Historical semi-fiction like Philippa Gregory?

[Trills]

Any recommendations?

I'd like semi-true scandalous stories please - with real historical characters so I can Wikipedia them afterwards and feel like I've learned something.

Sharon Penman is fabulous.

Her Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy is great, especially the first one 'When Christ and His Saints Slept', I am half way through readying the second book of her Richard the Lionheart series, and have read 2 out of three of the Welsh Princes trilogy which were also great.

I liked both of Ken Folletts 'Catherdral' books 'The Pillars of the Earth' and 'At Worlds End'.

The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey. Who killed the the boys in the Tower?

DH is a big fan of anything by Bernard Cornwell - not just the Sharpe novels but also novels set in the dark ages (Alfred the Great and the Grail quest series). Cornwell really does research well.

jean plaidy wrote good historical fiction, mostly about queens, king's mistresses etc. her books are a lot more factually accurate than gregory's. Murder most Royal, about Anne Boleyn and katherine Howard, is a good one. Evergreen galla pnt, about henri Iv of france, is another one I particularly enjoyed, but they are all good really.

A humble companion. Laurie Graham

Wolf Hall is great, but not an easy read.

Lady's Maid by Margaret Foster is good (and requires a lot less concentration!) - about Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Not scandalous exactly, but it did change my views quite a bit.

I, Claudius. Probably really obvious but it is an unfamiliar perspective. Not sure I'd get into it now but I enjoyed it when I read it.

Reay Tanahill writes good, old-fashioned historical drama - she has one about Mary Queen of Scots.

Will try to have a think about others.

The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue (author of Room) is based on a real life scandal. I thought it was a great read.

Ooh, yes! Definitely second The Sealed Letter.

It's set in Victorian England.

Sharon penman is exactly what you're looking for. I love her books so much. I particularly liked Here Be Dragons, but they're all fabulous.

I enjoy difficult books. Wolf Hall isn't difficult.

The original 'Aristocrats' is worth reading too - not fiction, but it's so interestingly written and the author is so good at imaginative reconstruction that you end up caring about the people she's describing. Plenty of scandal there.

Mmm. I think lots of people do find Wolf Hall difficult. If you didn't notice the plot at the beginning, you might be missing elements of it, which I think is easy to do if you're not keen on the style.

I'm not suggesting you have to like it - I know it's quite marmite and I think that's understandable.

Again - Wolf Hall is not difficult. There is nothing difficult about it. It is dull, incoherent, and seems to be written & edited by people with little understanding of English grammar and punctuation, but it is not difficult.

We all know the plot already, and that is what the author counts on. She seems to have thought that absolves her of all responsibility of putting together a coherent narrative.

To each their own, and we all like different books, obviously. But there are objective criteria on which Wolf Hall fails, imho.

Sorry for the hijack, OP

Well, you're entitled to your opinion, of course, but no, there aren't objective criteria here.

I think 'The Blue Flower' by Penelope Fitzgerald is an interesting read, but creepy, so possibly not quite what's wanted.

Second The Bones of Avalon, he has also written a sequel. Legacy by Susan Kay is a fabulous read about Elizabeth Tudor. Dorothy Dunnett is wonderful and her history is absolutely spot on, you will learn something.

I'm reading Blood and Beauty by Sarah Dunant, about the Borgias.
Ds is devouring the Accursed Kings series by Maurice Druon. Inspired GOT and is about early French kings. No, wait don't go, apparently really exciting.
Jean Plaidy-my that takes me back, dm loved them.

Margaret George's novels about Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots are very readable. They are all absolutely massive though.

This Thing of Darkness is brilliant. (So is Wolf Hall . . .)

Oh, I just thought of one. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. Definitely fiction, but with some characters based on real people. It was excellent.

Definitely The Sealed Letter.

And possibly The Suspicions of Mr Whicher?

Love Sharon Penman as well. The ones about the Welsh princes are fabulous.

The Sunne In splendour was good. There was a thread in History Club where various books got named.

Alias Grace ran out of steam a bit for me.

I liked Wolf Hall (but was the only one in my book club who finished it) but thought Bring Up the Bodies was better, probably because it covered a shorter timer period that had a lot happening in it.

Pat Barker's 1st world war novels are fab, and Regeneration in particular is based on historical characters. Loved Alias Grace, it was the first Margaret Attwood I'd read for years (after hating The Edible Woman) and I'm so glad I got a chance to rediscover her.

Beryl Bainbridge did quite a few historical novels based true stories which are fab.