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    #26
    Historical fiction

    Ooooo, glad I've found this thread. I love historical fiction ...

    I think my all time favourite book is Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett. A sprawling medieval epic with a great story and good characters, they may be a bit 2d in places but the story sweeps them along ...

    Birdsong by Faulks runs POTE close, a stunning and harrowing portrayal of life in the trenches in WWI.

    Fall Of Giants, Follet's new one was also a good read.

    I also love the old grandad of historical fiction - Bernard Cornwell. Fond memories of reading the Sharpe series as a nipper.

    C.J. Sansom is another who I have recently got into. The Sharlake series have been fantastic and I have was gripped by 'Revelation'.

    Was surprised how much I enjoyed a couple of John Boyne's novels, too.

    I could go on all day about this but I'm starting to bore myself now.

    Interesting that people have mentioned Wolf Hall, Q and Name Of The Rose as good reads. They're all on my 'to-read' shelf in the bedroom.

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      #27
      Historical fiction

      I enjoyed David Liss' Conspiracy of Paper very much: a mystery set in the world of financiers in early 18th century London. His other books are supposed to be good too, but I haven't read any of them.

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        #28
        Historical fiction

        That looks really interesting, cheers.

        Am I imagining a fiction book about Isaac Newton and the Mint?

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          #29
          Just finished Their Finest Hour and a Half by Lissa Evans. It's a home front novel set mostly in London during WWII. When I think of the home front I immediately think of Dad's Army. And I have found out that they have made this book into a film starring Bill Nighy. Probably also going to be played for laughs going by his track record, (although I have to confess, I haven't yet seen it.) But, although the book does has comedic elements, it is also a well-researched and beautifully described depiction of home front life in London during the time of the Blitz. And it does what any good historical novel should do. You want to find out more about that period. Yes, I have a basic knowledge of Blitz-era London but I'd like to know more. Could any London-based OTFers recommend any good museums or historical sites in London that are worth a visit?

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            #30
            Thanks Jon for unearthing this excellent and useful thread, which I'd never seen before.

            I've long enjoyed Robert Harris' historical, and "alternative historical" novels. I really enjoyed one last year which appeared not to have been so popular judging by its Kindle price. It's An Officer and a Spy set in the Franco-Prussian War period, about which I knew almost nothing. I learned an enormous amount while enjoying a good old Harris page-turner. Exactly what you want from historical fiction.

            Good to see a mention of Lindsey Davis' Falco series, although I found by the end of the second it was getting a little repetitive.

            Some really useful leads here.

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              #31
              Anthony Burgess's Man of Nazareth and Kingdom of the Wicked are both excellent reads, especially when read back-to-back.

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                #32
                Two very good ones I've read this year: "Children of the Arbat" by Anatoly Rybakov, which I think I mentioned in the other thread. Does an amazing job of re-creating the lives of a diverse group of young people who lived in the neighbourhood west of the Kremlin (off the eponymous street) in the period just before the Great Terror, and mixes it with snatches of Stalin's life at the time. It's excellent. Probably improved if you know something of the politics of the era, but not absolutely necessary.

                Also, "History" by Elsa Morente, which is about the latter half of WWII as viewed by a woman and her two sons (one of military age, one not) in Rome. The idea is very much "history from below", how the great events affect average people, and it's not pretty. Apparently this was the biggest novel in Italy when it came out in the early 70s.

                Also also, "War at the End of the World" and "Feast of the Goat" by Mario Vargas Llosa. These are both meticulously researched pieces of fiction, one about a religious rebellion in northern Brazil shortly after the end of slavery in the 1890s, and the latter about the last days of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. The latter arguably isn't fiction at all, actually. Think of these as history in literary form. They're both great, I've really become a huge fan of his.

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                  #33
                  Originally posted by Sits View Post
                  Good to see a mention of Lindsey Davis' Falco series, although I found by the end of the second it was getting a little repetitive.
                  I used to like those and must have read about half a dozen as they originally came out in paperback. I gradually went off them because of an increasing sense of the author and characters all being a bit too pleased with themselves.

                  CJ Sansom is great and the Shardlake series a massive achievement on many different levels.

                  A big thing with historical mysteries is whether the author has found a plausible reason to insert a detective figure into the period at all. If the premise seems overly contrived then the book is pretty much dead on arrival.

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                    #34
                    The only CJ Sansom I've ever read was Dominion which I found kind of meh. If I were to try again, which one should I pick?

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                      #35
                      Dissolution is the first of his sequence of novels set in the 16th century and as good a place to start as any. It is mostly around a rural monastery though so is a bit like a country house mystery. The action in the second book, Dark Fire, mostly takes place in London and the political intrigue is more pervasive.

                      I read Dominion too and didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the others. Winter In Madrid is his other stand alone novel and I've never felt drawn to that, having picked it up and skimmed a few pages in shops on occasion.
                      Last edited by Benjm; 03-09-2017, 15:55. Reason: Added more detail

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                        #36
                        Lawrence Norfolk's the Pope's Rhinoceros was diverting enough I seem to recall. Not too far in feel from Q.

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                          #37
                          I loved his first novel - Lempriere's Dictionary. But I'm not sure if it's really historical fiction. Nor if it's the kind of book I'd hate now, even though I loved it as a callow 20-something.

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                            #38
                            Yeah, I was still in uni when I read him, could well be unbearable now.
                            There is a sequence involving ergot and 16th cent minstrels playing Purple Haze, which seemed a bit shit even then.

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                              #39
                              There's some great fiction dealing with the British in India. Particular favourites are JG Farrell's 'The Seige of Krishnapur', set in 1857, and the entire 'Raj Quartet' by Paul Scott, set in the period leading up to withdrawal and partition. The quartet is incredibly intricate and explores multiple viewpoints, but it all comes together in the final novel, 'A Division of the Spoils'. There's a later novel, 'Staying On', which is a kind of successor to the quartet and follows the lives of two minor British characters from it who - as the title suggests - remained in India after independence.

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                                #40
                                Ah, yes! JG Farrell. I also loved his The Singapore Grip, which I suppose is mostly about the uselessness of the British in Malaya during the Japanese invasion.

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                                  #41
                                  Good you reminded me of The Singapore Grip. I resolved to read it after reading The Seige of Krishnapur, but it hasn't happened yet.

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                                    #42
                                    Reading Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North, which won the Booker three years ago. Set alternately in 1940s Adelaide and 1943/44 Burma Railway, it is the oddest mixture of love story and torture porn I've ever read. Beautifully written, though.

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                                      #43
                                      Originally posted by Sits View Post
                                      I've long enjoyed Robert Harris' historical, and "alternative historical" novels. I really enjoyed one last year which appeared not to have been so popular judging by its Kindle price. It's An Officer and a Spy set in the Franco-Prussian War period, about which I knew almost nothing. I learned an enormous amount while enjoying a good old Harris page-turner. Exactly what you want from historical fiction.
                                      I have this, unread, on the bookshelf, and am in between books at the moment. Looks like I'll have to dust it off. Cheers Sits.

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                                        #44
                                        Since this has popped up again, I've just recently finished two wonderful books that might just qualify.

                                        Arundathi Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness was worth the 20 year wait. Probably helped that i read it (coincidentally) just before a trip to Kashmir. Authentic, insightful and beautifully written.

                                        Sarah Perry's Essex Serpent took a little longer to hook me, but it must've been good as I stayed up silly-late to finish it and subsequently put up with her first effort, After me the Flood a sight longer than it deserved.

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                                          #45
                                          What a coincidence, I'm just a few pages into The Essex Serpent; not yet hooked but intrigued. She's not actually mentioned the era but I'm guessing 1910s?

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                                            #46
                                            Originally posted by Sits View Post
                                            What a coincidence, I'm just a few pages into The Essex Serpent; not yet hooked but intrigued. She's not actually mentioned the era but I'm guessing 1910s?
                                            Late Victorian. There's an interesting bit at the end of my edition where she talks about how she feels our perceptions of Victorian life and attitudes are inaccurate. Far more nuanced than the charicatures we tend to encounter most of the time.

                                            I really loved it.

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                                              #47
                                              ChrisJ, do you happen to use a Kindle? Both the books you mention have come up as recommendations in recent weeks. The Roy book is on my "Wish List".

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                                                #48
                                                I thought The Essex Serpent was great... And is exactly the kind of book I'd never normally pick up. But my mum left it here after a visit and I thought I'd give it a bash. Very glad I did

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                                                  #49
                                                  Originally posted by ChrisJ View Post
                                                  Late Victorian. There's an interesting bit at the end of my edition where she talks about how she feels our perceptions of Victorian life and attitudes are inaccurate. Far more nuanced than the charicatures we tend to encounter most of the time.

                                                  I really loved it.
                                                  Oh that reminds me of The French Lieutenants Woman, which is a brilliant book as much about our perception of the Victorians as it is a historical novel.

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                                                    #50
                                                    Originally posted by Sits View Post
                                                    ChrisJ, do you happen to use a Kindle? Both the books you mention have come up as recommendations in recent weeks. The Roy book is on my "Wish List".
                                                    Well I did use a Kindle for travelling purposes, but broke it on a mountain this summer. But more pertinently, the Perry was picked up in Waterstones by MrsChrisJ on spec (she hasn't read it yet, but I think I've probably persuaded her to start), and the Roy was because I happened on an online review and remembered how much I'd loved The God of Small Things.

                                                    Levin - yes, that's the thing. I was reminded how much my whole perception of the era was slipping into Dickensian stereotypes- tbh it was getting perilously close to Bleak Expectations. And of course, the people of that time weren't stupid or lacking in complexity, however bizarre, under-informed or unpleasant their beliefs, mores and behaviour appear now.

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