Historical fiction fans - step this way please......

[fatowl]

I'm big fan of historical fiction - I like fairly accurate and gritty compared to bosom heaving and damsels in distress.
I like fictionalised historical events too if well researched and written.

I'm a big fan of Bernard Cornwell and Ken Follet, Phillippa Gregory as well (but she can be a bit hit and miss)
Never got on particularly well with Sharon Penman though - but might give her another go.
Apart from the above I have particularly enjoyed "Katherine" by Anya Seton and the Forest Lord Series about Robin Hood.
I really enjoyed Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd, but his later books were very meh.

Any others I might enjoy? I know there will be some great ones out there I don't know about.

There seems to be tons and tons written about the Wars of the Roses and the Tudors (of varying quality), but not a huge amount about other medieval kings - eg Henry V (But did really enjoy Bernard Cornwell's Azincourt- written from the point of view of one of his archers)

Ooooh, my favourite genre

Rosemary Hawley Jarman (my number one favourite author of all time) - she writes about the Plantagenets, and her writing is so passionate and beguiling.

Elizabeth Chadwick is pretty good - nice, easy reads. Earlier books are a bit bosom-heaving. Later books more detailed.

Norah Lofts - love, love, love her. Books are very atmospheric, real and edgy, and there's not always a happy ending.

Sharon Penman - it was reading The Sunne in Splendour that made me fall in love with Richard III.

Mary Renault - mainly writes about Ancient Greece, but her style of writing is mythically beautiful. I must have read The Persian Boy a dozen times.

Any or all of the George MacDonald Fraser "Flashman" novels.

Maria McCann and Michelle Lovric are both absolutely wonderful. Really intelligent, quick witted, surprising historical fiction writers. Pretty sexy too.

I like historical crime - Deanna Raybourn's Julia Grey and Veronica Speedwell series are good, I love Sarah Waters and have just picked up Kaite Welsh's The Wages of Sin which I think is the first in a series as well.

Great thread. I am getting so many recommendations for my summer reading

Has Barbara Wood or Rebecca Gable been mentioned?
Sarah Lark also wrote some lovely books about Australia and new Zealand.