Today, I'm delighted to welcome Paul Rushworth-Brown to the #HistFicThursdays blog as part his Coffee Pot Book Club 's book tour. Today, meet Paul's new book The Lost Voices , and discover your next great read! Read on to enjoy an excerpt from this gripping book! First of all, let's meet the book... Some lives pass through history without leaving a trace. The Lost Voices is a work of historical fiction that brings to light those whose stories were never formally recorded—not because they lacked significance, but because their lives unfolded beyond the reach of power, authorship, and recognition. This is the story of ordinary people forced into extraordinary circumstances—individuals navigating a rigid social order shaped by obligation, fear, and quiet resistance. Here, survival depends as much on silence as on action, and choices are made not in moments of glory, but in private, under pressure, and with consequences rarely acknowledged. The novel explores how perso...
I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone that I took the title for this short story from a poem! If you are unfamiliar with the poem, I've included it at the bottom of this post rather than here since it gives away a significant part of the plot. So here is a little piece of historical sci-fi because, as fans of Doctor Who know, sci-fi is not limited to the future! Girolamo Fabrizio (from Wikipedia) Invention, Nature's Child Candlelight flickered in the small office, the pale stone walls alive with dancing shadows. They were monstrous, not in size but in shape. Deformed oddities and dissected organs in jars which refracted the flame’s glow. “Sir?” Harvey asked. There was no sign of his teacher. “Doctor Fabrizio?” “You’re returning to your language already?” came an amused voice from behind an amphora. It spoke in Italian, but Harvey had heard almost no other language in three years, making it easy to understand. Adjusting his own speech accordingly, he replied. “I am to leav...