Best novels to learn about history, travel etc.

[spearly]

I was recently reading some reviews of Ken Follett's, 'The Pillars of the Earth' in which quite a few reviewers commented that they learnt so much about the history of that period and also understanding architecture just from reading the book. I wondered what other novels were good for an understanding of history, geography, languages, any areas really that we might not normally think about that could be recommended?

Edward Ruthurford has written books about a number of places.
The books are fiction but based very closely on historical events (and people).

If you are a Londoner then London is the one to start with.

Paris and New York are also great and I have just finished The Forest.

This thread has reminded me to find another one on Kindle.

I immediately thought of the Children's Book by AS Byatt which has a lot of information on late Victorian/ Edwardian art, culture and politics

I just read that a few weeks ago. It was such an interesting book full of ideas, I loved it. Suspect that Possession is a more approachable read but still has lots of good historical research behind it.

The Five is a brilliant book if you want to find out what life was like for the poor in society at the end of the twentieth century in London. they were all (possibly) victims of Jack the Ripper, but this book is absolutely not about him or the murders, but is a truly wonderful ode to those five women. Utterly fascinating.

I am currently reading Mudlarking - about amateur historical finds along the Thames. can really recommend.

I loved Birdsong - so sad. I also recommend Half of the Yellow Sun if you want to find out more about Middle Eastern politics - again heartbreaking in parts.

Travel books - I like Bill Bryson, also some of Tony Hawkes are good - loved Round Ireland with a Fridge. I would be interested in more recommendations on Travel writings. Years ago I read a book about walking around the South East coastal bath - 500 Mile walkies - so funny.

Yes, masses of detail in The Children's Book, but I felt she had done so much research for it that she was reluctant to leave anything out.
George Orwell's novels are interesting (not 1984), because they are contemporary with the time they are written, and it interesting to see how attitudes have changed.

www.goodreads.com/book/show/11529868-the-orphan-master-s-son

@thejollygargler I am just reading Sarum by Edward Rutherford and would highly recommend it.

I know it isn't the done thing on here, but I also enjoyed the Victoria Hislop book set in the Spanish civil war, The Return I believe it was called. Winter in Madrid by C J Sansom is set in the post Spanish civil war world war two era is another one I'd recommend.

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick is factual, but reads a bit like a novel if I recall about North Korea.

The Lead Miner's Daughter by Margaret Manchester set in late 19th century rural Yorkshire contains quite a lot of detail about life in that period and region.

Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series.

Georgette Heyer's Regency novels generally are meticulously researched but An Infamous Army, set in Belgium during the Battle of Waterloo, is generally accepted to include one of the most historically accurate depictions of the battle ever written.

@bettybattenburg

I haven't read Sarum so that will be next on my list.

Several books I was going to suggest already mentioned. So I will just add The Winthrop Woman which is account of a woman who left Suffolk for the newly founded colonies in New England. Also would follow Restoration with its sequel, Merivel . I loved Children of the New Forest by captain Maiott when I was a child. It was set in the Civil War. Not sure it was particularly accurate though.

Sorry, Winthrop Woman is by Anya Seton.

Marge Piercy did two amazing historical novels. They both tell events from multiple viewpoints, some real historical characters, others fictional "ordinary people".

Gone to Soilders: set in the second world war
City of Shadows/City of Light: about the French revolution

I've just found this site with reviews of historical novels: www.historicalnovels.info

I was actually looking for Down the Common: A Year in the Life of a Medieval Woman by Ann Baer, which lots of MNers recommended and has been on my Must Read list for some time.

It seems to have been republished as Medieval Woman.

R F Delderfield's The Dreaming Suburb and The Avenue Goes to War follow a group of families in a London suburb from the end of WW1 to the end of WW2. A Horseman Riding By covers a lives of th people who own and farm a country estate in Devon from the end of the Boer War through to WW2.

For travel writing I love Dervla Murphy, a remarkable Irishwoman who has been travelling various continents since the 1960s firstly solo then with her daughter and grandaughters. I'm sad that at over 80 she's said there won't be any more journeys! I also rate William Dalrymple's From the Holy Mountain, In Xanadu and City of Djinns. He packs in a vast amount of historical research while still being very readable.

Enthusiastically seconding Dervla Murphy and William Dalrymple, though I find DM’s earlier books weirdly colonial when I reread them now — she seems not to grasp that her bemoaning unpicturesque ’progress‘ makes her take up a weirdly paternalistic stance as regards the people who actually live in the places she visits. (Child lovers may also be upset by her casual parenting, and casual references to her five year old, after a fairly gruelling trek through Baltistan in midwinter living mostly on dried apricots, ‘weighing about half what she did six weeks ago’.)

Novels — Charlotte Bronte’s Shirley on the Luddite uprisings in early 19th Yorkshire. Chinua Achebe’s Africa trilogy on Nigeria between the late 1890s and the 1920s. Ngugi wa Thiongo’s Weep Not, Child andThe River Between on the struggle for Kenyan independence.

I'd agree with you there Actressy. She had very decided views which won't sit right with many these days but I can't help admiring her bolshie attitude and forthright manner and she and Rachel seem to have remained very close despite her unconventional approach to motherhood. Also for someone almost entirely self educated she's very well read and her bibliographies have led me to other writers I might never have heard of.

Someone mentioned AJ Cronin's The Citadel earlier. The latest part of the book is the weekly serial on R4 at 10.45 next week. There have been part of the book dramatised over the last few years, so I assume they are on Sounds. I must admit I really like it.

Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall Trilogy - Amazing!
Jane Thynne - Clara Vine series (These are superbly written about an English actress living in Berlin in the runup to WW2, who moves in the same circles as the wives of the Nazi elite)
C.J. Sansom - Shardlake series (Henry VIII crime thrillers)
Luke McCallin - The Man from Berlin, The Pale House, The Ashes of Berlin (Trilogy about a German officer at the end of WW2 - these are superbly written)
Anya Seton - Katherine (all about John of Gaunt and Katherine Swinford - started me off on my interest in History)
Jim McDermott - Peenemunde Deceptions etc (WW2 crime thrillers about Otto Fischer - takes a bit of reading but great for the history aspect)
Georgette Heyer - old-fashioned but absolutely great to read, written in the language of the Regency and Georgian ages
Kate Atkinson - Behind the Scenes at the Museum (WW1 and WW2), Life After Life (WW1 and WW2) and A God in Ruins (WW2 and beyond)

Great thread. So many to suggest but a few that immediately spring to mind for me are:
Kate Grenville’s The Secret River - the early colonial experience of Australia (and one of my all time favourite books);
Hillary Mantel’s A Place of Greater Safety - the French Revolution;
Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North - the Australian PoW experience in Japan/ the Burmese Railway (harrowing but excellent).

Sharon Kay Penman is very good for the medieval period and the Plantagenets in general. Elizabeth Chadwick is also very good for that period. Anne O'Brien covers a lot of different periods in her writing.

I've recently listened to 'Into the Silence' by Wade Davis. It's about WW1 and the early attempts on Everest. It's very long but fascinating. It captures a time that seems innocent in many ways but was nevertheless so solidly colonial some of the ideals it highlights are a much needed reminder of our past. Wonderful book.

Remains of the Day - wonderful, I learn something new every time I read it. Its message is always current.

Another I have to mention: Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost - Set in the aftermath of the Sri Lankan civil war.

Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles and House of Niccolo are great - 16th and 15th century Europe respectively
Francesca Melandri, Eva Sleeps - 20th century South Tyrol
C J Sansom - Tudor England

Fab thread.

Seven sisters series by Lucinda Riley. Each sister has a link to a period in history in a different country. Easy reading but fascinating details. The music one features Norway & WWll, another Australia and the early pearl trade.

Grapes of Wrath is a classic for a reason.

Martin Cruz Smith writes detective novels set in Russia. For sense of place though I really liked his Havana Bay, set in Cuba after the cold war.

Sticking with detectives A Cold Day for Murder centres on a female detective who lives in remote Alaska.

I remember reading a huge novel based on Marco Polo but can't remember the name, if someone else can? (Prob published 1980s)