The Historical Novel Society Conference

Saturday, October 2nd, 2004
The New Cavendish Club, 44 Great Cumberland Place, London.
 

If you love historical fiction, please JOIN the society today.  You won't be sorry.

'I've just read Solander - it's a triumph!'  - Bernard Cornwell.

Speakers | Registration | Location | Conference Details | Biographies | Timetable
 

featuring:
 

C. C. Humphreys

The French Executioner, Blood Ties, Jack Absolute.

Janet Gleeson

The Grenadillo Box, The Serpent in the Garden, The Thief Taker
(pub 2^nd Sept 2004). Non-fiction: The Arcanum, The Moneymaker, Millionaire.

Helen Hollick

Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy, Harold the King, A Hollow Crown
(pub 5^th August 2004). 

Debbie Taylor

The Fourth Queen. Editor Mslexia

Laura Wilson

A Little Death, Dying Voices, My Best Friend, Hello Bunny Alice,
The Lover (pub 17^th June 2004)

Elizabeth Hawksley

Highland Summer, The Belvedere Tower, Frost Fair

Jane Jakeman

In the Kingdom of Mists, the Malfine mysteries
 

The conference costs £49 and includes coffees, lunch etc. We will start at 10 a.m. and finish at 5.30 p.m. Non-members of the society are welcome.

Please make cheques payable to ‘The Historical Novel Society’ and send to

Richard Lee, Marine Cottage, The Strand, Starcross, Devon, EX6 8NY.

It is possible to book accommodation at the New Cavendish Club. Single room with bath: £72. Twin/Double room with bath: £92. Telephone: 020 7723 0391

The Club was created in 1920 by Lady Ampthill to provide a meeting place for women who had served with Voluntary Aid Detachments. This organisation was started during the Great War to provide ancillary nursing services in military hospitals, with those who joined performing such tasks as driving ambulances, running canteens and undertaking general war duties. The VAD Ladies’ Club was established in Cavendish Square with an initial membership of two thousand five hundred. When it moved to Great Cumberland Place in 1959, its name changed to The New Cavendish Club and its membership has expanded.

The Conference

The conference will be our usual friendly affair, and there will be plenty of opportunity to meet and talk with authors. Most of the society ‘staff’ usually attend, and it is an enjoyable opportunity to put faces to names. See below for details on the final programme, which will include addresses by single speakers, panel discussions, and workshops.

More about the authors

C. C. Humphreys (www.cchumphreys.com)

Chris Humphreys has been a member of the society since 2001, and was interviewed by Sally in the February Review of 2003: ‘If you like Bernard Cornwell’s Grail Quest series, you’ll love the French Executioner and Blood Ties… Cornwell is good, but Humphreys is better.’ Chris spent 23 years as an actor before turning his hand to historical fiction. His latest book, Jack Absolute, begins a new series.
       Synopsis of Jack Absolute: In 1777, Jack Absolute is famous ... as the dashing lover in Sheridan's famous comedy The Rivals. However, this notoriety comes as something of a shock to the real Jack Absolute when he disembarks at Portsmouth after four months at sea, and seven years in India... Thus we meet the dashing Mister Absolute - rogue, duellist, charmer and Captain in the Light Dragoons. He is everything that Sharpe is not, he is both the epitome of the English gentleman and his nemesis. He leaves behind him a trail of cuckolded husbands, excited lovers and dead bodies... In the War of Independence, Jack has to leave London in a hurry after a duel goes hideously wrong. But he soon finds himself in a fight for his life in the colonies.

Janet Gleeson

Janet Gleeson was born in Sri Lanka, where her father was a tea planter. After taking a degree in History of Art and English she worked for Sotheby's, and later Bonham's Auctioneers. In 1991 she joined Reed Books, where she was responsible for devising and writing Miller's Antiques and Collectibles. She is the bestselling author of The Arcanum and The Moneymaker. Her first novel, The Grenadillo Box was published to universal critical acclaim. Janet Gleeson lives in London.
       Synopsis of The Thief Taker: Agnes Meadowes is cook to the Blanchards of Foster Lane, the renowned silversmiths. Her quiet world of culinary activity, preparing jugged hare, oyster loaves, almond soup and other delicacies for the family, is a happy refuge from the hustle and bustle of 1750s London. But in a single night everything is to change. When the Blanchards' most prestigious and expensive commission, a giant silver wine cooler destined for the house of Sir Bartholomew Grey, is stolen, a sinister chain of events is set in motion. That same night a young apprentice is murdered and a young maid, Rose, disappears. Are these portentous happenings connected? Called upon by her master, Theodore Blanchard, to investigate 'below stairs', Agnes now enters a dark world of hidden secrets, jealousy and murderous intent. Before the game is played out she will be forced to act as mouse to the infamous Thief Taker's cat as she is slowly drawn into a seamy underworld of London crime. But the truth, like the expensive tea leaves that Agnes keeps under lock and key, comes at a high price and she must decide how big a sacrifice she is prepared to make to bring the villains to justice.

Helen Hollick (www.btinternet.com/~springwillow)

Helen Hollick has been a member of the society since 1998, and spoke for us at Kirby Hall that year, which was our first public meeting! Her interview with Towse from that year is posted on our website (www.historicalnovelsociety.org). Towse wrote: ‘Not since reading Rosemary Sutcliffe's Sword At Sunset had I found an Arthur that I really believed in and cared so much about that at the end, despite how I knew it must be, I shed a tear.’
       Synopsis of A Hollow Crown: Aged only thirteen, Emma, daughter of the Duke of Normandy, is married in a strategic alliance to King Aethelred of England. Inept and arrogant, Aethelred is loathed by his young wife, whom he punishes for his many failings as a ruler. Their first son, Edward, is born through an act of violence that is little more than rape. England is invaded by the Viking King Swein Forkbeard and his son Cnut. After a bitter struggle, Aethelred loses his kingdom and his wife. Emma, now dowager queen, holds London against the invader Cnut. When he demands she surrender or suffer the consequences, Emma stakes everything on a dangerous gamble, but troubles and tragedy still await the indomitable queen as she struggles for power and for survival... 

Debbie Taylor (www.mslexia.co.uk)

Debbie Taylor is the founder and editor of Mslexia, the magazine for women who write, which is the fastest growing literary magazine in the UK. She has been writing and travelling ever since she abandoned her career as a research psychologist. She has worked as an editor of The New Internationalist magazine, co-edited The Virago Book of Writing Women and is the author of a number of books, both fiction and non-fiction, including My Children, My Gold (Virago), which was shortlisted for the Fawcett Prize. Her latest book, The Fourth Queen (Michael Joseph), is a novel and was published in 2003. She lives with her partner and daughter in a disused lighthouse at the mouth of the River Tyne.
       Synopsis of The Fourth Queen: In 1769, when Helen Gloag runs away from her poverty-stricken Scottish village to seek a new life overseas, little does she realize what is in store for her. For before a year is out she will be Queen of Morocco, one of four wives the cruel and charismatic Emperor Sidi Mohammed. 

Laura Wilson (www.lydmouth.demon.co.uk/us/laura/wilson.htm)

Laura Wilson was brought up in London and has degrees in English Literature from Somerville College, Oxford and UCL, London. She has written history books for children and is interested in history, particularly of the recent past, painting and sculpture, uninhabited buildings, underground structures, cemeteries and time capsules. Her five novels have been critically acclaimed and the first, A Little Death, was shortlisted for both the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger and the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original. She lives in London.
       About The Lover: The inspiration for this book is the little-known case of the 'Blackout Ripper'. Gordon Cummins was a 28-year-old airman who was 'good looking, good company and good fun'. He was also a serial killer who murdered four women in the West End of London during the war. As an airman, Cummins was admired and rewarded for killing, but the qualities that lent him his skill in the skies were the same ones, in twisted form, that led him to strangle and mutilate women. This is a noir novel in the vein of Graham Greene, which looks at how the psychological pressure of war may lead people to lose their moral compass. But most importantly this is a gripping story of several lives - the victims and the killer. No one is better at getting inside characters and creating bone-chilling atmosphere than Laura Wilson, and here she shows that her place is right at the pinnacle of crime fiction.

Elizabeth Hawksley

Elizabeth Hawksley has had thirteen novels published, most recently The Belvedere Tower. She also writes for various fringe theatre companies and her plays have been performed at the Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court, London, the Oxford Playhouse, and the Edinburgh Festival.
       Elizabeth is a reader for both the Romantic Novelists Association New Writer Scheme, and the Hilary Johnson Authors’ Advisory Service. She has just been invited to be a reader for the Harry Bowling Competition 2004. She lectures and takes workshops at schools, colleges, writers’ groups, and has taught Creative Writing classes at Barnet College of Further Education for many years.

Jane Jakeman (http://malfine.tripod.com/)

Jane Jakeman is a is an author of crime fiction and ghost stories. Information about her books is available here. She also reviews crime fiction and interviews writers for The Independent and Scotland on Sunday.
       Jane's latest historical novel, In the Kingdom of Mists, is published by Transworld. It is set in 1900, during the visit of the painter Monet to the Savoy Hotel in London, and features a complex murder mystery. The book is beautifully illustrated in colour, with twelve paintings by Monet, and reviewers love it.

Conference Timetable

Top of Page