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Original poster

Please help fuel my Tudor addiction

36 replies

IvaNighSpare · 27/01/2010 09:36

(have posted this in both fiction and non fiction)

I'm currently working my way rapidly through my DVD box-set of The Tudors and it has fired my interest in the actual history of the times, particularly during Henry VIII's reign.
Could anyone reccommend any books that make interesting reading that don't read like school history books [yawn] and are truer to the facts than the efforts of Phillippa Gregory?

Thanks

OP posts:
Dumbledoresgirl · 27/01/2010 10:24

Definitely read CJ Sansom. Brilliant whodunnit novels. 4 of them. one more coming out in summer.

MrsSaxon · 27/01/2010 10:23

Legacy by Susan Kay is superb, really worth a read.

Also highly recommend David Starky, not keen on Phillipa Gregory as a lot of it is really inacuarate.

Katisha · 27/01/2010 10:20

What about Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel?

Sunshinemummy · 27/01/2010 10:17

David Starkey's books on Elizabeth I's early years and Henry VII's wives are really really interesting and very anecdotal so to me don't read like school text books at all. I rattled through them and found them absolutely fascinating.

BonjourIvressedeNoel · 27/01/2010 09:56

Antonia fraser's books are amazing. I like philippa gregory's books better than alison weir's fiction ones.

BendyBob · 27/01/2010 09:50

This is very interesting too. I know you weren't looking for a history book but it's very readable.

sammummy2007 · 27/01/2010 09:49

Definitely try Alison Weir. I find her books very accessible, but also historically accurate. I enjoyed all of the following by her: "Elizabeth, The Queen", "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" and "Children of ENgland: The heirs Of King Henry VIII".

She also wrote a fictional account of the early years of Elizabeth I ("The Lady Elizabeth. This was largely based on fact, but, in AW's own admission, spiced up a bit. If I remember correctly, in the novel ELizabeth had an early pregnancy in her younger days, but that probably never actually happened. I didn't much like the novel, as it seemed a little light on characterisation, but it's a easy read.

BendyBob · 27/01/2010 09:48

Here we go

BendyBob · 27/01/2010 09:45

Have just started a C J Sansom book. There are a series of 'Shardlake' books all set in Tudor times.

Lots of people say they're v v good (I'm only a few pages in so far).

Poledra · 27/01/2010 09:40

Ooops, just looked on Amazon and see she has now written some fiction too . I was meaning this and this

Poledra · 27/01/2010 09:38

Try Alison Weir's books - I love them, and they are most definitely factual!