Mary Wollstonecraft is perhaps best known for two accomplishments: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), a treatise that caused her to be remembered as the first feminist; and her status as the mother of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. As significant as these are, Wollstonecraft’s life was extraordinary for many other reasons. N.J….
In the Time of Spirits is a novel of the late 19th-century spiritualist movement, seen from the perspective of those who performed seances for gullible audiences. Its plot takes unpredictable, often confounding turns, much like its strong-minded heroine. Are her actions irritating or all too fitting? They certainly offer much to think about! After losing…
Why do we read fiction? It’s pretend. None of it is true. All the great stories from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice, whether it’s H.G. Well’s War of the Worlds or Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001 A Space Odyssey—they’re all made up. None of them are real. So why do they captivate…
Are you a historical fiction fan looking back fondly on the years of Tudormania, when novels set in 16th-century England (especially about the royals) were eagerly scooped up by publishers? The good news is these books are still around, in smaller quantities perhaps, but novelists are still writing them, and readers still want them. During…
My latest novel, coming out this Friday, is The Minotaur. It’s a tribute to the Polish novel Solaris. I love writing tribute pieces to classic science fiction from the Golden Age, as often these stories are lost in time. They can be dated in styling, technology and pacing, but they still pack a punch and…
Here are some articles and other news items that caught my attention in the last week. The 2025 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction shortlist is out. The winner of this £25,000 Prize will be announced on June 12th at Abbotsford, the country house which was Scott’s home in the Scottish Borders. The Heart in Winter,…
Why are my books published (almost) exclusively on Amazon? It’s a good question. I hope this blog post helps explain my position. I get a lot of flak for having my books on Amazon. And I get it. Amazon’s employment practices suck. Although Amazon seems like a monopoly with 40% of US online retail sales,…
Emily Maguire’s Rapture is an entrancing vision of a woman who unexpectedly rises to the height of influence in an exclusively male realm: the Roman Catholic church in the early Middle Ages. This new reinterpretation of the legend of Pope Joan explores the meanings of its title – spiritual, intellectual, and physical fulfillment – in…
When astrophysicists look at exoplanets, they’re not looking for life as such, as life is impossible to detect at a distance of light years. What they’re looking for is an unbalanced equation. Think about rust. What is rust? It’s iron oxide. The chemical equation for your rusting pickup truck is… This is a balanced equation….
Nicola Cornick writes dual-period novels about unjustly forgotten women where both narrative strands compel equally, which doesn’t happen often. Fans of Mary Stewart (Touch Not the Cat in particular), Anya Seton’s Devil Water, and Susanna Kearsley’s 18th-century epics will relish her latest, which tells the parallel stories of purported Jacobite heroine Dorothy Forster and a…
