Peter Holland (author)
The author of four historical fiction novels set in the 17th and 18th centuries, Peter was inspired to write whilst working on his MA in Early Modern History 1500-1800 (University of London).
Barbary Slave and its sequel, 1656, are about the little known white slave trade centred around North Africa and the Ottoman Empire. Over a 250 years period more than 1.25 million European Christians were seized by Corsairs and sold into slavery. Their daring raids were mainly along the Mediterranean coastline and out in the Atlantic, but reached as far north as Iceland.
Susan Bounty set in the same period as the author's first two novels concerns the political, religious and social changes in England during the Republic decade of the 1650s. A Puritan Parliament passed a raft of morality laws to make England a more godly country, which made adultery, fornication, blasphemy, heresy and sedition serious crimes, some punishable by death. Men with power in Parliament could use them to crush dissenters calling for greater political rights and religious freedom. Susan Bounty was an young woman in danger of becoming a casualty through a love affair with a married man.
Benjamin Squirrell and the Hadleigh Workhouse is set at the end of the 18th century in the small Suffolk market town where the author lives. His MA dissertation was on Hadleigh's workhouse in this period, providing plenty of information on which to hang a novel about corruption, greed and abuse of power by the workhouse master.
All four novels have been published through Brigand London. www.brigand.london
The author is currently working on writing screenplays for two of his novels, as well as collaborating with fellow Brigand author, Neil Davies, on his novel Falling Soldiers, a gritty thriller set in London following the struggles of former soldiers trying to cope with Civvy Street post-Afghanistan.