Recommendations for books where Fact and Fiction merge

[nannynick]

Hi all, I have just finished The Cottingley Secret by Hazel Gaynor. Intermingling real information about the photos of the Cottingley Fairies with a fictional storyline. Are there other books like this, where there is a factual story interwoven with a fictional one?

Pat Barker's Regeneration series about the first world war have real life characters interacting with her fictional characters.

Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy is a fictional version of the life of Thomas Cromwell.

I have just finished The Dictionary of Lost Words which is a gorgeous read weaving a story on the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary and the main protagonists.

Edward Rutherford’s vast tomes are historical fact with a mix of real and fictional characters. Don’t be put off by the length. Sarum, Paris, Russia, London, Ireland, Dublin etc.

Anything by CJ Sansom.

I'm nearing the end of Dominion which starts in a historically accurate version of WW2 but quickly takes a different tack and takes place in a version of reality which didn't come to pass but could have. It's great.

He's also written one called Pompeii - title speaks for itself really- I'm told it's a gripping read.

Try ‘Palace Council’ by Stephen L. Carter. It’s set in the 1950s and 60s, and weaves in a fictional story to real-life events like civil rights, JFK assassination, J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI, etc.

It’s more immersive and rich than gripping, although it’s technically a thriller. Worth a look, though.

I'm reading Annelies by David Gillham. It's about what Anne Frank's life might have been like if she had survived the concentration camp. It's good but leaves you feeling a bit uncomfortable, it seems a bit distasteful in a way. Can't say I'm not enjoying it, it's really well written.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher?
Mainly fact with a bit of loose interpretation. (I wouldn't recommend if you've already watched the "oooh let's reinvent the Victorian Detective ™️ though)

I was fascinated by the Cottingley Fairies as a child (and Constance Kent- hence tSoMW) I might look for your book OP!

Aghhh..,I've just ordered three books on the basis of this thread... 😱

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore, a factual account of a group of women in America who painted watches and were poisoned by the Radium in the paint and then took on their employer in court. The book interweave the facts with fiction like descriptions of events :)

Similarly I'd reccommend any of the Call The Midwife books especially the second one The Shadow of the Workhouse

My favourite kind of fiction! I recently adored The Man on a Donkey - it takes a little bit of perseverance to get into but it's worth it, it's absolutely beautiful. I second Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy and A Place Of Greater Safety, her novel about the French Revolution, is also fantastic.

@hidethetoaster I didn't love Dissolution - is it worth persevering with Sansom in general?

The Ambrose Parry books are brilliant for this - historic characters and events as background but still a great story.

Thanks for these. I've read the Call The Midwife books, liked those.

Have just got The Dictionary Of Lost Words, so that's next to read.

Claire Marchant - Secrets of Saffron Hall and The Queen's Spy. Fictional story set against a factual background. They also are set across two eras, in history and now. Also they are slightly linked so you should read Saffron Hall first.

[quote peachgreen]@hidethetoaster I didn't love Dissolution - is it worth persevering with Sansom in general?[/quote]
I haven't read Dissolution or any of his Shardlake series.
The ones I recommended aren't Shardlake so maybe a bit different but not sure.

@peachgreen

A Place of Greater Safety is one of my favourite books of all time. I just love it.

Hammet is the imagined story of Shakespeare’s wife and children.

@CatSpeakForDummies

The Ambrose Parry books are brilliant for this - historic characters and events as background but still a great story.

I am just reading the first one of these and enjoying

Hamnet is excellent.

Arthur & George is good
Tracey Chevalier's novels are inspired by real historical events/characters
Any Human Heart has lots of real history referenced in it.

Girl with a louding voice - has a lot about Nigeria in it.

War and peace has a bunch of real historical characters (as well as lots of fictional ones) and the wars are all historical events.

Hamnet, as already recommended.

Pompeii by Robert Harris is based on real records of the volcanic eruption and lots of well researched but fictionalised details.

The Mrs Boots series by Deborah Carr is inspired by the love story of the real founders of Boots the Chemist and all their philanthropic work, but is broadly fictional.

@SOLINVICTUS isn't it wonderful?! I only read it a few weeks ago but I already want to read it all over again. And I'm desperate for them to make a TV series of i, it would be amazing.

I finished Hamnet last night and it made me absolutely bawl. It was so good though. But a hard read.

Conclave by Richard Harris has just been mentioned on another thread. This really good. Actually, a lot of Richard Harris books are good and are factually based.

I’ve just read The Four Winds which was awesome, about a family in The Great Depression. Really interesting and well written.