Red Rowan Press

Red Rowan Press is an independent imprint specialising in historical fiction: novels in which real events, people and places provide more than a backdrop to an invented story.

The books begin with history. Sometimes that means a famous event viewed from an unfamiliar direction; sometimes an obscure incident almost forgotten outside the archives; and sometimes it is simply an unanswered question in the historical record that refuses to go away.

The aim is not to rewrite history to accommodate a plot. As far as possible, the known events remain where history put them. Real people still do what the surviving record tells us they did, and real events retain their consequences. Fiction is threaded through that framework, inhabiting the spaces where the evidence is incomplete, contradictory or silent.

That approach lies behind books ranging from the intelligence world of Hubert and Banfield during the First World War, to medieval King's Lynn and the Hanseatic League in The Parliament of Rookes, Tudor espionage and cryptanalysis, and Regency Norfolk in the aftermath of Waterloo.

Where History Becomes Story

This website grew from the same idea.

A historical novel inevitably contains far more research than can appear on the page. Behind a passing reference may lie hours spent following an obscure individual through archives, contemporary newspapers, memoirs, maps and photographs. Some discoveries become central to the story; others contribute no more than a sentence or two; and many fascinating things have to be left out altogether.

RedRowanPress.com is intended to give some of that material a home.

The articles accompanying each novel explore the real history behind the fiction, introduce some of the people who stepped from the historical record into the books, look at the research from which the stories developed, and occasionally retrieve scenes and ideas that did not survive the final edit.

It is not necessary to read any of this to enjoy the novels. Nor is it intended as an academic companion to them. Think of it instead as an invitation to wander a little further into their world — and perhaps to discover which parts of an apparently improbable story were not invented at all.

Illustrations

The illustrations used throughout this website are intended to complement the historical articles and novels published by Red Rowan Press.

Where authentic historical photographs are available and licensing permits, these are used. Where no suitable photographs exist, some illustrations have been created using artificial intelligence to depict historical settings, events or fictional characters. All AI-generated images are identified accordingly.

Every AI-generated historical scene has been based, as far as practicable, upon contemporary descriptions, photographs, maps and other historical sources. These illustrations are intended to enhance the reader's understanding of the period and are not presented as documentary evidence.