Rock, Paper, Swords! - the Historical Action and Adventure Podcast

A special, shorter bonus episode — and the final stop on our HNS 2026 Maynooth coverage. Recorded live at the Historical Novel Society's Maynooth conference, Matthew and Justin sit down with historical fiction author MJ Porter (aka Melissa) for the only long-form interview they recorded that weekend.
MJ talks ferry-only travel to Ireland, a nervy trip into the Newgrange passage tomb, St Kevin and Glendalough, her Saxon Mercia novels and her latest release about King Offa, what she's writing next, and a surprise same-day release of a Warhammer 40,000 novel. Enjoy this one — normal service resumes next episode!
Support the podcast: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RockPaperSwordsPodcast
MJ Porter links
Website: https://www.mjporterauthor.com
Blog: https://mjporterauthor.blog
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/coloursofunison

It's a bumper one this week! Matthew Harffy and Justin Hill spent the weekend of 21–23 August at the Historical Novel Society's 2026 conference in Maynooth, Ireland, and grabbed dozens of short, on-the-spot interviews with historical novelists between sessions, in corridors, and over conference dinners.
Across the episode you'll hear from Frances Donovan, Carolyn Morgan, Vaseem Khan, Kevin Connolly, Griff Hosker, Laura Morelli, Martin Lake, Aidan Morrissey, Lawrence O'Bryan, Anna Belfrage, Susan Nolen, Katherine Mezzacappa, Liz Harris, Naveen Sridhar, Krishor Sridhar, Alison Morton, Maybelle Wallis and Margaret Skea — covering everything from a copper-boom sea voyage around Cape Horn to alternate-history Rome, a Sumerian priestess-poet, and a keynote on James Bond and the end of the Raj.
Plus: Tolkien's Irish footsteps, the story behind Matthew and Justin's after-dinner speech, and why AI shouldn't get to write your stories.
🔗 Links: https://linktr.ee/rockpaperswords🔗 Patreon (bonus episodes, including the after-dinner speech): https://patreon.com/RockPaperSwordsPodcast
(A quick confession for patrons: We always read out the names of Patreon Producers and higher tiers, but in all of the excitement of editing, we forgot to include that in this episode. But that in no way lessens our gratitude to our Patreon Producers: Ben Maher, Andy Maxwell, Ben Fox, George Johnson, Matt Muller, and Tricia!
Our VIP, Bader Khrais!
And our Legend, Adam Turner!
Usual service will be resumed in subsequent episodes.)
#HistoricalFiction #HistFic #HNS2026 #HistoricalNovelSociety

Rock, Paper, Swords — the historical action and adventure podcast — welcomes explorer Thor Pedersen, author of The Impossible Journey.
In October 2013, 34-year-old Dane Thor Pedersen left home with one absurd rule: reach every country on Earth without ever boarding a plane. No flights, no shortcuts — just cargo ships, buses and trains, through 203 countries. What he thought would take four years took almost ten, including a two-year pandemic lockdown in Hong Kong with nine countries still to go. Along the way he crossed deserts under armed escort, talked his way through hundreds of checkpoints in Central Africa, served as a Red Cross Goodwill Ambassador, got engaged on the summit of Mount Kenya, and got married not once but three times (online, in Vanuatu, and finally at a Danish town hall) just to make the paperwork stick. In May 2023 he set foot in the Maldives and completed his mission — the only person in history to reach every country on Earth without flying — a journey he now tells in full in his memoir, The Impossible Journey: 10 Years. 203 Countries. No Flights.
In this episode, Thor talks to Matthew Harffy and Justin Hill about:
The email from his father that started the whole obsession

Why Central Africa "nearly broke his back" — corruption, checkpoints, and the surreal bureaucracy of getting a single visa

Surviving the West African Ebola outbreak while travelling through the region

How he financed a decade on the road — corporate sponsorship, crowdfunding, skipped meals, and a very unexpected job at a Danish seafarers' mission in Hong Kong

Getting stuck in Hong Kong for two years during COVID-19, with the finish line agonisingly close

The love story that ran alongside the adventure, including a proposal on Mount Kenya

Turning a ten-year odyssey into a book: the "hero's journey" structure, what he left out, and the reader reactions that stuck with him

The documentary film years in the making, and the small taste of it currently on BBC iPlayer

Why he's not chasing "most travelled person" status, and what a possible second book — this time about hope — might look like

Also in this episode: Matthew and Justin catch up on summer writing projects, the perils of a multi-author historical anthology (the Battle of Stamford Bridge, 1066), a debate about AI-generated book covers, and the $2 million debut novel deal that collapsed over AI authorship questions.
About Thor Pedersen: Thor Pedersen (also known as Torbjørn C. Pedersen) is a Danish adventurer and the only person in history to have visited every country in the world without flying — a continuous, unbroken journey completed over nearly a decade. He served as a Red Cross Goodwill Ambassador throughout the project, "Once Upon a Saga," and is now a speaker and author. His memoir, The Impossible Journey, is out now in English and German, with a companion documentary film in the works. Learn more at thorpedersen.dk.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Thor Pedersen's website: thorpedersen.dk

The Impossible Journey (book): Amazon UK

BBC documentary feature: BBC iPlayer (search "The Impossible Journey")

Counting Countries podcast, hosted by Ric Gazarian (mentioned by Thor)

Support the show: Get 80% off all Patreon tiers throughout August 2026 with code 80AUGUST26 — patreon.com/rockpaperswordspodcast. Send us your best email or social media comment and if we read it out on air, you'll win 6 months of free Producer-level Patreon access: rockpaperswordspodcast@gmail.com

Did Harold Godwinson really force-march his army 190 miles to Hastings — or is that just Victorian storytelling? Matthew Harffy and Justin Hill are joined by Professor Tom Licence (University of East Anglia), whose new biography Harold: Warrior King is out 11 August 2026.
Tom walks us through the source-by-source detective work that made international news: why the "forced march" from Stamford Bridge doesn't hold up under the Latin, and why the evidence instead points to Harold's army moving by sea. We dig into what the Bayeux Tapestry actually says versus what its images imply, why the Victorians reshaped 1066 into a national origin myth, and why Harold — illegitimate, Anglo-Danish, and a first-generation product of Cnut's conquest — deserves recognition as a genuine military strategist rather than the doomed, headstrong king of legend.
Plus: news on Matthew's forthcoming Roman novel, Justin's new novel Bjorn the Fell-Handed, and a Patreon Odyssey bonus episode discount.
Get 80% off all Rock, Paper, Swords! Patreon tiers in August with code 80AUGUST26: https://www.patreon.com/RockPaperSwordsPodcast
Keywords: 1066, Battle of Hastings, Harold Godwinson, Anglo-Saxon history, Norman Conquest, Bayeux Tapestry, medieval history podcast, historical fiction podcast

Matthew and Justin review Christopher Nolan's epic adaptation of The Odyssey on Patreon this month.
Check out this preview of that bonus episode. If you want to hear the full episode and the back catalogue of all previous bonus episodes, sign up to Patreon at 80% DISCOUNT FOR THE WHOLE MONTH OF AUGUST ON ALL TIERS ! Just use the code 80AUGUST26

patreon.com/RockPaperSwordsPodcast
https://linktr.ee/RockPaperSwords