Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Historical. Fiction or non fiction.

55 replies

PeachesMcLean · 18/04/2008 21:54

I read very infrequently and would like some recommendations please.

I read three of the Philippa Gregory ones last year and really enjoyed them. I like the historical side of it, the detail, but am wary of stuff that is just heaving bosoms in period dresses.

Am I being a snob? Did I really just give in to my inner Barbara Cartland? What do you think?

Or perhaps a good biography? Not averse to a bit of reality. the Duchess of Devonshire one was very good when i read that many moons ago. Anything similarly good? Perhaps about strong women rather than men.

What do you think?

OP posts:
marina · 21/04/2008 17:54

Alison Weir is good on Eleanor of Aquitaine, an extraordinary woman of the early Middle Ages.
In fact Alison Weir might be just up your street, she has also written on the six wives of Henry VI and on Mary Queen of Scots

Buckets · 21/04/2008 17:50

I've recently developed a taste for Regency bonkbusters thanks to this author. She's very amusing, the men are lovely and you meet the characters again in different books. Nothing wrong with a bit of escapism , if you ever need a pickmeup next time you're in the library, have a look.

poodlepusher · 19/04/2008 19:39

I think history books are actually very interesting (having done History A level a few times to get the right grade...)

I'll have to look up authors, but short books entirely about the Russian Revolution, the rise of the Labour Party 1945-51 etc I do remember actively enjoying.

Not sure about Historical Fiction. Blurs the lines a bit. Like Polliakof's the Lost Prince I think its probably fascinating but I can't take it seriously because I feel the information is unreliable / inaccurate and neither here nor there in terms of fiction or history.

Sorry, long and somewhat negative reply.

Original poster
PeachesMcLean · 19/04/2008 11:15

Thanks elasticwoman, I'll check those out.

No one else have any suggestions???

OP posts:
Elasticwoman · 18/04/2008 22:00

Page-turner memoir by Jennifer Worth, about being a midwife in the East End of London in the 1950s. Can't remember exact title.

Then there's Stella Tillyard's The Aristocrats.