While revisions continue on my historical novel, I’ve been reading some fabulous fiction from small publishers. Publishers you might not discover unless you go looking for them, but all punching above their weight. In championing books they believe in, these small businesses often (like my current publisher, Inspired Quill) have a political edge. But their profit margins are minuscule and they need our support.
If you’re ready for a page-turning historical read, here are five I can heartily recommend. All are published in the last couple of years, listed here in chronological order of their settings.
If you’re ready for a page-turning historical read, here are five I can heartily recommend. All are published in the last couple of years, listed here in chronological order of their settings.
Ravenglass by Carolyn Kirby, published by Northodox Press
A boy who feels more himself in female dress wends his way through eighteenth-century northern Britain, encountering the violence of the transatlantic slave trade and the Jacobite rebellion. Thick with period detail, the voice grabbed me from the first page and kept me enthralled to the end. It was especially enjoyable for me having grown up in the area and being taught nothing about its bloody history (although I did try to redress that in my novel, Lyrics for the Loved Ones).
The Hyena’s Daughter by Jupiter Jones, published by Weatherglass Books
Of course I’d known of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. I discovered the existence of her stepsister Claire Clairmont, a lover of Lord Byron, only a few years ago through another fiction book. But, until I read this novel, I hadn’t known that Mary Wollstonecraft had another daughter, Fanny Imlay, who formed an attachment to the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley before the other two. The Hyena’s Daughter tells her tragic story in eloquent fragments, entwined with those of her more glamorous sisters, and with the philosophical questions of the day.
The Prentice-Boy by Ray Rumsby, published by Claret Press
A taste of Regency London in this story of a landscape artist who takes on a runaway from the workhouse as an apprentice, an act of benevolence that radically changes both their lives. Narrated in two distinctive voices, the novel blends fact and fiction in the real-life historical figure William Daniell and his relationship with an imagined streetwise teenager with something to hide.
Some Rise by Sin by Siôn Scott-Wilson, published by Deixis Press
A rollicking caper about a pair of body snatchers and their friends, patrons, rivals and enemies in late Regency London. The voice is fantastic – although it might not suit readers who shy away from unfamiliar vocabulary. I did struggle slightly to keep track of the profusion of characters, although they certainly evoke the crowded metropolis. My only quibble is with the cryptic prologue, which adds very little, especially when the opening chapter is enticing enough.
The Others by Sheena Kalayil, published by Fly on the Wall Press
I wasn’t sure whether to include this story of a love triangle set in dying days of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, not because it isn’t a great read, but because the collapse of the Berlin wall seems like yesterday to me. But I was pleased to find that it deepened my knowledge the piece of history I lived through – albeit at a distance. When Armando, a factory worker from Mozambique, and Lolita, a medical student from India, are abruptly confronted by the dark side of the State, their burgeoning friendship sours. Into the gap comes Theo, an East Berliner with literary aspirations, who inadvertently threatens all three of their futures.
I hope you like the sound of these books. Buy directly from the publisher if you can.
A boy who feels more himself in female dress wends his way through eighteenth-century northern Britain, encountering the violence of the transatlantic slave trade and the Jacobite rebellion. Thick with period detail, the voice grabbed me from the first page and kept me enthralled to the end. It was especially enjoyable for me having grown up in the area and being taught nothing about its bloody history (although I did try to redress that in my novel, Lyrics for the Loved Ones).
The Hyena’s Daughter by Jupiter Jones, published by Weatherglass Books
Of course I’d known of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. I discovered the existence of her stepsister Claire Clairmont, a lover of Lord Byron, only a few years ago through another fiction book. But, until I read this novel, I hadn’t known that Mary Wollstonecraft had another daughter, Fanny Imlay, who formed an attachment to the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley before the other two. The Hyena’s Daughter tells her tragic story in eloquent fragments, entwined with those of her more glamorous sisters, and with the philosophical questions of the day.
The Prentice-Boy by Ray Rumsby, published by Claret Press
A taste of Regency London in this story of a landscape artist who takes on a runaway from the workhouse as an apprentice, an act of benevolence that radically changes both their lives. Narrated in two distinctive voices, the novel blends fact and fiction in the real-life historical figure William Daniell and his relationship with an imagined streetwise teenager with something to hide.
Some Rise by Sin by Siôn Scott-Wilson, published by Deixis Press
A rollicking caper about a pair of body snatchers and their friends, patrons, rivals and enemies in late Regency London. The voice is fantastic – although it might not suit readers who shy away from unfamiliar vocabulary. I did struggle slightly to keep track of the profusion of characters, although they certainly evoke the crowded metropolis. My only quibble is with the cryptic prologue, which adds very little, especially when the opening chapter is enticing enough.
The Others by Sheena Kalayil, published by Fly on the Wall Press
I wasn’t sure whether to include this story of a love triangle set in dying days of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, not because it isn’t a great read, but because the collapse of the Berlin wall seems like yesterday to me. But I was pleased to find that it deepened my knowledge the piece of history I lived through – albeit at a distance. When Armando, a factory worker from Mozambique, and Lolita, a medical student from India, are abruptly confronted by the dark side of the State, their burgeoning friendship sours. Into the gap comes Theo, an East Berliner with literary aspirations, who inadvertently threatens all three of their futures.
I hope you like the sound of these books. Buy directly from the publisher if you can.
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