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.

Would definitely recommend Cynthia Harrod Eagles. I love her Morland Saga - and there's over 30 in the series, from the 15th century to the 1920s!

Also, Antonia Fraser's biographies are wonderfully well written - definitely non-fiction rather than semi-fiction, but rattling good reads. I'd particularly recommend her book about the Gunpowder Plot - it's absolutely compelling.

I'm reading The Sunne In Splendour atm. It's pretty good but I've never found anything as completely transporting as CJ Sansom and the Shardlake books. Phillippa Gregory - hmm..well, ok up to a point but they do get on my wick really. The last one I read was The White Queen. They seem to be written with quite a modern slant regarding women - how they'd react, what they'd think. It doesn't ring true at all imo and also I don't really like things written in the present tense either because it doesn't expand the story satisfactorily enough for me. I struggled with Wolf Hall because of this too.