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Original poster

Best novels to learn about history, travel etc.

80 replies

spearly · 14/04/2020 14:05

I was recently reading some reviews of Ken Follett's, 'The Pillars of the Earth' in which quite a few reviewers commented that they learnt so much about the history of that period and also understanding architecture just from reading the book. I wondered what other novels were good for an understanding of history, geography, languages, any areas really that we might not normally think about that could be recommended?

OP posts:
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 15/04/2020 20:16

CJ Sansom's Shardlake series
Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series
All Quiet on the Western Front

ThinkAboutItTomorrow · 15/04/2020 13:03

Any Alison weir are good.
I loved Katherine by Anya Seton too & it helps me remember more than I otherwise would about that part of English history.

OuterMongolia · 15/04/2020 12:18

I have enjoyed The Siege (the siege of Leningrad), The Scarlet Pimpernel (the French revolution) and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena (Chechen war). All fictional books set during the different parts of history.

PenCreed · 15/04/2020 11:58

Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond and Niccolo series are both great for that. They're in 14th and 15th Century Europe and North Africa, with all the complicated monarchies and other agencies that involves, as well as my big fictional crush Francis Crawford.

CountFosco · 14/04/2020 14:15

Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy is great. I thought Sarah Waters 'The Night Watch' was great but that's partly because my grandmother was an ambulance driver in the war and I didn't really appreciate what that involved until I read The Night Watch. Atonement by Ian Banks is also good for descriptions of life in the war. Although TBH some of the WW1 autobiographies are so readable I'd recommend them above any novel e.g. Testament of Youth or Goodbye to All That.

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