Solander is published twice a year by the Historical Novel Society. Together with its sister publication, the Historical Novels Review, it’s a fantastic resource for anyone interested in historical fiction.
By the way, the name Solander comes from Daniel Charles Solander (1736-1782), the botanist who was a pupil of Linnaeus. He was born in Sweden but came to England, where he became Assistant Librarian and afterwards Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum. In 1768 he was one of the botanists who travelled on the Endeavour with Captain Cook on his expedition to the Pacific. He invented a special box, which later became known as the Solander box, to preserve the plants he collected. It is still used today in libraries and archives to store manuscripts and other materials in an acid-free environment.
The HNS website states, the magazine was not named after the man but after the boxes, whose precious contents changed a generation’s attitude to their subject.
I’ve been the Profiles editor of Solander since early 2005, working with an editorial team managed by Claire Morris. It’s been a great opportunity to meet several leading historical fiction authors and to work with contributors to the magazine.
I can thoroughly recommend joining the Historical Novel Society – or even subscribing to the HNS newsletter covering recent reviews of historical fiction.
On the next pages I’ve included a few articles and reviews written for Solander and the Historical Novels Review. Although, I have taken care not to include any that have not already been published.
Here is the latest cover of Solander from May 2009. You can find the contents on the HNS website.
[...] Solander [...]