What's your favourite historical novel? Tell us and be in with a chance to WIN a SIGNED COPY of Helen Dunmore's new novel Exposure plus backlist book bundle

[UrsulaMumsnet]

Set against a backdrop of the Cold War, spies and scandal, Helen Dunmore's remarkable new novel, Exposure, out this week, tells the story of a woman's determination to protect her family at all costs. When Lily's husband is accused of passing on highly sensitive information to the Soviets, and arrested, Lily is forced to confront forbidden love, intimate betrayal and the devastating power of exposure.

"Exposure is the sort of winter read you hanker for...the period is so meticulously re-created that you almost hear the hiss of the gas streetlamps." - The Times

"This book is a triumph - a marvellous piece of seamless storytelling." - Penelope Lively

Share your favourite historical novels for a chance to win a signed copy of Exposure, plus a backlist bundle of books including Sunday Times bestseller The Lie and The Betrayal.

Helen Dunmore is the author of fourteen novels. Her first, Zennor in Darkness, explored the events which led to D H Lawrence’s expulsion from Cornwall (on suspicion of spying) during the First World War. It won the McKitterick Prize. Her third novel, A Spell of Winter, won the inaugural Orange Prize, now the Bailey’s Prize for Women’s Fiction. Her bestselling novel The Siege, set during the Siege of Leningrad, was described by Antony Beevor as ‘a world-class novel’ and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel of the Year and the Orange Prize.

She is fascinated by the Cold War era, which was also the era of her childhood, and is the setting for Exposure, and by the secrets, betrayals, loves, lies and loyalties which make up the period’s intimate history.

[Valski]

Put Out The Lights by Terry Deary (aimed at around 10 yr old children and explains so much in an appropriate way.. Is fiction)

ZigZag (About Operation Mincemeat.. Unputdownable)

[ninnytendo]

I love historical novels, especially those set around WWII. The one that comes to mind right now is "The Death's Head Chess Club" by John Donoghue which I read last year and absolutely loved. I also like "City of Thieves" by David Benioff and "The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite" by Beatrice Colin. There are too many novels to list as historical fiction is my favourite genre.

[sallyc06]

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, with its irresistible heroine is absolutely fantastic, a real classic!

[sjonlegs]

Hmmm favourite historical novel ... it's have to be either Little Women, Gone With the Wind, Wuthering Heights or To Kill A Mockingbird. All equally fabulous and with some profound message or another. I'm a massive fan of the classics and really enjoy historical novels.

[dawnio63]

the book thief was brilliant, I much preferred it to the film!

[floorflock]

The Last Campaign of Marianne Tambour by David Ebsworth

[Cineraria]

My favourites are Amin Maalouf's historical novels, e.g. The Rock of Tanios, Samarkand, The Gardens of Light and particularly Leo the African. I liked the way they really immerse me in a different time and place by allowing me to see amazing events through the eyes of an onlooker and have read them all several times. I was so excited when I actually visited both Fes and Granada and saw places that were mentioned in Leo the African.

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

The Town House by Norah Lofts.

[Givemecoffeeplease]

Can I say Jilly Cooper for her accurate representation of the 80s?!

If not then Wolf Hall.

[ktmd]

War Horse by Michael Morpurgo kept my whole class gripped!

[clopper]

I love Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, all the Simon Scarrow Eagles of the Empire series and the series on Genghis Khan by Conn Iggulden (Lords of the Bow, Wolf of the Plains etc.)

[BlackSusie2004]

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough was brilliant, I read it many years ago and really enjoyed it.

[magimedi]

Has to be Wolf Hall - the writing is so superb & the sense of period is amazing.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

'This Thing of Darkness' by Harry Thompson
It's about Darwin's voyage on The Beagle, but is also about so much more than that. It is brilliant, and enlightening, and moving and inspiring - everything that a great book should be.

[hanliying]

Wolf hall!

[LocalEditorMerton]

Without a doubt, Katherine by Anya Seton. Read it as a fifteen year old, and all these years later I'm still fascinated by the 'Beaufort Bastards' and how much their legacy shaped the British Monarchy. Not only that but she was SIL to Geoffrey Chaucer too.

Well worth reading (as indeed are all A.S's other novels)

[BearAusten]

i feel guilty saying this but it would have to be Jean Plaidy (especially Light on Lucrezia - Borgia series). Sansom's Shardlake novels are also firm favourites.

[Panadbois]

For me it's Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follet. Totally different frim my usual genre of chic lit. Have read it twice and even enjoyed the tv series and the book sequel (End of the world?).

[NotJanine]

All Quiet on the Western Front

I learned so much from that book

[Wilding]

A Traveller in Time, by Alison Uttley - romantic, heartbreaking and wonderfully evocative not only of Tudor times but of the 1930s. Uttley writes about the English countryside like noone else.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

YY to 'All Quiet' - stunningly good book.

[LifeHuh]

Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond series,head and shoulders over all the other books I've loved. If I had to choose just one of the books it would probably be The Ringed Castle, but really it has to be the whole series.

[bigbadbarry]

Another vote for Hilary Mantel but, for me, Bring Up The Bodies comes above Wolf Hall. Even though of course you know where it is going, the characters are so beautifully drawn that it is completely compelling.

[bookbook]

Oh , pp have mentioned a few of my loves - definitely in the top few are Dorothy Dunnett Lymond series
Ken Follett Pillars of the Earth
and All Quiet on The Western Front
but I think my absolute favourite would be
The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Penman about Richard !!! . All her books are good, but this is great!

[queenoftheschoolrun]

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks