Historical fiction fans - step this way please......

hit and miss !! Obviously!!

if anyone wants to read good historical factual, I would recomment Sarah Gristwood as well.

My kind of thread. My too read list has just grown again. I would suggest Alison Weir although like Gregory she can be a bit hot and miss. I read the trilogy by Elizabeth Chadwick about Eleanor of Aquitaine and really enjoyed them. Pat Barker is great for WW1.

on the strength of this thread, I've just started Conn Iggulden, but can't say he wows me yet. Perhaps I'll try the Sunne in Splendour. Glad someone else loathes P Gregory.

Following this thread with interest as I love historical fiction but it has to be good stuff.

I love Sharon Penman btw, and loathe Phillippa Gregory. The Sunne In Splendour is one of my favourite books and I loved the characters in that so much that I can't read anyone else's interpretation of The War Of the Roses so the Conn Iggulden series was a no-no for me but others have said that it's not bad.

I love Sarah Waters' books. She just manages to evoke whatever time period she's writing about brilliantly and I think most of her books focus on the Victorian era but she has ventured into the 20's and 40's.

I loved An Instance of the Fingerpost too. I also loved Shardlake, Wolf Hall and The Luminaries and I'm a big fan of Manda Scott and Phillipa Gregory. I've recently discovered Ann Swinfen, who writes mostly about 16th century London. Her books only seem to be available on Kindle - I signed up for a free month's trial of Kindle Unlimited and read them all! Lexie Conyngham and Shirley McKay both write about St Andrews.
Others I would definitely recommend are Bruce Holsinger and Geraldine Brooks.

Lots of people recommend the Morland Dynasty books by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. There are millions of them, set in every time period from the Wars of the Roses onwards. I read the first one and thought it was OK but they weren't really for me.

YY to Shardlake and Wolf Hall :) Morality Play by Barry Unsworth is sitting unread on my bookshelf - looks good but I can't tell you whether it is or not!

Moving on from the Middle Ages, I like Clare Clark for gritty Victoriana (The Great Stink) - she also wrote an 18th century one which was very dark and gritty! Ace, King, Knave by Maria McCann is in a similar vein. Also:

Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller
This Thing of Darkness, Harry Thompson
Cicero series, Robert Harris

YY to Norah Lofts. THE historical novelist IMO. I've also just read, and loved, the 'Ends of the Earth' trilogy by William Golding, about an 18th journey to Australia by sailing ship. Wonderful.
Also anything by Mary Renault, especially The Bull from the Sea and The King Must Die

Ellis Peters wrote medieval historical fiction under her real name, Edith Pargeter. I don't know if it's currently available, but I remember enjoying it.

Lindsey Davis' Marcus Didius Falco series. I find them entertaining and I think her research is good.

Black William by Robert Neill - Jacobite plots in the North. Not especially gritty but not damsels in distress either. And Jacobites! In the North!

Restoration by Rose Tremain. Read the book and then see the film.

paffle fingerpost is thebbestbofbhis but I also enjoyed a dream of scipio too. The more recent stuff is not as good.

If you want mad crazy reformation Europe fiction then Q by Luther Blissert is excellent though truly bonkers

phylls I loved an instance at the fingerpost. I just read it again. Do you recommend any of his other books?

You would probably love Norah Lofts if you like gritty. She wrote a huge range of periods but her late medieval stuff is exceptional - try The Town House.

Shona Maclean and the Alexander Seaton - 1620s Scotland - the author has a PhD in history and it has enthralling detail.

Have you tried the Henry II series from Sharon Penman? I adore the Welsh ones and the Sunne in Splendour and also liked these one (although Henry has been my historical crush for some years which helps).

My dad loves Susanna Gregory as well as the Shardlakes. I like Iain Pears (an instance past the fingerpost).

The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor is set in the year of the Great Fire of London. I enjoyed it, thought it was a good story.

For novels of the Wars of the Roses, you could try the series written by Conn Iggulden.

I loved the Shardlake novels by C J Sansom, and also the Giordano Bruno series by S J Parris, which are set a little later in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Manda Scott for a well-researched fictional account of the life of Boudica, I was hooked and still regularly re-read these, it's made a bit of a Roman Britain nerd of me. She also has another Roman series under the name M.C. Scott.

Sarah Dunant is another writer I like. There is the odd heaving bosom in some of her books but it's not gratuitous heaving.

I loved Wolf Hall and Bringing Up The Bodies. I used to love the Cadfael series too.

I'm currently reading The True History of the Ned Kelly Gang. Its really good.

Dorothy Dunnett is amazing - if you enjoy a challenge.

I have just read the 'Scarlet Lion' written by Elizabeth Chadwick, the 3rd in a trilogy of William Marshal, and set at the time of the death of King Richard and the taking of the throne by his brother Prince John. Not a heaved bosom in sight but still quite human and factual.

As for Sharon Penman, I loved her works of 'The Sunne In Splendour', 'Here Be Dragons' , 'Falls The shadow' and 'The Reckoning'. So real!

So when I found her 'Queens Man' series I thought I was in for another good read. But even though I read all of them, I found them just a bit too twee/heroic and lacking bite. Such a shame.