News & Blog Archive

History Camp in Conversation with Brian Lavery

  Barbican’s own Brian Lavery was recently interviewed by Lee Wright and Mary Adams of History Camp, discussing Brian’s latest book The Luckiest Thirteen. Click below to watch the full VOD.   Many thanks to the New England team at History Camp for this spotlight!   https://historycamp.org/brian-w-lavery-the-luckiest-thirteen-a-true-story-of-a-battle-for-survival-in-the-north-atlantic/

Angelica Kauffman in the Spotlight in 2024

Who was Angelica Kauffman? As her life and work is set to be featured in two major exhibitions this year at the Royal Academy and Tate Britain, Miranda Miller provides a backdrop to this ‘paintress of minds’ at the centre of her 2020 novel.   This is the cover of …

A Petrarchan sonnet, a love poem in a fresh translation

“Given the impossibility of reproducing Petrarch’s verbal music in English,” writes Peter Thornton in his introduction to Petrach’s Canzoniere, “I decided that my goal was not to convey the matter of Petrarch’s sonnets and canzoni in adequately carpentered English that closely followed his grammar, let alone his difficult Italian syntax, which …

The Zone of Interest – Martin Goodman reflects

Martin Goodman ponders questions posed by the decisions taken in filming The Zone of Interest, compared to those he faced when writing his own related The Cellist of Dachau. Both go inside the homes of Nazi families, who live beside concentration camps. One chooses not to portray the horrors… Visiting …

A News Bulletin from Prague in 2096, performed by Martin Vopenka

A telling broadcast from the future: Martin Vopenka introduces a stark vision of where our world is heading. For the full story: Barbican Press | My Brother the Messiah

Miranda Miller remembers her friend Hilary Mantel

Some words of praise from Hilary Mantel grace the cover of Miranda Miller’s novel Angelica: Paintress of Minds: ‘‘Miller’s intricate fictions are lit by the dark flicker of a strong and original imagination.’  These were words, of course, from a writer who knew; who had such an original imagination. Miranda …

Richard Zimler on how he develops characters

  Here, Richard describes his approach to developing characters in his historical fiction novel The Lost Gospel of Lazarus. For Richard, writing the resurrection of the titular character Lazarus was an exciting new experience. He enjoyed inverting some perceptions of resurrection, a miracle that’s often considered a gift and a …

The Luckiest Thirteen Returns!

The Luckiest Thirteen, Brian W. Lavery’s prequel to the sensational Headscarf Revolutionaries, sets sail across the Atlantic in a new edition for an explosive release in the USA and Canada. UK readers get some of the action too – this is re-vamped with a new cover and subtitle. THE LUCKIEST …

Richard Zimler’s approach to writing historical figures: an insight into Jesus in The Lost Gospel of Lazarus

    For Richard Zimler, the author of The Lost Gospel of Lazarus, writing Jesus was a daunting task. Jesus has existed in the minds of billions, and there are countless ways his nature has been presented; from in the bible itself to blockbuster films. There’s 2,000 years of Christian …

Miranda Miller on how she discovered Angelica Kauffmann

Angelica, Paintress of Minds is out in the USA and CA now! It’s still available in the UK of course. Here, Miranda Miller tells us how she delved into the heart of Angelica Kauffmann by visiting important places in the painter’s life. Writing fiction about a real person is a …

Waymarks by James Thornton is out in the USA & CA

Waymarks is an eco-poetry collection out now in the USA and Canada! The collection tracks one man through significant encounters with the natural world, around the globe. An Ethiopian lake, an Australian rainforest, an American desert, an English beach: the stage keeps changing, but the intent stays the same. A …

James Thornton on being a curious and angry child

James Thornton is a poet, environmental lawyer and founder of Client Earth. Here, he talks about his affinity for the natural world and the emotion it stirs within him. James has spoken before about being an angry child. During his upbringing, the dangers of climate change were becoming clear and …