R.N. Morris's Blog

By “this”, I mean keeping my blog up to date. For example, on Thursday I had a new book come out. Cover Story. I should have really posted something on the blog to mark the occasion, but I forgot. So this is like one of those “sorry I missed your birthday” cards. Addressed to my …

I’m not very good at this Read More »

Hello, if you’ve wandered here from I don’t know where. If you were looking for something but didn’t find it, hello. Or maybe you did. If so, hello. I’m glad you found what you were looking for. Hello if you’ve ever read any of my books. And if you haven’t. Hello to you too. There …

Hello Read More »

That’s right. I’ve got a new book coming out. The title is still top secret. Hush hush. Under wraps. Need to know. But if you think you can guess what it is, you could win a copy of the paperback as soon as it’s available. UK entrants only, I’m afraid, though if you’re outside the …

Guess the title of my next book and win a paperback Read More »

Apparently, Crime and Punishment is Pedro Pascal’s favourite book. That seemed a good enough reason for me to make another animation…

I was thrilled to discover that Death of a Princess has made it onto the longlist for the inaugural SpyMasters Book Prize. As you can see from the list below, it’s in distinguished company. I don’t expect I’ll be on the shortlist when it’s announced in October, so I will make the most of it …

I’m on a longlist! Read More »

I’ve been taking a break from writing. To begin with, I decided to step back from my day job writing podcast scripts. The plan was, I would spend more time developing my own fiction projects. I mapped out five prospective ideas for new books, and with the help of my agent whittled it down to …

I just like moving things around Read More »

As well as writing historical novels such as Death of a Princess, I also work as a scriptwriter for a number of True Crime and History podcasts. The latest is A Curious History of your Home, which you can listen to on BBC Sounds. I explore the different requirements and challenges of the two types …

Writing historical fiction vs writing history podcasts Read More »

November/December is always a stressful time for any author who’s had a book come out in the preceding year. Everywhere you look, you see books of the year lists, in which your book inevitably doesn’t feature. So it was a truly unexpected surprise to discover that Death of a Princess has been picked by not …

Death of a Princess makes best books of 2024 round-up (twice!) Read More »

Whenever Beryl Bainbridge finished a novel, she would make a painting inspired by the book. It feels like it might have been a way of getting the novel fully out of her system, enabling her to move on to a new project. Although apparently, the real reason was that when she was writing she missed …

My trailer ritual Read More »

I’ve written a couple of articles about the background to my new book, Death of a Princess. The first begins: “In 1879 a group of eleven young people descended on the quiet Russian spa town of Lipetsk, over 700 miles south of St Petersburg. The ten men and one woman stood out from the geriatric …

Hot off the (virtual) press Read More »