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Original poster

Can anyone recommend any good historical fiction please?

42 replies

lowra · 21/08/2012 17:48

By historical I mean middle ages type era? Thriller, crime or romance...

Thanks

OP posts:
JRsandCoffee · 23/08/2012 12:34

Sorry if you've read the below but thinking.

Katherine - Anya Seton, the Mummy of all historical novels of a romantic variety ;-) If you haven't read it, about Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt

Alison Weir's novel The Lady Elizabeth about Elizabeth 1's coming to the throne was pretty good but the captive queen or whatever it was was drivel I thought and just not worthy of an otherwise great author I felt. Her factual books are very good, have read a few of them and pretty good reads I found. Her other historical novels get pretty good reviews also though haven't read them.

Jean Plaidy - pick an era, any era......and there will be something, written years and years ago but really good stuff although some of the history persepectives are shall we say a bit unfashionable these days.

Second everyone who recommended Wolf Hall and CJ Sansom.

Also, randomly and out of the right times completely the Boudica series by Manda Scott was pretty gripping.

PomBearWithAnOFRS · 23/08/2012 00:36

My all time favourite historical one has to be Here be Dragons by Sharon Penman.

CoteDAzur · 22/08/2012 13:57

Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco
Trial of the Templars (non-fiction)

If you don't insist on middle ages:
This Thing Of Darkness

YouBloodyWolf · 22/08/2012 03:52

It's possibly a bit later than you asked for, but Sarah Dunant absolutely blew me away with In the Company of the Courtesan and The Birth of the Venus.

MegBusset · 21/08/2012 20:22

Also, The Name Of The Rose by Umberto Eco.

highlandcoo · 21/08/2012 20:17

Agree with Hilary Mantel - brilliant - and CJ Sansom, you could also try Karen Maitland for more thriller-ish writing. I enjoyed Company of Liars and just about to read The Owl Killers.

Original poster
lowra · 21/08/2012 19:50

Thanks for the recommendations Smile

OP posts:
Milliways · 21/08/2012 19:00

Have you read Ken Follet - Pillars of the Earth and it's sequel? I loved those.

Pantah630 · 21/08/2012 18:41

Oops missed the middle ages bit Blush....my recommendation a fair few years prior!

bamboostalks · 21/08/2012 18:41

All of Sharon Penman gut particularly The Sunne in Splendour. Truly amazing and romantic. Very accurate too.....in as far as I would know!

Pantah630 · 21/08/2012 18:40

Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series....it's brilliant, well written and researched. A fictional tale set around historical fact.

joanofarchitrave · 21/08/2012 18:32

[jumps on bandwagon] and I have never forgotten reading A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel, but I read it at 18 which is when I had more time for reading, I think I was buried in it for about 2 weeks solid so it's not a light proposition.

Olivia Manning's Balkan Trilogy was amazing at the time I read it. Can't remember much about it but the atmosphere.

TheDreadedFoosa · 21/08/2012 18:17

I second Wolf Hall. Brilliant.

MegBusset · 21/08/2012 18:16

Wolf Hall / Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel - these are fabulous.

ODearMe · 21/08/2012 18:15

I loved Phillippa Gregory's stuff for an easy read.

joanofarchitrave · 21/08/2012 18:15

I assume you've read the Ellis Peters ones. One Body Too Many is my fave if you haven't, but there are loads.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 21/08/2012 18:13

Try CJ Sansom - tis Tudor but some of the best historical stuff out there imho.

Middle ages - try 'Mistress Of The Art Of Death' which is the first in a series - not great but not bad.