Inspired by watching Mary Queen of Scots film, any historical novel recommendations?

Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond series, then her Niccolo one. Lymond is easier to get into than Niccolo but they're both worth it. And Lymond is a good follow on from watching Mary Queen of Scots as she's in them as a child.

Must re-read those...

I love a good historical fiction. I don't mind a bit of straying from the actual events, but I do end up googling a lot to see if something really happened!
I enjoyed Philippa Gregory's War of the Roses series The White Queen, The Red Queen and the Kingmaker's Daughter, but the one I enjoyed the most was The Lady of the Rivers about Elizabeth Woodville's mother Jacquetta - that was really good. The rate she churns new books out now, does make me wonder if the quality has gone down a bit.

Another vote for Katherine by Anya Seton.
@Broceliande I am reading The Summer Queen now - really enjoying it.
Alsion Weir has a series called the Six Tudor wives - I have really enjoyed those as well.

Not particularly female character focused but another vote for Pillars of the Earth, and the others by Ken FOllet.
Also the Shardlake series is very good, it's about a tudor lawyer, fictional but the historical backdrop is real and actual people are in it regualrly, inc Henry VIII and Elizabeth (Before she was Queen)

I recently read "Hamnet" by Maggie O'Farrell. It's fiction but she did a lot of research about that period and she really brings it to life.

Jean Plaidy/Victoria Holt/Philippa Carr. They are all pseudonyms for the same author. She just used different techniques.

outlander is fab !

Place marking to check back later. But here are mine.

Year of wonders by Geraldine Brooks. It’s not new but I reread it last year and loved it again. It’s set in the time of the plague and has a female lead.
Another that I love is The Seige by Helen Dunsmore. Again it’s fiction but set against the backdrop of the Leningrad seige. Harrowing in places but amazingly written. Love Helen Dunsmore.

Sharon Penman is my favourite historical fiction writer.
Jean Plaidy is good for fairly simple easy to read plots- I ate them up as a teenager but returning to a few last year thought how they were very simplistic. She churned out hundreds, under her name and others, and it kind of shows.
Philippa Gregory is like reading the book version of a costume drama I always think- bit too much heaving bosoms and not quite enough historical detail, but readable nonetheless.

The Boudicca books are good
Dreaming the eagle is one.

Phillips Gregory

Oh mdh2020 I forgot about those, I've such a crush on William Marshall. In my head he's got the looks and fighting skills of Jaime Lannister with the loyalty, wisdom and integrity of Ned Stark.

Katherine as recommended above was my favourite book, for years! Also love the Elizabeth George book about Henry The eighth. Couldn’t get on with her one about Mary Queen of Scots though. Used to love Jean Plaidy, but not read for years now. Might try again...

I love Philippa Gregory for a bit of Tudor titillation it's a bit like a book version of The Tudors tv series with Jonathan Rhys Meyers - well worth a watch -ooof.

Although it's not fiction, John Guy's 'My Heart is My Own' is brilliant and very readable, even though he's an academic.

Oh gosh I cried when I finished pillars of the earth because I was so gutted it was over. Amazing trilogy!

Pilates??? 😁

Bloody phone, that autocorrect seem to be ruling my phone!

I just changed to pillars and has corrected it to “polars” 🤦🏻‍♀️

Katherine by Anya Seton ticks your box for being female focussed. Set in Plantagenet times - Edward III and Richard II reigns. One of my favourite books.

Pilates although I second the Ken Follet novels. Pillars was great, the second one (set I think 100 years later?) was a bit of a slog and I gave up, but I think that was more my mood at the time, rather than any fault of the novel.

I love the series about William Marshall by Elizabeth Chadwick.

Pilates of the Earth by Ken Follet.
That book will stay with you forever.

You could try the Outlander books by Diana Gabledon. Much more detailed than the series and historically fairly accurate.

Philippa Gregory recommendation from me too!

Pitching in to second Innocent Traitor, it was a really good book and I believe she's written at least one more about the Tudor period (about Elizabeth I). Alison Weir is an actual historian so it's as accurate as a novel can be. Personally I enjoyed the Philippa Gregory Tudor series but as PP mentioned they are pretty inaccurate and the witchcraft element annoys me; very female centric though. She also wrote a series called The Cousins War (about the wars of the roses) which you can read in order - you will get a basic overview of the history but the same caveat applies to the accuracy of the minuatae :)

I started a book called The Summer Queen about Eleanor of Aquitaine which I was really enjoying before I lost it during a house move!

A lot of people rave about The Sunne in Splendour (about Richard III) - it's very romanticised but a good yarn. I prefer Daughter of Time which is a sort of detective novel about the Princes in the Tower... Also one called The Virgin Widow by Anne O Brien - haven't read any of her other stuff but she seems to specialise in writing novels about medieval queens.

That's all I can think of, off the top of my head. Watching this thread with interest!

Should also have said, if you don’t mind which period in history, she’s also written a Memoirs of Cleopatra and one about Mary Magdalene. Both brilliant, although obviously the further you go back the more artistic licence is needed. I still learned a lot from both books though, and enjoyed reading them.