Historical fiction recommendations

[Sparrow92]

Could anyone recommend any historical fiction books for me please? Set in the 19th or 20th century ideally.

Anya Seton, Green Darkness.

Tracy Chevalier: Remarkable Creatures The book is about the friendship between Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot so early to mid 19th century.

Georgia Howell Queen of the Dessert: The extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell
Not fiction but a biography that is very fluent so easy to read. It covers mainly early 20th century, first World War and the years afterwards.

I have thankfully! 😊

Perfect way to spend it. Enjoy!

Anything by Wilkie Collins

I love Georgette heyer, read them all a couple of times! Frederica and These Old Shades are probably my favourite of hers. 😊 I do like murder mysteries, will definitely check out those Edward Marston ones thanks!

Thanks I will! 😃

They're some of my favourite books too. And did you see the TV dramatisation? One of the few instances where I think the drama and the book were equally good.

I've just discovered Edward Marston and am really enjoying him. I've read a couple of the Railway detective ones, and they were ok - but I liked the Home Front detective and have really enjoyed the Domesday Series. Have just started a series on Restoration, set at the time of the Great Fire of London. He's a prolific writer of (fairly standard) two man team solve a murder in historic times, but you can choose from Domesday, Stuart, Bow Street Runners, 1700s, Victorian, etc and he's written at least half a dozen for each time period so I've got a lot to still work through, which is very satisfying!

@Hatty65 if you like Edward Marston then add Chris Nickson to your list. Simon Westow series set in 1820s and Tom Harper series set in 1890s, both set in Leeds which makes a nice change from London.

I feel like historical detective fiction should be my specialist subject... I can recommend loads 😃

The Forsyte saga

They sound just up my street 😃

Ooh please do if you get chance 😃 (I know I already have lots of great book recs on here but I'm always keen for more, my bank balance won't thank me but there are worse things to spend all your money on! 😄)

Loving this thread. Needing some inspiration!

all superb …
Dance to the Music of Time

J G farrell (sp) Empire Trilogy

Paul Scott The Raj Quartet

Try the following authors - Mary Renault, R F Delderfield, Sharon Penman, Elizabeth Chadwick, Edith Pargetter - oldies, but goodies, you won't be disappointed

Ok if we're throwing historical detective in there I recommend the Cadfael books and the Mistress of the Art of Death series by Ariana Franklin (actually that is the pen name of Diana Norman who was married to Barry of Film Night fame)
They are really good.

Yes, I did enjoy the dramatisation. I think the books are so beautifully detailed across such a wide arc I'm not sure any dramatisation would be able to do them justice, but I thought Emma Thompson was great as Harriet (although too old) and caught Harriet's no nonsense, common sense attitude well.

@DisplayPurposesOnly Ooh, many thanks! I've not heard of him so I'll check it out. Also, I'm Northern, so Leeds sounds a good change from London!

For any fans of Cadfael (because I've read them all) can I recommend Sarah Hawkswood's Bradecote and Catchpole series. There are about a dozen so far and set in the time of the wars between Stephen and Matilda (Maud), like Cadfael. Really excellent characters!

If you like Cadfael, Ellis Peters wrote under two other names and one was Edith Pargetter.

Some historical detective fiction series ideas

Note some are vastly superior to others! A couple are contemporary and therefore reflect attitudes of their times. My definition of a series is three or more books featuring the same character(s)

Pre-Tudor
Paul Doherty - Brother Athelstan (1300s)
Ellis Peters - Cadfael (1100s Shrewsbury)

Elizabethan
Fiona Buckley - Ursula Blanchard
P F Chisholm - Sir Robert Carey (Cumbria/Northumberland)
Edward Marston - Nicholas Bracewell
S J Parris - Giordano Bruno
S W Perry - Nicholas Shelby
C J Sansom - Shardlake

Restoration
Edward Marston - Christopher Redmayne
Andrew Taylor - James Marwood & Cat Lovett

Georgian
Douglas Skelton - Jonas Flynt (late 1700s)
Chris Nickson - Simon Westow (1820s Leeds)

Victorian
Anna Katharine Green - Mr Gryce, Amelia Butterworth (contemporary, American, very melodramatic writing style)
Chris Nickson - Tom Harper (Leeds)
Ambrose Parry - Raven & Fisher (Edinburgh)

Edwardian/WWI
Edward Marston - Home Front
Jacqueline Winspear - Maisie Dobbs

1920s
Cora Harrison - Reverend Mother (Cork)

1930s
Margery Allingham - Albert Campion (contemporary)
Elizabeth Daly - Henry Gamage (contemporary New York/East Coast USA)
C H B Kitchin - Malcolm Warren (contemporary)
E C R Lorac - Macdonald, Rivers (contemporary with particular warning for antisemitism. Even when sympathetic to the character her words can be quite hard to take)
Patricia Wentworth - Miss Silver (contemporary, late 1920s thru to early 1960s)

1960s
Patricia Hall - Kate O'Donnell

1980s
Sue Grafton - A to Z

Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett and The Four Winds - Kristin Hannah

@DisplayPurposesOnly I love Margery Allingham's Albert Campion books! Quick shout out for Josephine Tey and Ngaio Marsh for that era too.

@DisplayPurposesOnly brilliant thanks!