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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:
magimedi · 01/02/2016 19:51

Has to be Wolf Hall - the writing is so superb & the sense of period is amazing.

BlackSusie2004 · 01/02/2016 19:50

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough was brilliant, I read it many years ago and really enjoyed it.

clopper · 01/02/2016 19:48

I love Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, all the Simon Scarrow Eagles of the Empire series and the series on Genghis Khan by Conn Iggulden (Lords of the Bow, Wolf of the Plains etc.)

ktmd · 01/02/2016 19:24

War Horse by Michael Morpurgo kept my whole class gripped!

Givemecoffeeplease · 01/02/2016 19:14

Can I say Jilly Cooper for her accurate representation of the 80s?!

If not then Wolf Hall.

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 01/02/2016 19:11

The Town House by Norah Lofts.

Cineraria · 01/02/2016 19:10

My favourites are Amin Maalouf's historical novels, e.g. The Rock of Tanios, Samarkand, The Gardens of Light and particularly Leo the African. I liked the way they really immerse me in a different time and place by allowing me to see amazing events through the eyes of an onlooker and have read them all several times. I was so excited when I actually visited both Fes and Granada and saw places that were mentioned in Leo the African.

floorflock · 01/02/2016 19:08

The Last Campaign of Marianne Tambour by David Ebsworth

dawnio63 · 01/02/2016 18:53

the book thief was brilliant, I much preferred it to the film!

sjonlegs · 01/02/2016 18:45

Hmmm favourite historical novel ... it's have to be either Little Women, Gone With the Wind, Wuthering Heights or To Kill A Mockingbird. All equally fabulous and with some profound message or another. I'm a massive fan of the classics and really enjoy historical novels.

sallyc06 · 01/02/2016 18:40

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, with its irresistible heroine is absolutely fantastic, a real classic!

ninnytendo · 01/02/2016 18:38

I love historical novels, especially those set around WWII. The one that comes to mind right now is "The Death's Head Chess Club" by John Donoghue which I read last year and absolutely loved. I also like "City of Thieves" by David Benioff and "The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite" by Beatrice Colin. There are too many novels to list as historical fiction is my favourite genre.

Valski · 01/02/2016 18:37

Put Out The Lights by Terry Deary (aimed at around 10 yr old children and explains so much in an appropriate way.. Is fiction)

ZigZag (About Operation Mincemeat.. Unputdownable)

Maddaddam · 01/02/2016 18:34

I have many favourite books written a long time ago, but, assuming "historical novel" has to be one written significantly after the events described (does it?) I might choose War and Peace.
Or perhaps Tale of Two Cities.

I was quite mesmerised by Helen Dunmore's The Siege, which is why I came onto the thread. It was chilling but unforgettable.

Andrews55 · 01/02/2016 18:30

War Horse by Michael Morpurgo was excellent. I also enjoyed The Lie by Helen Dunmore.

(I loved The Miniaturist too, henbane)

glasgow1975 · 01/02/2016 18:29

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber

henbane · 01/02/2016 18:25

And I've just thought of The Miniaturist, which I've just read!

FoxInABox · 01/02/2016 18:23

I adored the help, and Calling Me Home. I almost found myself thinking in a southern American drawl! I also love all of Kate Mortons books- early 1900s novels that set the scene beautifully of period houses and estates. I also loved Lesley Pearces Belle series, again wary 1900s. I loved wolf hall too and also (although I seem in the minority!) really enjoyed the Tv adaptation.

GranAnn42 · 01/02/2016 18:23

Definitely has to be Swallows and Amazons - reminds me of my childhood! Mucky constantly.

henbane · 01/02/2016 18:20

As a teenager I loved Margaret Irwin's historical novels about the Tudor and Stuart period. My favourite was "The Stranger Prince: The Story of Rupert of the Rhine". More recently it has to be Wolf Hall which I only read after seeing the tv series - now I'm searching charity shops for Bring Up the Bodies.

SouthWestmom · 01/02/2016 18:14

It's the villa triste by lucretia grindle, mixing second world war with modern day. Absolutely beautiful and engrossing. It's a find I just picked off a bookshelf in the shop and is now in my top three books.

burwellmum · 01/02/2016 18:14

I also remember enjoying The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey when I was a teenager as did my DD when I gave it to her. When I was younger I loved Rosemary Sutcliff's books such as the Eagle of the Ninth trilogy which seem to have completely disappeared.

CoteDAzur · 01/02/2016 18:12

This Thing Of Darkness

Runners-up:

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
The Luminaries
Measuring The World

Wolf Hall would not even make it into the first hundred.

lesley37 · 01/02/2016 18:05

My favourite book is Gone with the wind.

Cerealchanger · 01/02/2016 18:04

I second 'Katherine' by Anya Seton, I loved it as a teenager. I also enjoyed 'pillars of the earth' by ken follett.

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