In History Hit's Historical Fiction podcast, authors of newly published novels talk about their work, historians and writers discuss how great historical figures are depicted in fiction, and commentators explore contemporary concerns about "fake news" and "post-truth". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Latest episodes
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2 min
Introducing: On Jimmy's Farm
Join celebrity farmer, ecologist and conservationist, Jimmy Doherty, on his farm as he talks to eco-experts and well-known faces about trying to live a greener life.From bug burger…
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29 min
A Serial Killer Rocks Ancient Rome: The Grove of Caesars
In 1st century Rome, public gardens created by Julius Caesar have become dangerous haunts, especially for women alone. When her husband has to leave the city, Flavia Albia is left…
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16 min
Degas in New Orleans: Estelle
When the painter Edgar Degas visits his French-Creole relatives in New Orleans in the 1870s, his cousin and sister-in-law Estelle encourages him to make portraits of their family m…
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34 min
Constantine’s Conquest of Rome: The Conqueror
In the year AD312 Rome is teetering on the brink of war and Constantine's army is on the move. On the Rhine frontier, a Germanic pagan joins the Roman army as a spy, while in Rome…
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29 min
The Rise of Richard the Lionheart
In 1179, rebellion was brewing against King Henry II. The King’s son Richard earns his name ‘Lionheart’, crushing rebels in Aquitaine but treachery and betrayal lurk around every c…
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30 min
Nazi Collaborator or Victim: Finding Klara
In the aftermath of World War Two, Clara – once a Nazi icon and heiress to the Falkenberg Iron Works – finds herself on the run, accused of complicity in her father’s war crimes. W…
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31 min
Philopoemen: The Last Greek
In 209 BC, as the most powerful empires in the world brawled over the spoils of a fading Greece, Philopoemen had a vision to stop the anarchy and endless wars. To preserve the home…
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20 min
A Young Girl in Restoration London: The Strange Adventures of H
In 1660, with Charles II restored as King after Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth, an orphaned girl named H arrives in London, for a happier life with her Aunt. But the Plague and the…
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20 min
Evacuating Museums in World War II: The Animals at Lockwood Manor
In August 1939, Hetty Cartwright is tasked with taking a natural history museum’s collection of stuffed animals out of London, to protect it from impending air raids. When some of…
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29 min
A Jewish assassin, a boxer and Kristallnacht: Champion
On 7 November 1938, 17-year old Polish Jew Herschel Grynszpan shot a Nazi official dead at the German embassy in Paris. The repercussions triggered a calamity which has been called…
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26 min
A Viking Dystopia: Loki’s Wager
In an alternative version of reality, Britain’s culture and traditions are rooted in the legacy of Norse pagans, the Royal Family are of Scandinavian descent, and Norwegians lead t…
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37 min
Marketing Hitler: Propaganda, Power and Post-truth
Adolf Hitler understood that persuasion was everything and was the prime mover in the propaganda regime of the Third Reich. For Hitler, everything was a propaganda medium – from ty…
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17 min
Forgotten Novels of World War II
In 2019 four novels that had long been out of print were re-published in the Imperial War Museum Wartime Classics series. It aims to give forgotten novels set in the Second World W…
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29 min
Scandal, Intrigue and the Orange Revolution: Independence Square
Once a senior British diplomat in Kiev, Simon Davey lost everything after a lurid scandal. Back in London, still struggling with the aftermath of his disgrace, he is travelling on…
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29 min
The Deadly Dad’s Army: In Spite of All Terror
In September 1940, as Britain faced an imminent Nazi invasion, handpicked groups of ordinary men – known as scallywags – were trained in top secret to act as saboteurs and assassin…
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27 min
Napoleon: Propaganda and The Theatre
Few historical figures have made as much of an impact on the arts and popular culture as Napoleon Bonaparte, portrayed at times as a heroic visionary, and at others as comically sh…
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21 min
Love and Loss in World War II: The Lost Lights of St Kilda
In 1940, the thoughts of a captured prisoner of war return to the isolated Scottish island of St Kilda – where he once took a summer job – and to the island woman he can’t forget.…
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25 min
Queen Anne’s Favourite: The Real Sarah Churchill
Sarah Churchill – Duchess of Marlborough – was the politically influential intimate and then, blackmailer of Queen Anne. Sarah Churchill was vividly brought to life in the film The…
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27 min
Radar and The Winning of WWII: Under a Wartime Sky
As the threat of war with Germany hung over Britain, Winston Churchill gathered the country’s brightest minds at a remote gothic mansion in Suffolk to work together on an invention…
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30 min
Marie Curie on Film
The new film Radioactive charts the life and career of double Nobel Prize-winning physicist/chemist Marie Curie, woven together with the scientific developments and disasters that…