If I like history…

[MrsDThaskala]

Suggest a book for me? I’ve read all of Phillipa Gregory books, as I liked the Tudors. I like History in general. Just finished Alice the story of Phillip’s mother. And that was more of a biography. So what might I like next? Doesn’t have to be royal- I think I just like knowing about the people I’m reading. So fiction or non-fiction. I’m looking to widening my scope so would I like to read about someone or something new.

Just posted then saw a similar thread. But I’d like it to be about a real person or people. Was thinking about the Russian royal family as I don’t know much about what happened to them- but also I don’t know much about the British India tea company. Any ideas

The Grand Duchess of Nowhere by Laurie Graham is about a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and the Romanovs.

You might like the Secret Wife by Gill Paul, I really enjoyed that.

Have a look at Norah Lofts catalogue. She wrote novels about famous people such as Anne Boleyn, Eleanor of .aquitaine and more, but also about ordinary people as well. Her books are well researched (she was a teacher). Love all of her books.

I really enjoyed A Net For Small Fishes by Lucy Jago.

I’ve had “The Persian Boy” about Alexander the Great on my “to read” pile for a while so can’t personally recommend but a few people have recommended it to me. I enjoyed The Young Lion (Henry II) by Blanche d'Alpuget but started on the next one and couldn’t get away with it.
I LOVE “Cathedral” by Ben Hopkins set in a fictional German town in about the 12C but it’s not about real people.

I'm starting to conclude that I don't want to bother with historical fiction any more. For a long time I had a rule for myself that I would never again read fiction about Hollywood or WWII because the truth was better than the fiction. But lately I've been extending it more, because, well, I like to learn things, and if I'm learning, I might as well go for the real thing, and not get mixed up with what's true and what isn't. And it seems to me that non-fiction today is written much more vividly than it was 60-80 years ago.

Two things that come to mind that I've read in the last year or two:

Cleopatra, by Stacy Schiff
https://stacyschiff.com/cleopatra-a-life.html

The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra, by Helen Rappaport
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250067456/theromanovsisters/

And, as RavenPie mentioned Mary Renault, even though it's fiction, her research is amazing, so I'll put in a good word for:

The King Must Die, by Mary Renault
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/140362/the-king-must-die-by-mary-renault/

Authors I rate that you might like, historical - Sharon Penman, Elizabeth Chadwick, Mary Renault, Simon Sebag-Montefiore, Edith Pargetter, Alison Weir

I can recommend C.J. Samson eg Sovereign and Robert Harris eg Act of Oblivion