My Favourite Historical Fiction Books
Discover my top picks for the best historical fiction books! Explore captivating tales of love, war, and adventure from different eras in this curated list of must-read novels.
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The Marsh King's Daughter
by Elizabeth Chadwick
Driven into a convent by her stepfather, Miriel Weaver is rescued by a mercenary, but their eventual parting will bring bad fortune on both of them.
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Lords of the White Castle
by Elizabeth Chadwick
Based on a remarkable true story of honour, treachery and love spanning the turbulent reigns of four great Mediaeval kings. Award-winning author Elizabeth Chadwick brings the thirteenth century vividly to life in the tale of Fulke FitzWarin. From inexperienced young courtier to powerful Marcher lord, from loyal knight to dangerous outlaw, from lover of many women to faithful husband, Fulke's life story bursts across the page in authentic detail. A violent quarrel with Prince John, later King John, disrupts Fulke's life ambition to become 'Lord of the White Castle' and leads him to rebel. There are perils for John at every turn. No less dramatic is the dangerous love that Fulke harbours for Maude Walter, a wealthy widow whom John wants for himself. Negotiating a maze of deceit, treachery and shifting political alliances Fulke's striving is rewarded, but success is precarious. Personal tragedy follows the turbulence of the Magna Carta rebellion, culminating in the destruction of everything for which Fulke has fought. Yet even among the ashes he finds a reason to begin anew.
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Here be Dragons
by Sharon Kay Penman
"A masterful picture of Wales in the 13th century...vivdly pictured as grandly beautiful, its people volatile, stubborn and mystic." THE SAN DIEGO UNION Thirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England's ruthless, power-hungry King John. Then Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce with England by marrying the English king's beloved, illegitimate daughter, Joanna. Reluctant to wed her father's bitter enemy, Joanna slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband who dreams of uniting Wales. But as John's attentions turn again and again to subduing Wales--and Llewelyn--Joanna must decide to which of these powerful men she owes her loyalty and love. A sweeping novel of power and passion, loyalty and lives, this is the book that began the trilogy that includes FALLS THE SHADOW and THE RECKONING.
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The Sunne in Splendour
by Sharon Kay Penman
A historical novel that re-creates the life of Richard III in fifteenth-century England, presenting the monarch as a gifted man and romantic hero who was betrayed in life and in death.
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Falls the Shadow
by Sharon Kay Penman
"A marvelous literary and historical achievement...Impossible to put down." THE BOSTON HERALD This is Simon de Montfort's story--and the story of King Henry III, as weak and changeable as Montfort was brash and unbending. It is a saga of two opposing wills that would later clash in a storm of violence and betrayal, a story straight from the pages of history that brings the world of the thirteenth century comletely, provocatively, and magnificently alive. Above all, this is a story of conflict and treachery, of human frailty and broken legends, a tale of pageantry and grandeur that is as unforgettable as it is real....
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When Christ and His Saints Slept
by Sharon Kay Penman
The acclaimed author of The Sunne in Splendor and Falls the Shadow now begins a new trilogy, set in medieval England, during a time of royal turmoil and intrigue, and following the lives and passions of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. 2 maps; genealogy. Gilded top stain cover; ribbon marker.
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The Reckoning
by Sharon Kay Penman
"Penman's characters are so shrewdly imagined, so full of resonant human feeling that they seem to be on the page....Most compelling is the portrait of the Welsh as wild and rugged as their landscape." SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Here, alive from the pages of history, is the compelling tale of a Celtic society ruled by Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, on a collison course with a feudal realm of Edward I. WIth this last book in the extraordinary trilogy that began with HERE BE DRAGONS and continued in FALLS THE SHADOW, Sharon Kay Penman has written a beautiful and moving conclusion to her medieval saga. For everyone who has read the earlier books in this incomparable series or ever wanted to experience the rich tapestry of British history and lore, this bold and romantic adventure must be read.
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Time and Chance
by Sharon Kay Penman
In When Christ and His Saints Slept, acclaimed historical novelist Sharon Kay Penman portrayed all the deceit, danger, and drama of Henry II’s ascension to the throne. Now, in Time and Chance, she continues the ever-more-captivating tale. It was medieval England’s immortal marriage—Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II, bound by passion and ambition, certain to leave a legacy of greatness. But while lust would divide them, it was friendship—and ultimately faith—that brought bloodshed into their midst. It began with Thomas Becket, Henry’s closest confidant, and his elevation to be Archbishop of Canterbury. It ended with a perceived betrayal that made a royal murder seem inevitable. Along the way were enough scheming, seductions, and scandals to topple any kingdom but their own. . . . Only Sharon Kay Penman can re-create this truly tumultuous time—and capture the couple who loved power as much as each other . . . and a man who loved God most of all.
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The Woman from Browhead
by Audrey Howard
The heroine is Annie Abbott, daughter and only child of a poverty-stricken hill farmer and his downtrodden wife, who runs away with a theatrical group at the age of 15. Annie returns to Browhead, the beautiful lonely hill farm above Bassenthwaite Lake, with only her pride and her baby daughter to sustain her. Her parents are dead, her old friends dare not be seen with an unmarried mother and the other farmers will lnot help a woman who presumes to buy sheep and raise crops without a husband at her side. Except for one man. Reed Macaulay, son of the district's most prosperous landowner, knows that Annie is the only woman he will ever love. Secretly, he helps her any way he can. Secretly, because Reed has promised to marry another woman . . . 'Her thousands of fans recognise the artistry of a true storyteller' Lancashire Life
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The Shadowed Hills
by Audrey Howard
Katy Andrews, born to wealth and position, has never been thwarted or curbed by her gentle mother or her indulgent father. When she sets her cap at Jamie Hutchinson, she expects the ambitious young farmer to love her in return - but he does not. He falls in love instead with Katy's despised, gentle cousin Chloe Taylor, and Katy thinks she has nothing left to live for. Driven half-mad with grief and horror, she turns to the most dangerous man she could possibly find: her loutish, brutal cousin Paddy Andrews. The only man who can save her is Jamie Hutchinson. And he is married to another woman. 'Her thousands of fans recognise the artistry of a true storyteller' Lancashire Life
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When Morning Comes
by Audrey Howard
An unforgettable story of a star-crossed marriage, set amid the Lake District's fells.
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Beyond the Shining Water
by Audrey Howard
Set in the slums of 19th-century Liverpool, this novel tells the story of a girl's journey from riches to rags. When Lily's father dies her world collapses. She and her mother accept help from two men, a poor sailor and a wealthy gentlemen. But in doing so, they place themselves in terrible danger.
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Promises Lost
by Audrey Howard
Alice Hamilton is determined to use marriage to advance her social standing, and is appalled when her younger sister, Sara, falls in love with Jack Andrews, a common railway worker
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Angel Meadow
by Audrey Howard
Nancy Brody is different from the rest of the folk in Angel Meadow, the appalling slum where her drunken mother Kitty was a prostitute before the day she disappeared . . . Only nine years old, Nancy decides to save her sisters Mary and Rose from the workhouse. She gets work for them all at the Monarch Cotton Manufacturing Mill - and then sets out to better herself and her sisters. Saving every penny, working every waking hour, Nancy succeeds, becoming a manufacturer herself. But happiness seems as elusive for Nancy as it was when she was a mistreated child. Though he once said he loved her, Mick O'Rourke has become Nancy's worst enemy, and seems destined to take a terrible revenge on her and her sisters. And Josh Hayes, the man who truly loves Nancy, seems to be destined to be parted from her.
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Echo of Another Time
by Audrey Howard
Celie Marlow begins working in the Latimers' kitchen when she is only ten, learning her art from Mrs Harper. By the age of 18 she has become a talented cook. But when she falls in love with a Latimer, all their lives change with frightening swiftness. Driven from her home, Celie finds unexpected success in a new venture with her old boss - then loses everything once more. Thrown on to the streets of Liverpool, penniless and desperate, she will have to find her own way. 'Her thousands of fans recognise the artistry of a true storyteller' Lancashire Life
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Tilly Trotter
by Catherine Cookson
An epic trilogy set during the reign of Queen Victoria, which follows the fortunes of a young girl from a small village in Tyneside, to a new life in America as the wife of a wealthy man, only to return and encounter the enmity of her former neighbours and townspeople.
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The Glass Virgin
by Catherine Cookson
Growing up amid the strict mores and stultifying traditions of Edwardian England's Redford Hall, Annabella Lagrange is forced to hide her father's terrible secret and turns to her beloved cousin, Stephen, until a terrible truth about her identity forces her to recreate her life. 25,000 first printing.
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The Black Candle
by Catherine Cookson
Bridget Dean Mordaunt was a woman of consequence in her own part of the world. Inheriting her father's businesses at the age of nineteen, by the time she was twenty-three in 1880, she was running them as confidently as any man. Yet the path destiny required her to follow was not an easy one. Her feckless cousin Victoria became infatuated with Lionel Filmore, the fortune-hunting elder son of an old but impoverished family living in the decayed grandeur of Grove House. Bridget had no illusions about Lionel, but Victoria's happiness was paramount to her. So a pattern began to form that would shape the lives of generations to come, a pattern of some good and some great evil, but all of it inexorably linking Bridget ever more closely with the Filmores and their house. THE BLACK CANDLE displays all of Catherine Cookson's narrative skills and shrewd perception of human strengths and frailties which have established her as our most widely-read and best-loved novelist. And in Bridget Mordaunt she has achieved a notable and highly distinctive addition to her gallery of remarkable women.
