Can anyone recommend any good historical fiction please?

[lowra]

By historical I mean middle ages type era? Thriller, crime or romance...

Thanks

Try CJ Sansom - tis Tudor but some of the best historical stuff out there imho.

Middle ages - try 'Mistress Of The Art Of Death' which is the first in a series - not great but not bad.

I assume you've read the Ellis Peters ones. One Body Too Many is my fave if you haven't, but there are loads.

I loved Phillippa Gregory's stuff for an easy read.

Wolf Hall / Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel - these are fabulous.

I second Wolf Hall. Brilliant.

[jumps on bandwagon] and I have never forgotten reading A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel, but I read it at 18 which is when I had more time for reading, I think I was buried in it for about 2 weeks solid so it's not a light proposition.

Olivia Manning's Balkan Trilogy was amazing at the time I read it. Can't remember much about it but the atmosphere.

Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series....it's brilliant, well written and researched. A fictional tale set around historical fact.

All of Sharon Penman gut particularly The Sunne in Splendour. Truly amazing and romantic. Very accurate too.....in as far as I would know!

Oops missed the middle ages bit ....my recommendation a fair few years prior!

Have you read Ken Follet - Pillars of the Earth and it's sequel? I loved those.

Thanks for the recommendations

Agree with Hilary Mantel - brilliant - and CJ Sansom, you could also try Karen Maitland for more thriller-ish writing. I enjoyed Company of Liars and just about to read The Owl Killers.

Also, The Name Of The Rose by Umberto Eco.

It's possibly a bit later than you asked for, but Sarah Dunant absolutely blew me away with In the Company of the Courtesan and The Birth of the Venus.

Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco
Trial of the Templars (non-fiction)

If you don't insist on middle ages:
This Thing Of Darkness

My all time favourite historical one has to be Here be Dragons by Sharon Penman.

Sorry if you've read the below but thinking.

Katherine - Anya Seton, the Mummy of all historical novels of a romantic variety ;-) If you haven't read it, about Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt

Alison Weir's novel The Lady Elizabeth about Elizabeth 1's coming to the throne was pretty good but the captive queen or whatever it was was drivel I thought and just not worthy of an otherwise great author I felt. Her factual books are very good, have read a few of them and pretty good reads I found. Her other historical novels get pretty good reviews also though haven't read them.

Jean Plaidy - pick an era, any era......and there will be something, written years and years ago but really good stuff although some of the history persepectives are shall we say a bit unfashionable these days.

Second everyone who recommended Wolf Hall and CJ Sansom.

Also, randomly and out of the right times completely the Boudica series by Manda Scott was pretty gripping.

JR, completely agree with you about Alison Weir, some are a lot better than others. Innocent Traitor (Lady Jane Grey) is excellent although obviously not medieval. What about the Cadfael mysteries?

I have just recommended on another thread Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond series, the best fictional hero of all time. (IMO of course)

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles is absolutely brilliant

For adventure with a dash of romance, Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series set during the Napoleonic wars, is hard to beat.

I second Dorothy Dunnett, truly breathtaking books with enormous attention to detail.

Sharon Penman is great and Legacy by Susan Kay is a cracking read.

I LOVE historical fiction, and cannot recommend Elizabeth Chadwick enough. The greatest knight is very good, it's about William Marshall if you've heard of him, and I personally love the love knot but it's not her most popular. Seriously, check her out on amazon. Adore her.

Elizabeth Chadwick...I think I have something upstairs by her that I tried to read. Anglo Saxon times, maybe? Didn't grab me at the time but I might dig it out again on your recommendation AmaraDresden

Second everybody mentioning CJ Sansom and Hilary Mantel.

I always come onto threads like these to suggest Dorothy Dunnett (Lymond Chronicles are where to start) and Patrick O'Brien.

Great to see other fans have already recced them though! There hasn't been a Francis Crawford of Lymond appreciation thread in aaaaages, but he really is the best historical hero (but flawed hero) of all time.

Both those series can be fairly hard going in parts, the historical precision is excellent but they're not light reading.

When I'm in the mood for historical but not to concentrate I read the time slip Outlander novels by Diana Gabaldon, about Jacobite Scotland.