Historical Fiction

larabyrne

Hamletic Lotharingia - The parallel lives of Hamlet and King Henry IV of Germany

Whilst I was not consciously aware of it as I was working on his character, I realise a posteriori that my version of Heinrich IV owes...

larabyrne

The books that inspired Lotharingia - Thoughts on Pope Joan

This is my first post in a while. I have spent the summer dreaming of holidays I could not take, and sharing visuals of the settings of...

larabyrne

What's in a name - The Lotharingian connection

A few people have asked how I have come up with the title and what Lotharingia means. Matilde, my heroine, is known as Matilda of...

larabyrne

What's in a cover - The golden crosses of medieval power

I have had a few questions about the cover of Lotharingia, and what it is meant to represent. Lotharingia is a tale of love, relics, and...

larabyrne

Why I decided to write a novel on Matilde of Tuscany

In many ways, Countess Matilde of Tuscany was the most remarkable woman of the XI century. She must have made quite an impression on...

larabyrne

Medieval Women in Power - Matilda of Tuscany and her precursors

Medieval Europe did not really have historians in the modern (or ancient Greek) sense of the word. It had chroniclers and propagandists....

larabyrne

Lotharingia shortlisted for the 2020 Page Turner Awards

I'll be honest, back in August when I received the news that my historical novel Lotharingia had been selected as a Page Turner Awards...

larabyrne

Lotharingia is a Page Turner Award Finalist!

I just received some amazing news. My debut historical fiction novel Lotharingia made it to the final round of the 2020 Page Turner...

larabyrne

Medieval manuscripts

Sadly, a lot of medieval castles today are very different from the way they looked in their hey day. Re-modelling and change of use, as...

Blog: Blog2