'Real' historical fiction for 16yo

Fever by Mary Beth Keane.
It's based on the life of Mary Mallon in turn of the century New York. It follows her story from immigrant to becoming an cook for the upper class to her downfall as Typhoid Mary. She was one of the first people to be identified as asymptomatic carrier of Typhoid Fever.

I've just read The Lion Women of Tehran and it was excellent. Historical fiction, based around gender roles and the female uprising to gain equality and women's refusal to wear the hijab.

Lucy Worsley has done some brilliant historical documentaries and has also written some books. May be worth a look.

‘Wild Swans’ about three generations in China.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wild-Swans-Three-Daughters-China/dp/0007463405/ref=asc_df_0007463405?mcid=38c9eb3dea643da4b849de2603c51775&th=1&psc=1&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=697226571748&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8738856428436011282&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006907&hvtargid=pla-466732857543&psc=1&hvocijid=8738856428436011282-0007463405-&hvexpln=0&gad_source=1

‘The Woman in the photograph’

Fictional story loosely based around key moments in feminism, such as Greenham common. It’s not preachy, but just involves the key elements in the story.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Woman-Photograph-Stephanie-Butland/dp/1785768964/ref=ascdf1785768964?mcid=9d11e3b8dfbc31b295058163c1f0e1d3&th=1&psc=1&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=697199685294&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2999520683861559371&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006907&hvtargid=pla-785152038840&psc=1&hvocijid=2999520683861559371-1785768964-&hvexpln=0&gadsource=1

Ken Follett
Sharon K Penman
Bernard Cornwall Excalibur trilogy
Barbara Erskine
Minette Walters
Tracy Chevalier.

Read a lot of these in late teens and enjoyed :)

Ha! I was going to make a similar comment about them being bodice-rippers (loin cloth rippers?) and the endless shagging of Jondalar The Wonder Dick. The author was obviously in love with her creation of that one.

If she's actually interested in history, I'd give the Clan Of The Cave Bear books a swerve.

OP, I totally agree with the Sarah Dunants, Maggie O'Farrell, Tracy Chevalier, Jean Plaidy, Georgette Heyer's Infamous Army (but not A Royal Escape, it's turgid), Anya Seton and Jean Plaidy. They were great introductions to heavier historical fiction through my teens.

A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute.

Nigel Tranter.

At risk of my DM recognising me on here but I was named for Katherine Swynford as that’s what DM was reading when pregnant with me. I also love this book too

And are full of completely unnecessary (and probably totally historically inaccurate) sex !

Elizabeth St John’s Lydiard books are the fictionalised story of her 17th century ancestors (centred on women). If you live near Swindon you can visit the house & see portraits of people in the books (I’ve not done this as I don’t live in the area - but it sounds tempting especially as 17th century fashions are pretty).

This was a MN recommendation that I’m enjoying working through (thanks v much to the posters who recommended the author).

Also recommending Katherine by Anya Seton

Rizzio by Denise Mina , about Mary Queen of Scots, a short book.

The 3 Sarah Dunant books set in renaissance Italy.

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

Alison weir

I really enjoyed the Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley, each one delves into the historical past of one of the sisters.

She might enjoy the Emmy Lake Chronicles by AJ Pearce. It's a series of 4 books set in the second world war. It follows the lives of Emmy, who writes for a magazine, and her friends. I really enjoyed it. The first one is called Dear Mrs Bird.

Diana Norman's terrific. Her Mistress of the Art of Death series writing as Ariana Franklin is excellent.

A Child In The Forest by Winifred Foley is good for a realistic view of life in rural England in the first half of the 20th century. Lark Rise to Candleford is also very good - not the series, but the book.

I second the Tracy Chevalier recs - LOVED her stuff when I was in my teens.

The Help? The Call The Midwife books? Cold Comfort Farm is always a laugh, although I’m not sure it qualifies as historical fiction.

The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope is really excellent, though frustrating that it’s her only book.

If she wants readable proper history, I thought that the biography of Mary Queen of Scots called My heart is my own by John Guy was really excellent – very well researched, including some new primary sources, but so well written that it was as exciting as a novel.

DD is currently reading the "Six Tudor Queens" books by Alison Weir. I believe they are biographys rather than fiction, but may be of interest.

I have moved a few times and that is the one book that stays.

Agree about Jean Plaidy too.

The Boys in the Boat is a very readable fictionalized account of real people and real events. Written by Daniel James Brown. It was made into a movie, but imo the book was better.

How much into history is she? One of my favourite books is Richard Evans "Telling Lies About Hitler" which is about the work he did in supporting the defence in David Irving's libel trial against Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books. It is very much factual history and about the processes of researching into history and using contemporary. resources, but it's fascinating to see how he went to work. It's particularly enjoyable to see how he ferrets out every lie and piece of misrepresentation that there was in Irving's works on Nazism and the Third Reich, and it's great just because he is so passionate and angry about the sheer intellectual laziness and dishonesty that Irving exhibited.

The film about the trial, Denial, is also well worth watching.