Round 2 of the competition will decide on the Category Winners. The Round 2 assessors are book review editors for Historical Novels Review magazine. They include:
Ben Bergonzi has recently retired from a varied career in heritage and education. Ben remains very serious about history and good writing. He is always looking for gripping stories where characters from a convincingly-evoked past era tell us something new about those aspects of human nature that remain unchanged.
Kate Braithwaite is a U.S. book reviews editor for Historical Novels Review and the author of three historical novels, with The Scandalous Life of Nancy Randolph (Lume) coming in May 2024. @katebraithwaiteauthor, https://sisstories.substack.com/ www.kate-braithwaite.com
Edward James has been a Review Editor for the HNS for the past 15 years and is the author of two historical novels and several non-fiction works on local history and social policy. Before retiring to Cheltenham, he was a social security consultant to the European Commission and to governments throughout Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia, the Ukraine and other republics of the former Soviet Union.
Sarah Johnson, book review editor for the Historical Novels Review and a longtime reviewer for Booklist, works as head of collection management at Eastern Illinois University’s Booth Library. www.readingthepast.com
Douglas Kemp is a retired senior civil servant. He has been a reviews editor for the HNR since 2007, and writes and reads avidly for enjoyment.
Katherine Mezzacappa is an Irish author currently living in Tuscany. Writing as Katie Hutton, she is the author of four novels published by Bonnier Zaffre. Under her own name, The Maiden of Florence will be published by Fairlight Books in early 2024 and will be followed by The Ballad of Mary Kearney (Addison & Highsmith) in 2025.
Misty Urban is the author of historical and contemporary romance, literary short fiction, and medieval scholarship on the topic of monstrous women. She is currently a reviews editor for the HNR. http://www.mistyurban.com
Tracey Warr was born in London and lives in France. She is the author of five historical novels set in medieval Europe and is working on her sixth. She was a Book Reviews Editor for Historical Novels Review for many years. She is now part of the HNS Interviews team and the HNS UK 2024 conference team. https://meandabooks.com
The Historical Novel Society UK 2024 conference 