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.

[Loula100]

Any of the Philippa Gregory books. Love how they take you back in time

[dangerous123]

Lord of the flies

[LadyIsabellaWrotham]

Hang on a minute. I restrained my inner pedant when people mentioned Pride and Prejudice and The Daughter of Time, neither of which count as historical novels in my book. But Lord of the Flies takes place in the middle of a nuclear war!

[StillNoFuckingEyeDeer]

The Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker.
The Alienist.

[putthePuffindown]

Earth's children series by Jean Auel is my fav, but only loosely falls in the category so may not count, if not then the conquerer series by Conn Iggulden

[Booklover123]

A town like Alice by Nevil shute is my favourite, describes the cruelty and terrible ordeals of world war 2 plus the eventual triumphs.

[Roomba]

A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel. It enthralled me, and as a PP said it's not a period that we tend to study in the UK so I knew almost nothing about it before I read this.

Also Wolf Hall - just brilliant.

[CordeliaScott]

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

[piebald]

I loved The Shardlake series, also The long road to the deep north was an extraordinary book
Charlotte Grey by Sebastion Faulks ( although I couldn't read BirdsonG)

[furryleopard]

I love Gone With the Wind - it's just the most epic, detailed and beautifully written story. It portrays the South as romantic but wrong, Scarlett is beautiful but flawed, Melanie is plain yet heroic, Rhett is a coward but brave, Ashley is brave but a coward. Wonderful stuff. I read it when I was 14 and it changed my life, from wanting to study sciences I changed to English as the book had moved me so much I wanted to read and study books all the time!

[amysmum18]

I love Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks. A really interesting read about the SOE during the war.

[SuzCG]

Memoirs of a Geisha, for me.

[Belo]

I thoroughly enjoyed the Map of Love by Ahdaf Souief. It is one of my favourite books.

www.ahdafsoueif.com/Books/the_map_of_love.htm

I learned about the days of Colonial Egypt and was swept up in the love story of Anna and Sherif. I couldn't put it down.

[Belo]

Actually, I'm not sure if I can stop at just one book. Wild Swans by Jung Chang was a fantastic read. I read it when it in the mid 90s when it first came out. Up until then I had seen Mao Tse Tung as being a people's leader so the book was a real eye opener for me.

I've also really enjoyed A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry set in the late 70s during the Emergency in India and the turmoil around that. I read it almost 20 years ago but the characters have still stayed with me.

Other books I've enjoyed are The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh and, set in more recent history, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun.

I enjoy reading books which as well have a fantastic story also teach me about a period in history.

[noscat]

Hilary Mantel's "A Place of Greater Safety". I fell in love with most of the characters, I even began to understand Robespierre's motivation and beliefs. Her conversational and realistic writing (very similar in Wolf Hall) really draws you in. Wonderful book - I recommend it to everyone

[Mrsmuddlepie]

I loved Wolf Hall and Hilary Mantell's subsequent novels about Thomas Cromwell. However my vote probably goes to Helen Dunmore and The Siege (of Leningrad). I stumbled upon it by accident and the power of the story stayed with me to the extent that I suggested it for my book group. In spite of the huge suffering of the Russian people living in Leningrad at that time, the book is strangely uplifting and focuses on human determination to survive at all costs. It is told through the eyes (and stomachs!) of one family and their day to day struggle with starvation.
The book inspired me to research something of the historical events on which it was based. It was the most lethal siege in recorded history and resulted in the deaths of one and a half million people. The tender love story at the heart of the book is set against a backcloth of starvation, brutality and death. There is reference to the huge numbers of people dying side by side with domestic details such as supposedly nutritional recipes based on leather belts and other leather items.
I think the book would certainly make my top ten favourite novels, let alone my top ten best loved historical books.

[DickDewy]

Very difficult to choose as I love so many.

I have very fond memories of Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy.

Totally engrossing, it kept me rapt through an entire flight to Australia. This was pre children, obv.

[kateandme]

Katherine webb writes great novels that span past and present. and I love those,the ones where we learn of the past story then are brought into the current with different characters telling their tales throughout.
the secret garden is one of them but I cant remember the authors name.

[Fizrim]

Raj Quartet by Paul Scott, probably better known as the TV series the Jewel in the Crown. Set in the time of partition, and covers different characters/stories over the same time period across the four books.

[JengaWenga]

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent is a beautiful book. Set in Iceland in 1829.

[flso]

All The Light We Cannot See was amazing :)

[cathisherwood]

I love Birdsong by Sebastian Faulkes. He really brings the horror of living in the trenches to life

[Hygge]

Recently I've read Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, which is a fictional story told in part against the backdrop of the persecution and massacre of the Cathar Heretics in Carcassonne.

I really felt involved with the time and place and the people, and would now love to visit the places described in the book.

I also loved Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, telling the story of Ursula, as she grows up and her life through the second world war and beyond. The twist of what happens to her against a historical backdrop was really fascinating.

I loved Pillars of the Earth because it was about ordinary people as much as it was about people in power.

And right back to childhood, I still have my two copies of Odysseus: The Greatest Hero Of Them All, which came from a BBC TV series they really ought to repeat. I must have read them almost to bits as a child, but they've stayed sellotaped together long enough that I can now read them to DS as well. I loved those books and the myths and history they encompassed.

[Loula117]

Wolf Hall!

Although I do also love all Philippa Gregory's books and I enjoyed reading the Poldark saga last year.

[CityDweller]

I recently read The Winter Isles (by Antonia Senior) and really loved it. Strong female lead and about a period of Scottish history I didn't know much about. And a page turner too.