Need readable history recommendations please!

[drspouse]

I'm reading Alexander Hamilton and while I am liking it I'm not going to be reading anything of that volume ever again I reckon!
But I've really got interested in the French Revolution and after, I read Tale of Two Cities recently too, so I'm looking for something very readable on that.

Also we're watching both Peaky Blinders and Berlin Babylon - both 1920s so anything about that time?

And finally my dad got me the largest ever book on Bletchley Park but I'd prefer something a bit easier to read!

Lucy Moore's 'Anything Goes: a history of the roaring 20s' is very readable...

That looks really good! Thanks.

Vera Brittain's 'Testament of Youth' is an excellent, if rather sad, read.

I read that a while ago - it is good, isn't it?

The lost king of France by Deborah Cadbury.

That looks good too!

Anything that Bernard Cornwell has written.

Hmmm those look not really my thing!

A time travellers guide to medieval England by Ian Mortimer is excellent.

Have you read the Matthew Shardlake novels by C J Sansom? Set in the Tudor period, excellent read?

I'm quite into medieval murder mysteries but I think non fiction this time.

for the french revolution, Hillary Mantel's book 'A place of greater safety' is very good.

If you don't know it the 'Five Books' site is useful, they take a topic, you can search by keyword, and invite an expert in the area to recommend the five books that are the best overview/introduction to that topic. You should find a range of interesting history books on various topics. Here's the link to books on the French Revolution, I liked the Simon Schama when I read it.
fivebooks.com/best-books/french-revolution-lynn-hunt/

Also if you're interested in the 1920s, you might like the book that the series 'Boardwalk Empire' (if you haven't seen it and you like 'Peaky Blinders' then you will probably find it interesting, although some quite violent passages as was on HBO so not much censorship compared to BBC guidelines) as it looks at key aspects of the 1920s with a focus on Atlantic City....it's just called 'Boardwalk Empire' by Nelson Johnson.

Also I've enjoyed history books recently by the following: Mark Mazower, Timothy Snyder (not his latest though, 'Bloodlands' is the best one), Anne Applebaum (although don't always agree), Ian Buruma, Catherine Merridale, Frank Dikotter, Christopher de Bellaigue. David Reynold, Yasmin Khan, Isabel Wilkerson and Justin Marozzi. Jill Lepore's new history of the U.S. looks as if it's worth trying. I also like Caroline Moorehead's more general studies.

Boardwalk Empire was great- I had no idea it was a book!

Biog of Marie Antoinette by antonia Fraser was very good.

Ravenmaster is a great read

Wow, Dottie, thanks.

I second the biography by Antonia Fraser of Marie Antoinette, quite hefty but definitely readable.

Excellent tip @Dottierichardson I think I'll be spending a bit of time on that site from now on

The Secret Token - Myth, Obsession and the Something Something Lost Colony of Roanoke. Real life history mystery (is there a less rhyming phrase for that?) thing.

@dottierichardson, Thank You for the Five books tip... 90 minutes later...!

Liberty: the Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France by Lucy Moore is excellent.

My favourite non-fiction historical read this year was ''The Strangest Family" about George III , very interesting and readable.

Anything by Elizabeth Chadwick.

Queen Victoria’s Matchmaking by Deborah Cadbury was one I enjoyed this year .