Historical. Fiction or non fiction.

[PeachesMcLean]

I read very infrequently and would like some recommendations please.

I read three of the Philippa Gregory ones last year and really enjoyed them. I like the historical side of it, the detail, but am wary of stuff that is just heaving bosoms in period dresses.

Am I being a snob? Did I really just give in to my inner Barbara Cartland? What do you think?

Or perhaps a good biography? Not averse to a bit of reality. the Duchess of Devonshire one was very good when i read that many moons ago. Anything similarly good? Perhaps about strong women rather than men.

What do you think?

LOL pageturner, that is EXACTLY what happened to me. I even read Paul Murray Kendall and Rosemary Hawley Jarman afterwards
But I think all of Agnes Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England was a step too far
So you think Alison Weir's scholarship is dodgy then?

if it's not already been mentioned, I loved Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman - mean to re-read it before the film comes out later this year...

Jean Plaidy - there's a blast from the past ! I also devoured her books as a teenager

Might be a bit to o/t but I really enjoyed A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - much more recent Afghan history - but it was a really page turner for me and was a bit different

I read loads of Jean Plaidy and Anya Seton when I was a teenager too - I think they were good - but haven't read any lately so can't be sure.

Oh gosh, Jean Plaidy! I think she was one of the first authors I read when I 'graduated' to the Adult section of our local library. She also wrote books under another name...Victoria someone?? Help me out, Marina!

She was Victoria Holt I think (sorry I'm not Marina - obviously )

yes she was Victoria Holt. Those were her more Thrilling novels IIRC
I learned more about the causes of the French Revolution from JP's series of novels about Marie de Medicis onwards than from history lessons at school

Thanks, Tilly. I loved JP/VH books, esp the Plantagnent and Tudor ones.

I enjoyed Antonia Frazer and Alison Weir, both write well.

Try the Thomas Chaloner or Matthew Bartholomew books by Susanna Cregory, I really enjoyed them! She is an academic from Cambridge writing under a different name.

O also I quite like the Amelia Peabody books

Another fan of Alison Weir here - have read six wives if Henry VI- non fiction. Have also read Innocent Traitor by her about Lady Jane Grey- also very good - Lady Janes story told through the eyes of others in that period including herself.

Suzanne Dunn has done a similar thing re Ann Boleyn called The Queen Of Subleties - again fiction losely based fact. She also wrote The Sixth Wife of Henry VII about Catherine Prr and her life after Henry died.

Alison Weir however very reliable .

Alison Weir's non-fiction is a bit suspect in the way she deploys her evidence, but very readable and a lot more accurate than any fictional treatment of similar subjects. Her attempts at fiction are not all that, however. Phillipa Gregory does the characterisation better.
I personally love the Cynthia Harrod-Eagles series for a little light tosh.
Two excellent non-fiction historical books I have read recently are The Verneys by Adrian Tinniswood and 1599 - a year in the life of Shakespeare (author's name escapes me for the moment).
Also Antonia Fraser is readable and reliable enough - The Weaker Vessel, about 17th century women is good.
And check out the very entertainingDaughters of Britannia by Katie Hickman

Is 1599 James Shapiro Rosa?

Loved Katie Hickman

Lawrence Stone has lost his cred for some reason or other, hasn't he? I do remember enjoying his books hugely when they were first published

Peaches, that's exactly what I felt about the Philippa Gregory; the heaving bosoms and the Lord of the manor getting satifaction from a good horse whipping.
It was so obvious.
Bit more subtlety would have been interesting.

Rose Tremain and Tracy Chevalier are terrific I definitely agree there.

And I can't remeber the authour, iy was everywhere last yherar, the River one about the couple who get sent to Aus. Very good indeed.

Sarah Waters is great, Fingersmith, Affinity, Tipping the Velvet.

Tilly, A thousand Splendid Suns was terrific , have you read the Kite Runner too? I thought that was more gripping and emotional.

private papers of eastern jewel is fab, china just before the war. lots of detail (and racy) based on a real person.

I like Claire Tomalin. 'Samuel Pepys, the Unequalled Self' was (presumably) historically accurate but fairly skipped along. Very engrossing.

Keep meaning to read some of her other biographies: Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy and The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens.

.....and meant to say, I am not a fan of Sarah Waters. She is a good writer, but Affinity especially was dark and claustrophobic and one of these books where you just know, with growing dread, that things are not going to turn out well.

Far too depressing for me.

Well there's a fair few to go off here, this is great, thank you. Going on holiday in four weeks and three days so getting very excited about potential holiday reading. I've cut and pasted the whole thread, then reduced it down so I can see authors and titles. I stopped this short of producing a spreadsheet Alison Weir looking a distinct possibility, though I'll try and get a second something that's not Tudors, need to diversify I think.

GrapefruitMoon, yes Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. That's the one I meant earlier. Love the way she ended up with one eye and a collection of stones. (IIRC!)

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber is excellent, set in the late 19th century, and all about strong, and not so strong, women (though written by a man)

Hi marina, sorry I came back to this so late. Re AW, yes, I happen to be very closely, um, related to another writer in her field (which may indicate bias, of course ) and she's not very highly thought of here for her accuracy and use of evidence. I read her Princes in the Tower years ago (by way of JT, SP, PMK and a few others!) and howled at it. She is not a historian and her approach is far from vigorous. IMO!

Agree totally about Sharon Penman being fab - I have all of her books. If you can get them, the Lymond series by Dorothy Dunnett is superb, as is the Niccolo series. I have had the former since I was 18, and am now 42, and I reread all six once a year and still find something new in them each time.

Barbara Erskine is quite interesting too, she flips from the past to the present, and I can also recommend Margaret George - I really enjoyed the one about Henry VIII by his fool, Will Somers.

If you like an historical murder, then the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters are great, as are the Falco books by Lindsey Davis. Colleen McCullogh (sp?)of Thorn Birds fame wrote a series about ancient Rome which I thorougly enjoyed as well.

Davis Starkey is readable about the Tudors as well for non-fiction.

Scaryteacher - I saw the thread title and was about to come on here and recommend Dorothy Dunnett - fab, fab books, and, as you say, you find something new in them every time you re-read them.

Pompeii by Robert Harris
Havoc, in its Third Year by Ronan Bennett