British/US historical fiction
Explore the best British and US historical fiction books. Dive into captivating tales of past eras, from royal courts to wartime sagas, in our curated list of must-read novels.
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Avalon
by Anya Seton
This saga of yearning and mystery travels across oceans and continents to Iceland, Greenland, and North America during the time in history when Anglo-Saxons battled Vikings and the Norsemen discovered America. The marked contrasts between powerful royalty, landless peasants, Viking warriors and noble knights are expertly brought to life in this gripping tale of the French prince named Rumon. Shipwrecked off the Cornish coast on his quest to find King Arthur's legendary Avalon, Rumon meets a lonely girl named Merewyn and their lives soon become intertwined. Rumon brings Merewyn to England, but once there he is so dazzled by Queen Alrida's beauty that it makes him a virtual prisoner to her will. In this riveting romance, Anya Seton once again proves her mastery of historical detail and ability to craft a compelling tale that includes real and colorful personalities such as St. Dunstan and Eric the Red.
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Katherine
by Anya Seton
A biographical novel concerning the love affair between Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, in fourteenth-century England.
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The Queen's Secret
by Jean Plaidy
Katherine of Valois was born a princess, the daughter of King Charles VI of France. But by the time Katherine was old enough to know him, her father had come to be called “Charles the Mad,” given to unpredictable fits of insanity. The young princess lived a secluded life, awaiting her father’s sane moments and suffering through the mad ones, as her mother took up with her uncle and their futures became more and more uncertain. Katherine’s fortunes appeared to be changing when, at nineteen, she was married to King Henry V of England. Within two years, she gave birth to an heir—but her happiness was fleeting. Soon after the birth of her son, she lost her husband to an illness. With Joan of Arc inciting the French to overthrow English rule, Katherine’s loyalty to her adopted homeland of England became a matter of intense suspicion. Katherine had brought her dowry and borne her heir; what use was she to England? It was decreed that she would live out her remaining years alone, far from the seat of power. But no one, not even Katherine herself, could have anticipated that she would fall in love with and secretly marry one of her guardians, Owen Tudor—or that a generation later, their grandson would become the first king of the great Tudor dynasty.
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The Daughter of Time
by Josephine Tey
A hospitalized English policeman reconstructs historical evidence concerning Richard III's role in the murder of Edward IV's two sons.
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To the Tower Born
by Robin Maxwell
This narrative offers a new perspective on a five-century-old mystery and debate about the young princes of York who were imprisoned in the Tower of London by Richard III and disappeared, ensuring Richard's ascent to the throne.
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The Constant Princess
by Philippa Gregory
From the "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Virgin's Lover," this enthralling new novel answers one of history's most intriguing questions: What lay behind Katherine of Aragon's enormous, history-changing lie?
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Plain Jane
by Laurien Gardner
This third title in a series of historical novels featuring the wives of England's King Henry VIII focuses on his third wife, Jane Seymour, a plain woman who goes on to shape the future of Britain. Original.
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The Boleyn Inheritance
by Philippa Gregory
From the author of "The Other Boleyn Girl" comes an atmospheric evocation of the court of Henry VIII, and the one woman who destroyed two of his queens.
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The Autobiography of Henry VIII
by Margaret George
The novel that started it all: Margaret George's debut novel of the legendary British king
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Innocent Traitor
by Alison Weir
A fictional portrait of Lady Jane Grey, the great-niece of Henry VIII, follows her turbulent life against the backdrop of Tudor power politics and religious upheaval, from her youth, to her nine-day reign as Queen of England, to its tragic aftermath.
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The Queen's Fool
by Philippa Gregory
#1 New York Times bestselling author and “queen of royal fiction” (USA TODAY) Philippa Gregory weaves a spellbinding tale of a young woman with the ability to see the future in an era when destiny was anything but clear. Winter, 1553. Pursued by the Inquisition, Hannah Green, a fourteen-year-old Jewish girl, is forced to flee with her father from their home in Spain. But Hannah is no ordinary refugee; she has the gift of “Sight,” the ability to foresee the future, priceless in the troubled times of the Tudor court. Hannah is adopted by the glamorous Robert Dudley, the charismatic son of King Edward’s protector, who brings her to court as a “holy fool” for Queen Mary and, ultimately, Queen Elizabeth. Hired as a fool but working as a spy; promised in wedlock but in love with her master; endangered by the laws against heresy, treason, and witchcraft, Hannah must choose between the safe life of a commoner and the dangerous intrigues of the royal family that are inextricably bound up with her own yearnings and desires. Teeming with vibrant period detail and peopled by characters seamlessly woven into the sweeping tapestry of history, The Queen’s Fool is a rich and emotionally resonant gem from a masterful storyteller.
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Mary Queen of Scotland & The Isles
by Margaret George
A fictional account of the life of Mary Queen of Scots traces her lineage and describes her historic fight with Elizabeth over the throne of England.
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The Winthrop Woman
by Anya Seton
A biographical novel of Elizabeth Winthrop, a courageous woman who defied Puritan conventions and beliefs.
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The Dress Lodger
by Sheri Holman
In a novel set in London during the Industrial Revolution, a prostitute borrows a blue dress to attract a higher class of client and is shadowed through the streets by an evil old woman hired by the dress' owner to keep an eye on her.
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Wuthering Heights
by Emily Bronte
Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Wuthering Heights, first published in 1847, the year before the author's death at the age of thirty, endures today as perhaps the most powerful and intensely original novel in the English language. “Only Emily Brontë,” V.S. Pritchett said about the author and her contemporaries, “exposes her imagination to the dark spirit.” And Virginia Woolf wrote, “It is as if she could tear up all that we know human beings by, and fill these unrecognisable transparencies with such a gust of life that they transcend reality. Hers, then, is the rarest of all powers. She could free life from its dependence on facts, with few touches indicate the spirit of a face so that it needs no body; by speaking of the moor make the wind blow and the thunder roar.”
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Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë
In early nineteenth-century England, an orphaned young woman accepts employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall, a country estate owned by the mysteriously remote Mr. Rochester.
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Gone with the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
Tomorrow is another day... Set against the dramatic backdrop of the American Civil War, Margaret Mitchell's magnificent historical epic is an unforgettable tale of love and loss, of a nation mortally divided and a people forever changed. Above all, it is the story of beautiful, ruthless Scarlett O'Hara and the dashing soldier of fortune, Rhett Butler.
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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith
The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.
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Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott
In New England during the Civil War, four sisters experience joys and hardships together.
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Jack's Widow
by Eve Pollard
The iconic First Lady, Jackie lived her life in a fishbowl yet she was shrouded in mystery. She was the epitome of style, poise, grace, and femininity, but her lifelong silence in front of the media has left many unanswered questions. In this juicy yet reverential examination of her life, Eve Pollard's insight into what made America's most admired woman tick is blended into a page-turning, believable thriller. Starting from the somber days following the shocking assassination of Jackie's husband, President John F. Kennedy, Pollard explores the emotions that guided her existence as the world's most famous widow. Everything in Jackie's life is encompassed: the painful childhood that prepared her for the dual role of dramatic chatelaine of the White House and cheated wife; the hidden mental torture behind her marriage to Jack as she attempted to maintain her self-esteem—an anguish that doubled when his debauched love life became public after his death. To cope, Jackie developed a self-defense system to deal with the friends and family who were revealed as the willing helpers in her late husband's constant quest for new sexual partners. And, finally, she used different methods from sunglasses to psychiatry, from remarriage to realpolitik to protect herself and her precious children. With brilliant storytelling, Pollard, one of the former First Lady's first biographers, entangles Jackie during her early days as a senator's wife in the complex world of espionage with startling and thrilling consequences after the tragic murder of her husband. Pollard's wealth of information on the adored Jackie produces a captivating and realistic tale that both surprises and entertains.