Big Historical Fiction

[GrandPrismatic]

It started with Margaret George then discovered the joy that was Sharon Kaye Penman. Devoured all of her epics over the course of last year. Have enjoyed Philippa Gregory, Madeline Miller, Robert Harris (especially Cicero trilogy), Lisa See.

I’m at a loss where to go next…any suggestions?
I love epic engaging stories and series that I learn history from. I can’t believe I hated history at school…making up for it now! I’ve not read any Bernard Cromwell or Conn Iggulden which feel like a similar vein…not sure why but they feel a bit more brutal perhaps? I may have been put off by the quite masculine looking covers.

Help me find my next Sharon Kaye Penman!

I like Anne O Brien, she writes about lesser known women such as Joan of Kent, Alice Perrers (mistress of Edward lll) etc, I really enjoy them!
I also absolutely loved Alison Weir’s Six Queens series, actually felt like you got to know each one in their own right. ☺️

@KillingMeDeftly. Great to come across someone else who knows it… I have got People of the Book but not read it yet - looking forward to it though

@Winelover2021 - yes! Another vote for Alison Weir, Six Queens series…

Jean Plaidy, Alison Weie, one of my favourite books I go back to is Katherine by Anya Seton

@MrsMoastyToasty
How funny - I’m just reading posts now … we both like Victoria Holt books (which I discovered as a teenager - Bride of Pendorric was my first) and Philippa Carr - the same 2 pseudonyms for Jean Plaidy/Eleanor Burford !
We must have similar tastes

I devoured all of Victoria Holt's novels as a teen but looking back they all stick pretty closely to the same formula!

[quote GrandPrismatic]@CallMeRisley I love that you took your name inspiration from the series 😁[/quote]

Hope this doesn't lower the tone, but have you ever read Gone With The Wind?

Thanks for the Penny Vincenzi recommendation, that's one for my Christmas list!

I honestly think Scarlett O'Hara is one of the most complex and curiously modern characters ever written.

Oooh goody, so many I haven't read that sound wonderful!

I just remembered 'Medieval Woman' by Ann Baer. Found it in a 2nd-hand bookshop and was entranced by the pretty cover... it was bloody awesome, devoured it.

Was just coming on to add Alison Weir and Anne O'Brien if you like the Wars of the Roses era. They concentrate on the royal women mainly.

How about Sarah Dunant for her novels set in Renaissance Italy? Birth Of Venus, Blood and Beauty, In the Company Of The Courtesan etc. I think there are about 6 of them, all stand alone Books.

Or Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk-Cross.

Pat Barker’s Silence Of The Girls (the Trojan war from the perspective of one of the captured Trojan women) is absolutely outstanding.

Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances are a perennial delight. I’ve got 25 of them.

@BalloonSlayer

Hope this doesn't lower the tone, but have you ever read Gone With The Wind?

Thanks for the Penny Vincenzi recommendation, that's one for my Christmas list!

Ha! I recently read about one third of 'Gone With the Wind'.

That's not tone-lowering, it's supposed to be one of great american novels. A classic you might say!

Turns out Scarlett is an unlikeable bitch & the Great Civil War is thoroughly depressing to read about.

Too many books & too few years left for that one!

Not to mention the KKK as honourable men protecting the white ladies from the evil negroes.

Not a book that aged well…

Ellis Peters / Edith Pargeter

Best known probably for the Cadfael series, but had already written a contemporary police detective series under the Ellis name and a whole lot of stuff under Edith, including
The Heaven Tree trilogy - featuring a stonemason working on a fictional cathedral and his relationship with Prince Llewellyn
The Brothers Gwynnedd quartet - Sunrise in the West being the first
The Marriage of Megotta (title character being real-life daughter of nobleman Hubert de Burgh)

Another vote for Outlander. 8, soon to be 9 huge books and the TV series as well.

I lost interest in the Outlander books after about the fourth one but I do love the series!

Another vote for Jean Plaidy’s/Victoria Holt/Phillips Carr.

PCs “Daughters of England” series is similar to CHEs moorlands - follows a family, through the centuries.

Dorothy Dunnett - Lymond books. Possibly the best historical fiction ever written.

Robert Graves - I Claudius and Claudius the God. Brilliantly written. Was a TV series back in the 70s, starring a young Derek Jacobi.

@Dustyblue

Oooh goody, so many I haven't read that sound wonderful!

I just remembered 'Medieval Woman' by Ann Baer. Found it in a 2nd-hand bookshop and was entranced by the pretty cover... it was bloody awesome, devoured it.

Wonderful book. Lindsey Allason Jones has done something similar with a woman in Roman York.

@Doomscrolling it's definitely an apologia for slavery, and that's what makes it interesting historically. The title refers to the whole society (which was appalling) being swept away and how people struggled to cope . I expect others have read better examples but I found it a fascinating account of the arrogance of the confederates , convinced they were going to win a glorious war, as they had God on their side then meeting defeat, humiliation and poverty. History is usually written by the winners, I thought the novel being from the losers' perspective was fantastic. Of course Scarlett is a bitch, but she is so well written.

I loved the Daughters of England series as a teen but it just doesn't compare to the Morlands!

Absolutely, BalloonSlayer.
I read a biography of Margaret Mitchell and it seems what motivated her to write the book was that the past was being romanticised. As a child she had known Civil War veterans and had some idea of how bloody the whole thing was.
Ironically the film then romanticised the book with its too fancy pillared porticoes and pretty dresses.

Geraldine Brooks has also written March, which is the story of the March girls’ father from Little Women. SPOILER

There is a bit where he and Marmee have, er, pre-marital intimacy . I was genuinely horrified!

I keep starting Year of Wonders but it gets so tragic and I have to put it down in tears.

I like the Genghis Khan and Caesar series by Conn Iggulden. I also really enjoyed the Troy series by David Gemmell. Trying to think of other suggestions not already mentioned. A long time ago I liked the Robert the Bruce trilogy by Nigel Tranter

King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett is epic. I have a copy I keep meaning to reread but it's so meaty that I've not gotten around to it yet. It seems perfect for a winter night so maybe in the next few months.

Speaking of DD, no one has mentioned the Lymond Chronicles yet!