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Original poster

Historical fiction please!

85 replies

Artemis6 · 10/02/2024 17:06

Recently enjoyed:
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
The Crimson Petal and the White
Hamnet

Any other suggestions?

OP posts:
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KeepTalkingBeth · 12/07/2025 05:11

The corn king and the spring queen by Naomi Mitchison

Baital · 12/07/2025 05:02

Lymond Chronicles, Dorothy Dunnet.

Skip read Game of King's, and start properly reading Queens Play. Either continue to Disorderly Kinghts and the rest, or go back and fall in love ❤️ if you don't break your heart in Pawn in Frankincense you aren't human.

But it takes time to get into them, and Game of Thrones is the worst/most confusing of the series - one for the addicts not for an intro

BunnyRuddington · 10/07/2025 07:00

ShillyShallySherbet · 11/02/2024 07:40

I really enjoyed Pachinko by Min Jin Lee about the history of Korea and Japan.

I came on here to see if anyone has read The Glass Maker by Tracy Chevalier. Interesting by easy read that covers a lot of Venetian history. It’s also on BBC Sounds currently.

But yes to Pachinko. By far one of the best Booja I’ve read in a long while. I found myself more than once forgoing large chunks of sleep at night to read instead.

Also another vote for Sarah Dunant. I particularly enjoyed The Blood and The Beauty and In the Name of the Family which are based in Lucrezia Borgia. I’m very far off being an historian though so have no idea how accurate they are.

Hartley99 · 20/02/2024 21:52

Robert Graves wrote some good historical fiction. Sergeant Lamb, for example, which is set during the American War of Independence.

MamaGarl85 · 17/02/2024 23:30

Just finished a book by Gillian Bagwell called The Darling Strumpet...about Nell Gwynn and King Charles II.

Very much enjoyed it!

schloss · 11/02/2024 16:38

Copperas · 11/02/2024 14:18

The last Robert Carey should be out quite soon - I can’t wait!
Anything by Diana Norman - brilliant writer interested in how women’s lives were affected by laws favouring men but also funny, romantic, brilliant

Fab news about the next book in the Robert Carey series - I had given up hope it would!

StaringAtTheWater · 11/02/2024 15:21

The Century trilogy, A Place Called Freedom & A Dangerous Fortune by Ken Follett are all excellent.

I wasn't so keen on his Pillars of the Earth trilogy though (got a bit bored with all the architectural detail)

Abouttimeforanamechange · 11/02/2024 15:14

For well written fluff, Georgette Heyer. Very witty in places, and she did her research.

And The Spanish Bride, An Infamous Army and A Civil Contract are not all, or even mostly, fluff. An Infamous Army is supposed to be one of the best-written accounts of the battle of Waterloo.

Mindlesspuzzles · 11/02/2024 15:08

I would agree re Philippa Gregory, not gonna win booker prizes, but not badly written either.

I read one of hers about the youngest of the Grey sisters and enjoyed that.

BarrelOfOtters · 11/02/2024 15:00

Absolutely Mary Renault. Read them in my teens and might read them again.

I like Phillipa Gregory, they are easy to read, she’s no Hilary mantel as s9meone else said, but they aren’t badly written.

the Raj Quartet is very good.

CurlewKate · 11/02/2024 14:42

CJ Sansom's Shardlake stories.
Mary Renault-classical civilisation and early 20the century.

Copperas · 11/02/2024 14:18

The last Robert Carey should be out quite soon - I can’t wait!
Anything by Diana Norman - brilliant writer interested in how women’s lives were affected by laws favouring men but also funny, romantic, brilliant

Ilovemyshed · 11/02/2024 13:22

Beryl Kingston, The Easter Trilogy

Abouttimeforanamechange · 11/02/2024 13:06

RF Delderfield-oh yes! A book I really enjoyed of his was To Serve Them All My Days about a WW1 shell shocked soldier teaching at a boys’ school.

There was an excellent tv adaptation of that, a long time ago. I've just had a look, and it seems some or all of it is on YouTube.

And while on the subject of tv adaptations of stories about schoolmasters, Goodbye Mr Chips with Martin Clunes is also excellent.

Mindlesspuzzles · 11/02/2024 12:41

@Footle its coming out on disney+ iirc

schloss · 11/02/2024 12:19

If you like the Shardlake seried, SJ Parris' Giodarno Bruno series is great too.

Also P F Chisolm Robert Carey series. I read the "last" one in the series and so wanted to immediately know what happened and when was the next book coming out. Not sure it ever is sadly.

mateysmum · 11/02/2024 12:17

I've been reading the James Marwood series by Andrew Taylor, set at and just after the Great Fire of London. The first book is Ashes of London. A bit of a murder mystery but really good at taking you into the world of 17th century London.

Dare I suggest Outlander?

I second Poldark

Sausagenbacon · 11/02/2024 12:00

yes, poor Hester. Norah Lofts never drew back from unhappy endings.

Footle · 11/02/2024 11:59

@Mindlesspuzzles - really?

Mindlesspuzzles · 11/02/2024 11:47

For Shardlake fans - there's going to be a TV series

Mindlesspuzzles · 11/02/2024 11:46

Sarah Dunant - In the Company of the Courtesan and The Birth of Venus , set in Venice and Florence in the 16th century. Both very good.

BIrdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore - set in Bristol.

The Witchfinders Sister by Beth Underdown

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 11/02/2024 11:17

Also Margaret Elphinstone The Sea Road - about the Viking exploration of the North Atlantic through the eyes of a child and young woman.

Ilovemyshed · 11/02/2024 11:16

Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell are good too.

JaninaDuszejko · 11/02/2024 11:02

Kristin Lavrandatter by Sigrid Undset is incredible. All about a woman's life in 14th century Norway.

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 11/02/2024 10:59

Are all the Philippa Gregory haters historians?

I wouldn't call my feelings to Gregory hate - too strong an emotion - nor myself an historian, despite the history degree. My thoughts about the books of her's I've read is that a) she's not a very good writer (The Boley Inheritance was dreadful) and she has a tendency to write as if historical figures are modern people in fancy dress (The Other Boleyn Girl)

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