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What's your favourite historical novel? Tell us and be in with a chance to WIN a SIGNED COPY of Helen Dunmore's new novel Exposure plus backlist book bundle

138 replies

UrsulaMumsnet · 01/02/2016 15:11

Set against a backdrop of the Cold War, spies and scandal, Helen Dunmore's remarkable new novel, Exposure, out this week, tells the story of a woman's determination to protect her family at all costs. When Lily's husband is accused of passing on highly sensitive information to the Soviets, and arrested, Lily is forced to confront forbidden love, intimate betrayal and the devastating power of exposure.

"Exposure is the sort of winter read you hanker for...the period is so meticulously re-created that you almost hear the hiss of the gas streetlamps." - The Times

"This book is a triumph - a marvellous piece of seamless storytelling." - Penelope Lively

Share your favourite historical novels for a chance to win a signed copy of Exposure, plus a backlist bundle of books including Sunday Times bestseller The Lie and The Betrayal.

Helen Dunmore is the author of fourteen novels. Her first, Zennor in Darkness, explored the events which led to D H Lawrence’s expulsion from Cornwall (on suspicion of spying) during the First World War. It won the McKitterick Prize. Her third novel, A Spell of Winter, won the inaugural Orange Prize, now the Bailey’s Prize for Women’s Fiction. Her bestselling novel The Siege, set during the Siege of Leningrad, was described by Antony Beevor as ‘a world-class novel’ and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel of the Year and the Orange Prize.

She is fascinated by the Cold War era, which was also the era of her childhood, and is the setting for Exposure, and by the secrets, betrayals, loves, lies and loyalties which make up the period’s intimate history.

What's your favourite historical novel? Tell us and be in with a chance to WIN a SIGNED COPY of Helen Dunmore's new novel Exposure plus backlist book bundle
What's your favourite historical novel? Tell us and be in with a chance to WIN a SIGNED COPY of Helen Dunmore's new novel Exposure plus backlist book bundle
What's your favourite historical novel? Tell us and be in with a chance to WIN a SIGNED COPY of Helen Dunmore's new novel Exposure plus backlist book bundle
OP posts:
Belo · 02/02/2016 09:12

I thoroughly enjoyed the Map of Love by Ahdaf Souief. It is one of my favourite books.

www.ahdafsoueif.com/Books/the_map_of_love.htm

I learned about the days of Colonial Egypt and was swept up in the love story of Anna and Sherif. I couldn't put it down.

SuzCG · 02/02/2016 09:12

Memoirs of a Geisha, for me.

amysmum18 · 02/02/2016 08:44

I love Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks. A really interesting read about the SOE during the war.

furryleopard · 02/02/2016 08:21

I love Gone With the Wind - it's just the most epic, detailed and beautifully written story. It portrays the South as romantic but wrong, Scarlett is beautiful but flawed, Melanie is plain yet heroic, Rhett is a coward but brave, Ashley is brave but a coward. Wonderful stuff. I read it when I was 14 and it changed my life, from wanting to study sciences I changed to English as the book had moved me so much I wanted to read and study books all the time!

piebald · 02/02/2016 08:12

I loved The Shardlake series, also The long road to the deep north was an extraordinary book
Charlotte Grey by Sebastion Faulks ( although I couldn't read BirdsonG)

CordeliaScott · 02/02/2016 08:04

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Roomba · 02/02/2016 07:24

A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel. It enthralled me, and as a PP said it's not a period that we tend to study in the UK so I knew almost nothing about it before I read this.

Also Wolf Hall - just brilliant.

Booklover123 · 02/02/2016 06:34

A town like Alice by Nevil shute is my favourite, describes the cruelty and terrible ordeals of world war 2 plus the eventual triumphs.

putthePuffindown · 02/02/2016 01:21

Earth's children series by Jean Auel is my fav, but only loosely falls in the category so may not count, if not then the conquerer series by Conn Iggulden

StillNoFuckingEyeDeer · 02/02/2016 01:12

The Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker.
The Alienist.

LadyIsabellaWrotham · 01/02/2016 23:41

Hang on a minute. I restrained my inner pedant when people mentioned Pride and Prejudice and The Daughter of Time, neither of which count as historical novels in my book. But Lord of the Flies takes place in the middle of a nuclear war!

dangerous123 · 01/02/2016 23:33

Lord of the flies

Loula100 · 01/02/2016 23:27

Any of the Philippa Gregory books. Love how they take you back in time

DramaAlpaca · 01/02/2016 22:58

Yet another vote for Katherine, by Anya Seton. I've lost count of the number of times I've read it since I first came across it as a teenager.

cambridgemumof4 · 01/02/2016 22:56

Elizabeth Jane Howard - the Light Years- we rad it for Book Group last week and all loved it. What a great writer! Fabulous characters! And there are four or five more in the series....

Artus · 01/02/2016 22:30

Another vote for Dorothy Dunnetts Lymond novels, but many others mentioned are great too. Edith Pargeter's Heaven Tree trilogy hasn't been mentioned. She has a very distinctive style that wont appeal to everyone though.

todormirchev · 01/02/2016 22:20

I would choose Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged. I also enjoyed Ken Follett and his Century Trilogy (Fall of Gians, Winter of the World and Edge of Eternity).

Andcake · 01/02/2016 22:14

So many 'an instance in the finger post' comes to mind straight away so cleverly written ideal for a mystery

anonooo · 01/02/2016 22:01

The short summer of anarchy by hm enzensberger. Great book about Spanish civil war.

Supermam · 01/02/2016 21:59

"Life after Life" by Kate Atkinson. I thought her descriptions of London during the Blitz were incredibly moving and made it vividly alive.

blogmumjd · 01/02/2016 21:58

I love Philippa Gregory's books. Think The Red Queen is probably my favourite

PeopleOnTheEdgeOfTheNight · 01/02/2016 21:54

I recommend Rose of Sebastopol by Katherine McMahon, which is set during the Crimean war.

minsmum · 01/02/2016 21:49

Wolf hall, The siege and the Stranger Prince are without doubt wonderful books. I would also add Mila 18 by Leon Uris

Fumnudge · 01/02/2016 21:28

I have loved many mentioned here depending on my age at the time.
The Vizard Mask by Diana Norman sticks in my mind as a great fun read and I was so very upset and moved by The Book Thief

MissElizaBennett · 01/02/2016 21:24

I've always been fascinated by the Roman period, and as a child I loved the Eagle of the Ninth trilogy (another vote for Rosemary Sutcliffe, burwellmum!).

My go-to comfort reads now are Lindsey Davis's series of detective novels set in first-century Rome (The Silver Pigs is the first), which star Marcus Didius Falco as a would-be hardboiled private eye. Warm, witty and stuffed with a wonderful cast of supporting characters, including exotic dancers (though not as many as Falco would like), dodgy landlords, exasperating relatives, stray dogs, suspicious senators and Falco's nemesis, the Emperor's Chief Spy...

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