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What FICTION books would you recommend around the periods in GCSE History?

68 replies

LittleOwl153 · 22/02/2023 13:01

My DD is doing GCSE History. She likes to read around the history topics she is doing and is well read in the Tudor period (her favourite period!) through Phillippa Gregory, Anne O'Brien, Alison Weir, Susan Higginbotham.

Syllabus includes:

  • British America 1713-1783: Empire and revolution
  • Early Elizabethan England 1558-1588
  • Weimer and Nazi Germany 1918-1939
  • Whitechapel 1870-1900
  • Crime and punishment c1500- present day!

She gets alot from historical context
through reading so looking for authors with a reasonable reputation for being historically correct.

She's 14, but reads very well and usually adult books these days. She has picked out some My Story books too which are children's level.

I don't like historical fiction so I'm clueless so hoping the hive mind will come up with some good materials for her!

Thank you!

OP posts:
OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow · 26/02/2023 09:21

The Shardlake books and the accompanying essays after are good. Phillip Kerr wrote a series of detective fiction set in nazi Germany and, though they may be a bit racy Babylon Berlin in book and on tv captures Weimar Germany, the grinding poverty, the desperation and the political jockeying for power excellently.

redspottedmug · 26/02/2023 09:43

Elizabeth the forgotten years, by John Guy

Meduse · 07/03/2023 17:11

Can I recommend anything by Ruta Sepytys .She writes for young adults and focuses upon lesser known but true stories that she calls “ hidden histories “ Titkes such as “Salt to the sea” about the biggest maritime disaster in WW2, “Fountain of Silence “ short listed for the Carnegie award in 2019 about Franco ( and to my mind is outstanding) and “Between shades of Gray” which is also in graphic novel form about refugees in WW2 and is based on her own family history.
Highly recommend to adults and young adults alike!

Zonder · 28/08/2023 10:42

Meduse · 07/03/2023 17:11

Can I recommend anything by Ruta Sepytys .She writes for young adults and focuses upon lesser known but true stories that she calls “ hidden histories “ Titkes such as “Salt to the sea” about the biggest maritime disaster in WW2, “Fountain of Silence “ short listed for the Carnegie award in 2019 about Franco ( and to my mind is outstanding) and “Between shades of Gray” which is also in graphic novel form about refugees in WW2 and is based on her own family history.
Highly recommend to adults and young adults alike!

I've just done a search on MN for Fountains of Silence. I've just started it and can't put it down. The language is so good in it and the characters are beautifully written.

StColumbofNavron · 28/08/2023 18:11

The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey by Julia Laite

Recommend for all those who rated The Five - this is substantially better in my opinion (and I really rate The Five.

It is about trafficking in the Edwardian period, but covers the development of the police force, social work amongst many other things, including Lydia's own story. It isn't gratuitous and I wouldn't say there is anything a mature 14 year old could not read.

StColumbofNavron · 28/08/2023 18:12

p.s It is not fiction but reads like a story.

EdithWeston · 28/08/2023 18:23

Christopher Issherwood's The Berlin Stories, for Germany in the 1930s (then watch Cabaret)

EdithWeston · 28/08/2023 18:34

Mayhem by Sarah Pinborough - fictionalised/supernatural but still based on the Thames Torso murders. You might want to read this one yourself first, to check it's not too adult

OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow · 29/08/2023 20:51

EdithWeston · 28/08/2023 18:23

Christopher Issherwood's The Berlin Stories, for Germany in the 1930s (then watch Cabaret)

I’d actually watch the Alan Cummings/Jane Horricks version of Cabaret on You Tube. Much less Hollywood glitz, more desperate poverty. The ending is 😯

Shakenbutbarelystirred · 29/08/2023 21:23

Another vote for Jean Plaidy. Also Georgette Heyer although none of hers fit the periods you want I don't think.

Springduckling · 29/08/2023 21:38

All the Light you Cannot see by Anthony Doerr
The Book Thief

lifeturnsonadime · 29/08/2023 21:43

possibly a bit younger reader but When Hitler Stole the Pink Rabbit is fab for linking history with literature, especially for youngsters familiar with the Tiger who Came for Tea.

Larkslane · 29/08/2023 22:36

Lemondrizzle20 · 24/02/2023 17:43

Her style is a little old fashioned by modern standards but Jean Plaidy wrote generally accurate historical novels, more fictionalised history really.

She also wrote a series called the Daughters of England about a family from Tudor times to WWII, some of the later books were ghost written and it shows in the style.

For American history including Revolutionary period try John Jake's.

I was just going to suggest Jean Plaidy too!
Historically accurate and easy to read.
They don’t have the gripping sensationalism of some more modern authors, but won’t cause problems in exams with inaccuracies.
As a teenager I found them a good introduction to various periods in history, particularly those which we did not cover in school.

elkiedee · 31/08/2023 16:07

The Wolf Hall trilogy is set during the reign of Henry VIII - Thomas Cromwell was executed in 1542, a few years before that King's death. His son (from 9-15) and then his older daughter Mary were on the throne before Elizabeth I.

The novels are written from the viewpoint, though not in the first person, of Thomas Cromwell, who was very much interested in the new Protestant ideas developing in Europe. Although I don't think Hilary Mantel was religious as an adult, she was brought up Catholic, but she was writing about someone whose religious views were part of his life, political career and downfall. Yes, he would have been anti Catholic and history students should be looking at what informed the views of the people they're studying and why rather than spouting those views uncritically..... Elizabeth had become/been brought up as a Protestant.

I love David Downing's "Station" series - Zoo Station is #1 and Wedding Station is #7 in the series in writing order, although it goes back in time a bit. The character John Russell is English and a former communist and divorced man, who is still living in Berlin to be able to see his son Paul who lives with John's German ex wife - though it's hard seeing his son caught up in the Hitler Youth, and in the war years, it's worse, as if young teenagers weren't actually sent off to military training and the front, they would be expected to take on increasingly dangerous roles during air raids etc. There is also John Russell's girlfriend/partner.

I quite liked March Violets by Philip Kerr and have read the next two of the series, which also jumps around a bit chronologically - after a bit of a gap Kerr went on to write another 11 books about Bernie Gunther before his death a few years ago. For Nazi Germany Kerr's wife/widow Jane Thynne has written a series of 5 books about Clara Vine, who had a German parent and but was brought up in England. In the series she is living and working in Berlin and becomes caught up in espionage and murder. She isn't a detective but increasingly is an agent. I think her father is English but is quite sympathetic to the Nazis and impressed by the way they're responding to the Bolshevik threat - Clara Vine doesn't share those views.

For Weimar Germany, Isherwood's stories set there, and the author of All Quiet on the Western Front also wrote novels about young men who had returned after WWI and life in Weimar.

Irish novelist Audrey Magee's first novel the Undertaking is a compelling look at the life of an ordinary German family through the Nazi years up to the war.

mambojambodothetango · 31/08/2023 16:15

The Boy in the Striped PJs for Nazi Germany.
If she's mature enough to understand the themes/message then for Crime & Punishment, I'd recommend The Outsider by Albert Camus

mambojambodothetango · 31/08/2023 16:16

Springduckling · 29/08/2023 21:38

All the Light you Cannot see by Anthony Doerr
The Book Thief

Yes! All the Light You Cannot See is perfect for Nazi Germany

Lansonmaid · 31/08/2023 17:03

Two brothers by Ben Elton. As the title suggests it the story of two boys in a Jewish family in Germany in the 1930's. I felt it really captured the growing menace of the Nazis, and how different people reacted to it. I seem to recall the description of Kristallnacht being particularly vivid

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 02/09/2023 14:16

StColumbofNavron · 28/08/2023 18:11

The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey by Julia Laite

Recommend for all those who rated The Five - this is substantially better in my opinion (and I really rate The Five.

It is about trafficking in the Edwardian period, but covers the development of the police force, social work amongst many other things, including Lydia's own story. It isn't gratuitous and I wouldn't say there is anything a mature 14 year old could not read.

This has reminded me, there's an author called Stuart Cloete who wrote about trafficking in Victorian England, 'The Abductors.' Might be a bit strong for a 14 years old, though

https://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-abductors-by-stuart-cloete-1966.html

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