousands of soldiers’ lives, and the War Office then asked them to replicate their successful model back in Britain. This Dr Garrett Anderson and Dr Murray duly did, renovating and equipping a disused workhouse in Endell Street.

From the start, their new military hospital had its own library, which was run by two prominent members of the Women Writers’ Suffrage League. The WWSL had been founded in 1908 by Cicely Hamilton and Bessie Hatton, the aim to obtain the franchise on the same terms as men, and its members sought to do this through writing.

Elizabeth Robins, an American actress and writer, was one of the first members of the WWSL, and its first president. The British novelist Beatrice Harraden was another of the organisation’s members and she served as librarian at Endell Street from 1915 until the hospital closed, joined by Elizabeth Robins for the first year or so.

The philosophy of Endell Street library was a reader-led one. The librarians catered for the patients’ requests when it came to their reading matter, rather than to impose their idea of what might be termed ‘improving’ books upon them. 

Many men feared having their lack of education or illiteracy exposed, so the librarians would take the time to sit at their bedsides, talking to the wounded soldiers to find out more about their interests and background. In this way, the librarians could make informed recommendations, as well as meet specific requests, and this became a unique opportunity to experience care based on books and reading.

The library was a huge success, and in many ways broke the ground for our modern bibliotherapy today. The art of healing through reading books continues to be a powerful form of therapy, and libraries play a fundamental role in this. What more fitting way to honour libraries than in a book?

The Library of War and Peace is a story of two strong, determined, courageous characters, both of whom are inspired by real women. The first, Edie Lawrence, is a young apprentice journalist and suffragette. Her character is based on the real Dorothy Lawrence, whose incredible exploits during World War One inspired me to write Women of War. The second character, Josie Everley, is drawn largely from my imagination, but also inspired by all the library stewardesses who worked ocean liners like RMS Lusitania.

Miss Gordon the chief librarian in my novel is very loosely based on Beatrice Harraden, who managed the Endell Street Library from 1915 until the end of the War. Dr Lucinda Garland and Dr Flora Murray are inspired by real doctors – Louisa Garrett Anderson and Flora Murray – whose brave achievements spurred me to write ‘Women of War’.

Harry Levinson is wholly from my imagination, although there were freelance war correspondents like him struggling to report the truth from the battlefields, their words censored.

Dorothy Larwrence

Endell Street Military Hospital in London is no more, replaced by flats and shops. But if you keep your eyes peeled, there are clues to its existence still around. As a librarian myself, I absolutely loved the research involved with this novel. 

Discovering how the librarians at Endell Street sourced and supplied literature to the patients, and how they applied pioneering bibliotherapy to help heal the soldiers’ mental trauma, was fascinating to me. I use elements of bibliotherapy in my own work, and countless times I’ve experienced firsthand how the right book placed in the right hands at the right time can change someone’s life.

I devoured all the books I could find on the subject of the hospital, the library, and bibliotherapy. Particularly helpful was Wendy Moore’s No Man’s Land – The Trailblazing Women Who Ran Britain’s Most Extraordinary Military Hospital During World War One.

Also useful: Dorothy Lawrence’s memoir: Sapper Dorothy: the only British Woman Soldier in the Royal Engineers 51st Division 79th Tunnelling Co. during the First World War
And Flora Murray’s memoir – Women as Army Surgeons

Louise Morrish

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About the Author

Louise Morrish is an author, bookseller, and creative writing tutor from Hampshire. She writes stories inspired by the lives of women in the past, who achieved extraordinary things, but whom history has forgotten. Her debut novel Operation Moonlight was published by Penguin in 2022. Her next novels, Women of War and The Library of War and Peace, are available now. Join Louise’s monthly newsletter on www.louisemorrish.com for free book giveaways, publishing news and writing advice. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter @LouiseMorrish1 and Instagram @LouiseMorrish_Books.

Historical Fiction Spotlight: In Darkness Born: Book One of The Breaking Wheel, The Story of Katherine Parr, by G. Lawrence

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

The world would make her a survivor... Destiny would make her a Queen.

England, 1525: Born into a time of religious upheaval and political turmoil, Katherine Parr grows up in a loving family. Sheltered yet never kept ignorant of the dangers which surround her, Katherine secretly dreams of a life at court and a love such as the King possesses for the magnetic Anne Boleyn.

Sent north to become a bride at the age of sixteen, Katherine enters a household alien to the one she grew up in, where the overbearing personality of her new father-in-law holds sway, terrifying others into submission. 

Yet Katherine refuses to be intimidated and a curious friendship is born, exposing Katherine to new thought on religion which is entering England... new thought which could place her in grave danger.

Through trials of marriage, faith and death, Katherine Parr will journey, seeking to understand her heart and her soul as about her the world is transformed as the King breaks from Rome to take Anne Boleyn as his wife, dividing England and its people, opening the way for bloodshed and betrayal.

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About the Author

Gemma Lawrence is an independently published author living in Cornwall in the UK. She studied literature at university says, 'I write mainly Historical Fiction, with an emphasis on the Tudor and Medieval periods and have a particular passion for women of history who inspire me'. Her first book in the Elizabeth of England Chronicles series is The Bastard Princess (The Elizabeth of England Chronicles Book 1).Gemma can be found on Twitter @TudorTweep and Bluesky @glawrence.bsky.social‬