Anyone who has read any of my stories will know I have a fascination with the past, specifically the more recent past. Writing my first series of Sussex Crime novellas I spent happy hours researching what life was like on the Home Front in England during the Second World War.

Research for my novels took me to another place in history – the 1960s. Here I was able to immerse myself in the ups and downs of the ‘swinging sixties’ as it might have been experienced by characters living in Sussex during this era of significant cultural change.

I have been writing fiction for about ten years now, delving ever more deeply into family and social life during the early part of the twentieth century, so it might not come as a surprise to you that I am keen to learn more. So, earlier this month, I began to study an MA in Contemporary History with the University of Birmingham.

Already, a few weeks in, I can see that the course will do more than just quench my thirst for insight as to what happened and why, but it will take me down endless fascinating rabbit holes of research, such that I wish I could have a 48-hour day in which to read all the wonderful texts that are out there.

But, I have made a start. My reading so far has allowed me to dip into the international economic, political, cultural and social shifts that occurred after the Great War and continued for subsequent decades. The world was ‘carved up’ into empires and colonies, with implications for nations across the globe that are making the news headlines today.

I have been invited to challenge the concept of ‘modernity’, (a description often used about twentieth century Western societies) posing the question as to whether such a broad term can have any meaning. After all, people across the centuries have considered themselves more ‘modern’ than their predecessors, as far back as the 5th Century, when Christians compared themselves with Pagans.

I have looked at the way the mass violence of WW1 resulted in the reconfiguring the modern states that slowly emerged from the war. The ‘victors’ in that war chose to apportion nations previously controlled by the ‘losers’, to be overseen by the League of Nations via a mandate system that was discriminatory and often cruel.

Of course, moves towards anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism soon emerged, with mass migration enabling a sharing of ideas. Developments in travel – the airplane, the car, steamships – all meant people could move across borders like never before. In fact, I have only just learned that passports were only introduced after WW1 – originally as a temporary measure!

My most recent readings have taken me into world of fiction once more.

Early on in the 20th Century, German sociologist, historian, and political economist, Max Weber, famously said that Western societies were living in a period of ‘disenchantment’ as a result of the expansion of the ‘rational’ sciences. Instead, historians argue, we have discovered new ways to be ‘enchanted’, via mass media, literary fictional worlds, consumerism, and fandom.

So, for now, that has brought me full circle back into my fictional world of the 1960s. With that in mind, I am delighted to report that my most recent novella, Storms of Change reached No 1 in the UK History category on Amazon! What could be more fitting?!

I hope to keep you posted with more fascinating historical discoveries over coming weeks and months!

Meanwhile, if you have any historical insights you would like to share, feel free to leave a message!