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Original poster

Feeling bereft after finishing Wolf hall trilogy!

43 replies

Fiftyisthenewsixty · 02/07/2023 21:05

What next? I just really want to read something that takes me back so completely to a certain period in time. It took me ages to get round to reading The Mirror and the Light as the size put me off but I think in the end I loved it the most of all! Any other fans?

OP posts:
Original poster
Fiftyisthenewsixty · 04/07/2023 11:32

3kidsaremorethanenough · 04/07/2023 04:42

There's always this if you have a spare 400 or so quid 😁😁

😄 Sounds a bit intimidating tbh! Maybe I'll save my cash!

OP posts:
Original poster
Fiftyisthenewsixty · 04/07/2023 11:29

Thanks all! I'm ordering A Place of Greater Safety and probably rereading a bit of Shardlake too.

OP posts:
Joy74439 · 04/07/2023 07:30

I'm currently reading The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory, which is all about Lady Jane Grey and her sisters.
You could also try her other Plantagenet and Tudor novels.

3kidsaremorethanenough · 04/07/2023 04:42

There's always this if you have a spare 400 or so quid 😁😁

Feeling bereft after finishing Wolf hall trilogy!
3kidsaremorethanenough · 04/07/2023 04:40

To be honest op I could find nothing to fill the Cromwell size gap left after reading The wolf Hall tribology, it just took time (and a couple of rereads of it!!!) to be able to move on 😁 oh and a few watches ot the bbc show! Hilary Mantels other books are excellent but noting will replace WH. I personally didn't take to the Shardike novels because they weren't from Cromwells pov.

I found reading McDermotts (I think that was his name, historian) book on Cromwell good to see how accurate WH was.

But It just takes time 😢😁

greyhairnomore · 04/07/2023 04:34

I haven't read them but people on here recommend the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard and A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell.
Both long series.

greyhairnomore · 04/07/2023 04:30

minsmum · 03/07/2023 20:03

Have you read A Place of Greater safety

Fabulous book.

Mytholmroyd · 03/07/2023 23:14

Try Stella Riley or Elizabeth Chadwick? Both really well researched historical fiction!

minsmum · 03/07/2023 20:03

Have you read A Place of Greater safety

HonoriaLucastaDelagardie · 03/07/2023 19:49

Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond series? Start with Game of Kings. They do need to be read in order, because of revelations and developments that take place throughout the series.

(I was also going to suggest Shardlake.)

Original poster
Fiftyisthenewsixty · 03/07/2023 19:43

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm checking them out.

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Random789 · 03/07/2023 18:46

Have you read Mary Renault'sAlexander trilogy?I read it recently and I am in absolute awe. I think she is truly a match for Mantel in terms of the brilliance and seriousness of her approach to historical fiction. And on top of that she is utterly, sublimely readable, much much more so than Mantel.

JaneyGee · 03/07/2023 18:32

I know what you mean about immersing yourself in a particular place or period. I envy Tolkien lovers. I don’t dislike LOTRs, but don’t truly love it either. To be able to fully buy into Tolkien’s world must be great. The closest I can get is Sherlock Holmes. I love listening to Stephen Fry read the Holmes series and can’t recommend it highly enough. I feel the same about P. G. Wodehouse. Dickens, of course, created a world, as did Jane Austen and the Brontes, but I’m not sure if that’s what you’re looking for.

Have you tried the Hornblower books? Or the Flashman series? Walter Scott, maybe?

Robert Graves wrote some wonderful historical novels. The I Claudius books would be the obvious place to start, but Count Belisarius is good. I read Kipling’s Kim at Christmas and was very, very impressed. It’s beautifully written, tender and humane. He also brings 19th-century India to life - the colours, the smells, the food, etc.

JaneyGee · 03/07/2023 18:17

greyhairnomore · 03/07/2023 15:37

CJ Sansom - Shardlake series.

Hah…you beat me to it!!

greyhairnomore · 03/07/2023 17:39

Oh no , I'll have another think.

Original poster
Fiftyisthenewsixty · 03/07/2023 16:25

greyhairnomore · 03/07/2023 15:37

CJ Sansom - Shardlake series.

Unfortunately I have read them all too and felt the same!

OP posts:
greyhairnomore · 03/07/2023 15:37

CJ Sansom - Shardlake series.

PlumPudd · 03/07/2023 15:28

Oh yes loved it, have developed a sort of in awe dream-boss / mentor crush on Cromwell.

Similarly bereft