Mary Chamberlain's Blog

This is a podcast interview I did for the Mathrubhumi Literary Festival which I attended last year in Kerala – and a wonderful literary festival it was too! You may be interested…

For those who read Malayalam, here is an interview with me by Shabitha MK that appeared during the recent MBIFL.

https://www.mathrubhumi.com/special-pages/mbifl-2024/interview-with-mary-chamberlain-1.9312936

https://shepherd.com/best-books/forgotten-or-untold-histories-of-war

You may be interested in this short article I published in Historia Magazine about the Partisan Coffee House, which features in my new novel, The Forgotten.

The Partisan, socialist cafe and creative centre

Saturday 11 October 2021 3.30pm

Talking about historical fiction with novelist Gill Paul and documentary maker Caroline Raphael

Chiswick Book Festival 2021 – Fine Fiction at The Chiswick Cinema

Sex and the Citadel: Rape and War

I was honoured to be invited to contribute to the blog from the acclaimed Solitudes. Past and present research programme, under the directorship of the brilliant Professor Barbara Taylor, at Queen Mary, University of London. So, here it is – and while you’re at it, do browse the website, and read some of the other extraordinary contributions!

An Imaginary Midden

Here is a piece I wrote on my top tips for historical fiction, published in Women Writers, Women’s Books today, 14 March. Enjoy!

http://booksbywomen.org/my-top-tips-for-writing-historical-novels/

Do click on the link for the exciting announcement about my new novel THE FORGOTTEN…

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/oneworld-scoops-unputdownable-third-chamberlain-novel-1240665

It is 1958. The Cold War is about to enter its deadliest phase. John Harris, a London school teacher and Betty Fisher, a typist from Hatfield, meet at the inaugural meeting of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. They fall in love, but their affair is abruptly ended when Anatoly, a Russian diplomat, enters their world. They find themselves unlikely and unwilling protagonists in the paranoid world of espionage and nuclear warfare which began, for both of them, but in very different ways, in Berlin in 1945. For neither John, nor Betty, are who they appear to be…

Told in two time frames, and places – London 1958 and Berlin 1945 – The Forgotten is a story of war and its aftermath, of truth, accountability, love and trust.

The Forgotten will be published by Oneworld in September 2021.