Posts by Joanna Courtney

Break out the tartan, stab a haggis and pour yourself a wee dram – this weekend it’s time to celebrate all things Scottish. I’m not sure why poor St Andrew got booted down the calendar in favour of Rabbie Burns  (St Patrick gets all the Irish glory after all!) but if nothing else we have to…

         My little Mary Little kids are so brilliantly seasonal, aren’t they? Not in that they only ripen at a certain point in the year – on the contrary a toddler can bring a tantrum to fruition at any time of the year, day or indeed night – but in that they…

  The Battle of Hastings is surely one of the most rollocking male historical events out there? Crammed full of blood and gore, swords and shields, Williams and Harolds, it is a gloriously testosterone-fuelled drama. And yet is this the full story? Is there not, indeed, half of it missing? Where were all the women…

The intimacies of writing historical fiction My main aim when writing historical novels is to drop the reader into the world of my characters – to send them there to touch and taste and see and smell the places where they lived. For me, the true fascination in delving into the past is not in…

I’m delighted to feature in the Daily Express talking about the real Lady Macbeth. Click here to read the full article.

The real Lady Macbeth Cold, ruthless, deadly, the myth of Lady Macbeth looms large. But behind the villainous portrait stands a real woman. Blood Queen is her story and here is a little bit about how I came to tell it.   Pilgrims in Rome I love a good Shakespeare play and I’m especially partial…