The Historical Novel Society was founded in the UK in 1997. At first it was conceived of as something of a campaigning society, because historical fiction was in the doldrums then. Or at least that was the perception. Our magazine Solander tried to alter that amongst authors and publishers.

Quickly a second magazine was conceived, the Historical Novels Review. This was because we found our members enjoyed reviewing, and publishers and authors appreciated the feedback.

In time we began to realise that the sheer scale of the review magazine was the best argument you could make for the strength of the genre. We also recognised that our reviews could grow to be the best and most complete guide to the genre, and that there was a unique value in that. There are now more than 20,000 reviews online, with as many as we can squeeze into our magazine.