Matthew Harffy and Justin Hill are back with a packed episode: first, a candid catch-up on where their writing is at right now, and then a deep-dive listener Q&A that covers some of the biggest questions in historical fiction writing.

Matthew has just delivered his Roman novel to his publisher. He's also completed a short story for the forthcoming Stamford Bridge anthology (told from a woman's perspective, covering just a few hours of the battle's aftermath). And he has fresh news: his publisher wants more books!

Justin, meanwhile, has delivered his Stamford Bridge short story (after several extensions and a structural breakthrough involving flashbacks), received enthusiastic feedback from his agent on his new contemporary novel, and had his Games Workshop/Black Library pitch approved. It's all happening.

The Q&A is a wide-ranging conversation that will resonate with writers and readers alike. Listener Trish Smith fires off a series of brilliant questions: when do you know a story is finished? Do you listen to music when you write? Who do you write for? What does "killing your darlings" really mean? And can you write about something you've never experienced?

Listener questions from Matt Muller and Chris Hind take things further: how do you convey the scale of mass combat when your protagonist can only see six feet in any direction? What do authors consistently get wrong about fighting? What's the single best battle scene either of them has ever read? Is there a line between historical fiction and fantasy, and have either of them been tempted to cross it? Can a D&D campaign feed directly into a novel? And is there really an appetite for more Westerns, and if so, why won't publishers touch them?

It's a conversation about craft, perseverance, landscape, archetypes, and why Jack Reacher is basically a knight errant.

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In this special episode of Rock, Paper, Swords, Matthew Harffy and Justin Hill take you behind the scenes of the Herne’s Arrow event at Chepstow, celebrating 42 years of Robin of Sherwood.

Invited to host the cast and crew panels, Matthew and Justin spent a full weekend interviewing stars including Jason Connery, Michael Praed, Nicholas Grace, Rula Lenska, and many more. They share stories from backstage, unexpected moments with the cast, what it was like moderating panels in front of hundreds of devoted fans, and why the Robin of Sherwood community remains so special four decades on.

This episode also features a montage of recordings from around the event grounds, conversations with attendees, and reflections on one of Britain’s most beloved cult television series.

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Rock, Paper, Swords! — Episode: The Crusader Storm with Nicholas Morton Released 12th June 2026

Matthew Harffy and Justin Hill are joined by historian Nicholas Morton, associate professor at Nottingham Trent University and author of the new book The Crusader Storm: A Global History of the Wars for the Middle East (out 4th June 2026).

The Crusades are one of history's most argued-over subjects — and Nicholas Morton thinks most people have got them wrong. In this wide-ranging conversation, he makes the case that the wars for the Holy Land were never a simple clash between Christianity and Islam, but a messy, many-sided contest between rival empires, dynasties and cultures.

Along the way we talk about the extraordinary cast of individuals who populate his book — from a remarkably long-lived Arab nobleman who witnessed nearly the entire era, to Syriac Christians playing the long game between warring powers. We explore how Muslim Bedouin groups allied with the Crusaders, why Islamic medicine was flowing back to Western Europe, and how the demands of supplying the Crusader States drove a dramatic leap forward in medieval shipbuilding. We also get into the evolution of Crusader castles, the trade routes that made the Middle East the most strategically valuable region on earth, and what — if anything — the medieval period can tell us about the modern one.

Plus: how do you write popular history without guessing? Can AI translate ancient Syriac? And is Nicholas Morton already thinking about an Ottoman Storm?

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