As so often happens, recently I was researching one thing and found another—in this case, a reputed pirate’s real story. In 1671, a man known to history as “Captain Blood” tried to steal the crown jewels of … Read the article
This year marks the 1900th anniversary of Hadrian’s Wall. According to a history written many years later, Emperor Hadrian visited Britain, one of the most far-flung regions of the Empire, in 122 AD. He decided he needed … Read the article
Throne and Altar, Altar and Throne. The two go together in pre-Revolution France as intimately as any two members of a royal family. … Read the article
“This was 1915 and ‘16. I had seen an aeroplane and my mind was filled with names: Ball, and Immelman and Boelcke, and Guynemer and Bishop, and I was waiting, biding, until I would be old enough … Read the article
Writing Damn Lucky was an amazing experience, but one of the frustrations was all the great stuff I left out because it didn’t fit into the narrative. This story is about a crash, a fisherman, and a … Read the article
So you want to find a lost city? Congratulations: you’ve joined an exclusive and perilous club. For hundreds of years, explorers, dreamers, scholars, and fantasists have fanned out across the world, in search of humanity’s lost cities. … Read the article
Oops, Russia did it again. While that country’s historians might not be able to say so out loud, they must be appalled at the invasion of Ukraine and its thus-far unsuccessful outcome. Ignorance or defiance of history … Read the article
Beneath the plains of Afghanistan lie the remains of a fabulous city: Alexandria Beneath the Mountains, founded by Alexander the Great. For centuries, it was a meeting point of East and West. Then it vanished. In 1833, … Read the article
Throughout my Kinship Historical Mystery Series, I’ve woven events of the 1920s era into each novel. The series is inspired by Ohio’s true first female sheriff in 1925 and is set in the Appalachian region of Ohio. … Read the article
151 years ago, a journey to Africa began that would garner international fame. In March, Henry Morton Stanley set out from Zanzibar to find a missing British explorer. The intrepid Stanley would always be remembered for this … Read the article