Ahoy Mates! With a hat tip to the ‘wooden walls of England’ on St George’s Day, we’re happy to launch the workshop programme by flagging up a seafaring ”workshop” break-out talk scheduled for the Conference.

Nautical authors Linda Collison, Margaret Muir, Helen Hollick and (hopefully) Richard Spilman and Alaric Bond will be at The Captain’s Table for a general discussion on the attraction of Nautical Fiction, provisionally entitled “Ships Ahoy: The joys and challenges of writing nautical fiction”. This session weighs anchor at 11:30 on Saturday 29th September.

Full details of this and other swell sessions will be announced very soon. We’re on course for a very exciting programme that is choc-a-block with  an extensive array of topics for landlubbers too!

(All nautical puns in this post are rudder frivolity).

The Historical Novel Society Conference 2012 is the Global Event of the Year for Readers and Writers of Historical Fiction.

HNSLondon12 takes place 29-30 September, 2012 at the University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW.

Diana Gabaldon has just confirmed that she’s coming to the HNS London 12 Conference. She will be taking part in the ‘What Sells HF?’ main panel on Saturday as well as the breakout session ‘Haunted by the Past’. She will also be reading adult scenes with Bernard Cornwell  after-dinner at the Saturday Banquet.

Diana Gabaldon is the New York Times bestselling author of the wildly popular Outlander novels—Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (for which she won a Quill Award and the Corine International Book Prize), and An Echo in the Bone—as well as one work of nonfiction, The Outlandish Companion; the Outlander graphic novel The Exile; and the bestselling series featuring Lord John Grey, a character she introduced in her Outlander series. She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The Historical Novel Society Conference 2012 is the Global Event of the Year for Readers and Writers of Historical Fiction.

HNSLondon12 takes place 29-30 September, 2012 at the University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW.

Rather exciting!

Crumbs!

This is an event NOT to be missed!

THE GLOBAL EVENT OF THE YEAR FOR READERS & WRITERS OF HISTORICAL FICTION

Historical Novel Society Conference 2012
29-30 September, 2012 at the University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW

Bernard Cornwell is almost as well-known as a fabulously entertaining speaker as he is as the creator of Sharpe!

He has 20 Sharpe adventures behind him, plus a series about the American Civil War, the Starbuck novels; an enormously successful trilogy about King Arthur, The Warlord Chronicles; the Hundred Years War set Grail Quest series; and his current series about King Alfred.

The Historical Novel Society Conference 2012 is the Global Event of the Year for Readers and Writers of Historical Fiction.

It takes place 29-30 September, 2012 at the University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW

If you’re an avid reader of historical fiction, you’re going to love this year’s HNS conference!

Not only will you be able to hear from some of your favourite historical novelists – and discover new ones – but there will also be opportunities for authors to hear from you and find out more about what readers of historical novels are looking for!

Some of the biggest and most exciting names in historical fiction are attending this year’s conference. Take a look at the Who’s Who pages.

You’ll see many authors whose books you’ve read or been meaning to read. This is an unmissable opportunity to see them all under one roof and find out what spurs them on to write their books.

On top of that, the HNS conference is a unique chance to meet lovers of historical fiction from around the globe and share your passion for the genre with others from all kinds of backgrounds.

The conference committee will be pulling out all the stops this year to make sure the event fully caters to readers. Check back here for information on details of the conference sessions over the coming weeks.

If you have any ideas for how you’d like to see the conference involve readers, feel free to contact Justin Neville, our Reader promotion and liaison officer, at histfict@gmail.com.

Get the inside take on the latest in HF for readers.
Come to HNSLondon12!

We have produced a slightly different code for WordPress and Blogger powered sites and two different sizes of icon which hopefully meet the needs of most blogs.

To get this HNS signpost button to link your blog with the HNS Conference, you don’t need to download the image, the code will display it in your sidebar and clicking on the icon will take your readers to the front page of HNS-Conference.org.uk.

We have full instructions about how to display this icon on your Blogger or WordPress blog on our Promotion page.

Philippa Gregory was an established historian and writer when she discovered her interest in the Tudor period and wrote the novel The Other Boleyn Girl which was made into a TV drama, and a major film. Now, six novels later, she is looking at the family that preceded the Tudors: the magnificent Plantaganets, a family of complex rivalries, loves, and hatreds.

Her love for history and commitment to historical accuracy are the hallmarks of her writing. She also reviews for the Washington Post, the LA Times, and for UK newspapers, and is a regular broadcaster on television, radio, and webcasts from her website, http://www.philippagregory.com.

The Historical Novel Society Conference 2012 will be held on 29-30 September, 2012 at the University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW

http://www.hns-conference.org.uk/

News Item in the Bookseller reads as follows:

Ebury Press has signed a two-book deal with Jenny Barden, who is this year’s organiser of the Historical Novel Society Conference, with the first title to follow a stowaway on Francis Drake’s ship The Swan.

Editorial director for fiction Gillian Green bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Jonathan Pegg at Jonathan Pegg Literary Agency.

The first book, Mistress of the Sea, follows the fortunes of privateer Will Doonan and Ellyn Cooksley, the object of his affections, who stow away on Francis Drake’s ship The Swan. It will be released in hardback in September 2012, with paperback to follow in summer 2013. Ebury will publish Barden’s second book in 2014.

Green said: “Jenny is an incredibly evocative writer whose impeccable research and love of her subject really shine through. Her novels are perfect for reading groups and all fans of historical fiction.

“Mistress of the Sea takes us well away from the perhaps over-familiar courts and palaces of most 16th century-set novels. This is a swashbuckling historical adventure set in the Caribbean with a love story at its heart.”

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/two-book-deal-barden-ebury.html

MARGARET GEORGE

Margaret George’s first novel, The Autobiography of Henry VIII, was published in 1986, and is now in its 33rd printing. A London Times and New York Timesbestseller, it was – and still is – the only novel to tell Henry VIII’s story from his point of view. Following that were Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles (1992), The Memoirs of Cleopatra (1997), which was made into an ABC-TV miniseries, Mary Called Magdalene (2003), Helen of Troy (2006) and this year’s Elizabeth I, which focuses on the later years of the queen. All were bestsellers.

She has also written a children’s book about turtles, Lucille Lost (2006).

Margaret now lives in Wisconsin, but grew up in places all over the world, including Taiwan in the 1940s, Israel in the 1950s, and Berlin at the height of the Cold War.
www.margaretgeorge.com

LINDSEY DAVIS

Lindsey Davis’s familiar detective, Marcus Didius Falco, is given a break in her latest novel, Master and God, so that she can explore other rich characters and themes from Roman history. Awarded the CWA Diamond Dagger in 2011 (the last time this award is to be given), and recipient also of the prestigious Premio Colosseo for ‘enhancing the image of Rome’, Lindsey is a Sunday Times bestselling author and doyenne of Roman historical fiction. She lives in London and is currently Chair of the Society of Authors.

www.lindseydavis.co.uk

Find the line-up in our Who’s Who section:
http://www.hns-conference.org.uk/speakers-and-workshop-leaders/