Feeling bereft after finishing Wolf hall trilogy!

[Fiftyisthenewsixty]

What next? I just really want to read something that takes me back so completely to a certain period in time. It took me ages to get round to reading The Mirror and the Light as the size put me off but I think in the end I loved it the most of all! Any other fans?

Bernard Cornwall the books The Last Kingdom was based on

Katherine by Anya Seton is one of my favourites

The Merlin/Arthur trilogy by Mary Stewart. Stewart seems not to be so well known these days (altho R4 is having an adaptation of one of her novels next weekend) but the Merlin and Arthur story will, IMO, never be better written than this one.

Have you read Alison Weir's Six Tudor Queens series? I'm part way through them and am loving the historical detail.

It's not as literary, but Ken follet pillars series is something you can immerse yourself in.
I still have the mirror and the light but the size has been daunting me a bit! I loved the others so will get on it

Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet

Read it and loved it!

The Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brien.

If you liked that, you might enjoy an historical novel by Robert Graves based on the life of John Milton. I think it was called Wife of Mr Milton. It’s very good.

Also, Anthony Burgess wrote a novel about Shakespeare. It’s called Nothing Like the Sun and is the single most beautiful thing I have ever read. The prose is breathtaking. Harold Bloom (the great Shakespeare critic) thought it was a masterpiece.

Slightly different vein, Days Without End by Sebastian Barry (American Civil War, but that doesn't begin to describe it).

You might want to have a look at the Giordano Bruno series (set at the time of Queen Elizabeth I) by S. J. Parris. The first book is Heresy.

I was going to suggest Alison Weir’s six part series on Henry VII’s wives too. Really immersive and readable. I’m three down three to go!

and the Cazalet Chronicles are also fab. (but stop after the first four)

was going to suggest Alison Weir’s six part series on Henry VII’s wives too. Really immersive and readable. I’m three down three to go!
I'd forgotten about these! I've only read the first one.

The Anne Boleyn one was really interesting and gave quite a different slant on her life.

Sharon Penman's novels about The Plantagenets, or her Richard III epic The Sunne In Splendour.

Any historical novel by Rosemary Hawley Jarman, especially We Speak No Treason (Richard III) and Crown in Candlelight (Henry V, Katherine of Valois and Owen Tudor).

Also her House of Nicollo series. Absolutely loved those.

Loving this thread - thank you OP.