December 2024
It's been a busy autumn/winter for me so far: in September I gave a talk at Tamworth about two allegedly murderous queens of Mercia, and also travelled to London so that the judging panel for the HWA Crowns Nonfiction award could deliberate over lunch and decide the longlist. We met again to decide the shortlist and I was delighted to attend the award ceremony in November. Our winner was Four Shots in the Night by Henry Hemming. I've been interviewed for several podcasts - I'll post the links here when they go live. I already have talks lined up for next year to coincide with the release of the new book, Murder in Anglo-Saxon England: Justice, Wergild, Revenge, which is available for pre-order HERE
May 2024
I am working on my next novel, but it may be delayed because I'm delighted to say that I've been invited onto the panel of judges for this year's Historical Writers' Association's prestigious Crown Nonfiction Award. It's a privilege, and of course a pleasure to be able to read so many wonderful nonfiction history books.
Last year Hodder &Stoughton published Kings & Queens: 1200 Years of English and British Monarchs and I contributed a chapter on King Eadred's reign. Recently I chatted to Iain Dale of LBC about this pivotal time of Anglo-Saxon history, and you can listen to the podcast HERE
I spent the first couple of months of 2024 finishing my latest nonfiction book, and have now been given a publication date. murder in Anglo-Saxon England: Justice, Wergild, Revenge will be published on February 15 2025. Read more about it HERE
April 2024
It was an honour to be invited back onto the History Hit Gone Medieval podcast to talk to Matthew Lewis about the supremacy of Mercia. You can hear our chat HERE
September 2023
I was delighted to be invited to chat to historian Matthew Lewis for Dan Snow's History Hit's 'Gone Medieval' podcast about Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians. You can listen HERE
Hodder & Stoughton will publish Kings & Queens: 1200 Years of English and British Monarchs on September 14th. This wonderful book has been edited by Iain Dale and includes a chapter on King Eadred written by me. On 16th September I will join Iain on a panel at the Appledore Literary Festival. Meanwhile I am working with Helen Hollick on a new anthology of historical short stories and continuing to write my new nonfiction book for Amberley Books.
June 2023
I have been asked to co-host a writing retreat next year with my friend and colleague the acclaimed author Helen Hollick. We'll be tutoring a course on writing historical fiction, and places can be booked through Devon Writing Retreats. I've just recently returned from taking part in Tamworth's Aethelfest 2023, where I delivered two talks as part of the festival: Lady Aethelflaed - Warrior? Queen? and Prominent Women of Mercia (the links will take you to the transcripts on the blog). Also this month I took part in an author Q&A at a local theatre, and a live chat with the Permian Basin Adult Literacy Centre where I chatted about my novel To Be A Queen. We're only halfway through the month and it's been very busy, as I've also just spent an enjoyable day at the Ad Gefrin Anglo-Saxon Museum and Visitor Centre where I was given a warm welcome by the staff. Click here if you'd like to see the photo!
February 2023
I am delighted to announce that I have signed a contract to write my third nonfiction book. Amberley Books will publish my book on Murder in Anglo-Saxon England. I don't have a date for publication yet, but I suspect it will be in 2024. My contribution to the new book on Kings and Queens of England was submitted last year and the book will be published in 2023 by Hodder and Stoughton. More details on both books as and when I get them.
November 2022
It was a joy to give a talk in a 'Viking' longhouse, at Moorforge Viking Settlement in Cumbria. I spoke about Women of Power in Mercia and beyond and the talk will be released as a podcast in the New Year. I'll post details as soon as I have them. Meanwhile, I was thrilled to be asked back to the Present History podcast, this time for their new 'Dark Britain' series, to talk about Eadric Streona, once voted the most evil man in English History. You can catch the chat on Apple, Spotify, and Youtube
August 2022
I've had articles published in two magazines, both of them dealing with aspects of Mercian history, though neither of them about Mercia directly. In The Historians Magazine, I've an article about the short and ill-fated reign of King Eadwig, and in Historical Times Magazine, I've written about the ancient kingdom of the Hwicce. Completely unrelated to 'Anglo-Saxon' history, I've also reviewed Leanda de Lisle's excellent new book about Henrietta Maria, queen consort of Charles I, for Historia, the online magazine of the Historical Writers' Association.
July 2022
I'm delighted to announce that I have been elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society "in recognition of your contribution to historical scholarship." This entitles me to add the letters FRHistS after my name but really the honour is in having been elected and I'm absolutely thrilled!
June 2022
I've been busy working on the chapter for the new anthology, but happily have also had time to chat to a couple of people on their podcasts. The latest was for Zachary Peatling's Present History podcast, a two-parter which can be found on the podcast here and on the YouTube channel here
I've also been asked to take part in this year's BBC Children in Need 'Children in Read' auction and though the auction is not yet live, here's a little taster of what's on offer
March 2022
This month has been a busy one, given that it is Women's History Month. As well as new article on my own blog, I wrote a piece for the Pen & Sword Books blog, and you can catch that HERE
I was also interviewed on the Royals, Rebels and Romantics Podcast, where I chatted about powerful women in Anglo-Saxon England with host Carol Ann Lloyd. You can here our chat HERE
January 2022
I'm delighted to announce that I shall be contributing a chapter to a new anthology, Kings and Queens: 1200 Years of English Monarchs, which will be published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2023. You can find out more about the book and the other contributors HERE
December 2021
A great end to the writing year: one of my short stories was shortlisted for the prestigious Exeter Novel Prize Short Story award!
And my interview for the Seb Whitehouse YouTube Channel went live. Listen to our chat HERE
I have a few exciting projects lined up for New Year - announcements soon!
October 2021
The Ask Historians Digital Conference was held and I took part in a roundtable discussion about the misrepresentation of women in early medieval history. You can watch the discussion HERE
September 2021
I'm delighted to announce that my new novel, The Sins of the Father, is available on Kindle (the paperback will be published very soon EDIT: it is now available). It can be purchased HERE
There's also some exciting news about our collection of short stories, 1066 Turned Upside Down, which is now available in paperback for the first time. You can find it HERE
I was invited to the Tudors Dynasty Podcast to talk about Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, and her extraordinary life. You can listen HERE
August 2021
I'm pleased to announce that the follow-up to my novel Cometh the Hour is now available for pre-order.
The Sins of the Father is the second and final book in the Tales of the Iclingas series and is available to order HERE
I've also been busy recording a paper and round-table panel discussion for an upcoming online History conference. More details soon.
May 2021
I've had my head down since the publication of Betrayal, working on the follow up to Cometh the Hour and there will also be some news soon about an exciting development with 1066 Turned Upside Down
I'm hoping the new novel will be published at some point over the summer - once again I've been working with Cathy Helms of Avalon Graphics who has come up with a beautiful cover design which we'll reveal a little nearer the time.
November 2020
Our Anthology, Betrayal, was published and has been receiving wonderful reviews. I was delighted that the Historical Novel Society highlighted my story and said: “Love to Hatred Turn’d” by Annie Whitehead, set in the Anglo-Saxon court, provides a sweeping scope, fine period details, and beautiful writing."
Helen Hollick and I went on our blog tour and you can find all the links HERE
October 2020
Very soon, a new anthology of historical stories will be published. You can see the cover image on the 'Anthologies' page...
October is shaping up to be an exciting month. Renowned author Helen Hollick and I embarked on a joint blog tour, Stepping Back into Saxon England - links to follow soon - and Alvar the Kingmaker had a facelift. This is to coincide with another project, which will be announced very soon. Watch this space!
The paperback edition of Mercia: The Rise and Fall of a Kingdom is also scheduled for publication on 15th.
September 2020
My publishers, Pen & Sword Books, organised a blog tour to celebrate the US release of Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England. The tour was a mixture of reviews and articles and you can find all the links here:
https://anniewhitehead2.blogspot.com/2020/09/women-of-power-blog-tour.html
June 2020
These are still strange times but against all the odds Pen & Sword Books were able to publish the hardback edition of Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England
I've been honoured to be invited to a number of blog sites to talk about these amazing Anglo-Saxon women and you can find the articles here:
In search of a royal sister at the History Lair
At the English Historical Fiction Authors' blog
Meanwhile the paperback edition of Mercia: The Rise and Fall of a Kingdom is up for pre-order and I'm thrilled that in recent weeks both books have hit the #1 spot for Hot New Releases in Anglo-Saxon History on Amazon.
I've been approached to do a couple of talks later in the year and we can only hope that things are a little more normal by then.
April 2020
We are living through some strange and worrying times, aren't we? Before we all went into lockdown I was able to celebrate Women's History Month by chatting to author Elizabeth St John about my writing and I contributed to Gillian Polack's series for Women in History. Here are the links:
February 2020
I'm delighted to announce that my new nonfiction book, Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England, is available for pre-order, prior to its release on May 30. You can order it at: http://mybook.to/WomeninPower
Autumn 2019
I was thrilled to be able to attend the HWA Crown Awards in London. Two years ago I set off to receive my award for winning the HWA/Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition but all trains into London were cancelled that evening. This year I was able to attend, in my capacity as first round judge and it was a wonderful evening. I have seen the cover design for the new book about Anglo-Saxon women and can't wait to share it here! Meanwhile I am working on a collection of short stories and will be working on the sequel to Cometh the Hour in the New Year.
Summer 2019
I've spent the summer working on edits and proofs for a new book about Anglo-Saxon women, which will be published by Pen & Sword Books in 2020. Cover reveal soon, I hope!
I was one of the judges for the Historical Novel Society short Story Competition, and I've also been involved in the first round judging of the HWA/Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Awards. I was the winner of this competition two years ago and was honoured to be asked to judge the entries in this year's competition.
Meanwhile, Mercia: The Rise and Fall of a Kingdom received a wonderful review from All the book Blog Names are Taken
December 2018
On the very last day of 2018 I received notification that To Be A Queen had been chosen as Historical Fiction book of the year by the review site Mr Book Squirrel. This award is really special because I didn't submit the book for review, so it was a complete surprise! You can read the original review here.
I was thrilled to be asked by Staffordshire Live for my thoughts on the portrayal of Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, in the Netflix series The Last Kingdom. Here's the link to the interview/article, wonderfully put together by Josh Layton:
https://www.staffordshire-live.co.uk/news/local-news/regal-loyal-deadly-expert-eye-2302643
I'm also delighted that having reviewed my history of Mercia (Click to read the review HERE) Glynn Young then chose it as his nonfiction book of the year! Here's the link: https://faithfictionfriends.blogspot.com/2018/12/best-books-im-not-recommending-for.html
Mercia: The rise and Fall of a Kingdom received a wonderful review from Adventures in Historyland
October 2018
I was honoured to speak at a meeting of the Garstang Historical Society. I delivered a talk about 'Anglo-Saxon Attitudes', looking at pre-Conquest outlooks on marriage, childhood, religion, death and war. I was given a warm welcome, got chatting afterwards and sold my books. A wonderful evening.
September 2018
[Update: the book hit #1 shortly after I posted this!]
I'm delighted to announce that Mercia: The Rise and Fall of a Kingdom has been published by Amberley Books and on its second day in the big wide world is sitting at #2 in its category and has already received two wonderful reviews:
It's available from Amazon
from Amberley and all good bookstores
August 2018
I had a wonderful time in Tamworth speaking about the Lady of the Mercians. I even met the Lady herself! If you would like to read the transcript of my talk, it's here: https://anniewhitehead2.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-thelfld-paradox-my-tamworth-litfest.html
June 2018
In the week of the 1100th anniversary of the death of the Lady of the Mercians, my novel, To Be A Queen, will be on special offer at 99p/99c from 12 June to 18th June 2018 http://mybook.to/To-Be-A-Queen
May 2018
I'm delighted to announce that I have been invited to speak at the Tamworth Literary Festival on July 14th 2018. Tickets are available from this site.
November 2017
I was thrilled to learn that my story, A Poppy Against the Sky, had won the HWA/Dorothy Dunnett Short Story award. You can read the story HERE
