Historical (but well-researched) writers

You know if any book is well researched by whether or not it has a peer reviewed bibliography, otherwise it's suspect. However some novelists are true enough to be inspiring without being misleading. Sutcliffe and Plaidy come to mind. Sir Walter Scott is a bit iffy.

Allira, instead of sarcasm from the teacher you deserved praise, and information about historical sources. The teacher could have viewed your experience as a great opportunity to teach the whole class the best way to research man's past .

I like Barbara Pym as she makes me laugh, and not take life too seriously.

The Five by Halle Rubenhold. Her meticulous research really showed in this book. It doesn't focus on the murders but instead it shines a spotlight on The Ripper's 5 victims and puts to bed the long held belief that all 5 women were prostitutes. Ripper fans roundly condemn it. That's how good it is. My favourite lockdown book.

I love love love CYNTHIA HARROD EAGLES family dynasty plus her other books .
From medieval to ww2 at present many chunky books in this series.

North Lofts. Don't think an are still in print but can be found on Ebay

Monster Walters historical novels.

The books by CJ Sansom are the best researched that I've ever read and his characters are believable and relatable. Such a pity there won't be any more of them.

I also loved the CJ Sandom series. His writing really brings the Tudor period alive. Shardlake is a wonderful character.

Alison Weir is definitely well researched. I’m reading her non fiction Henry VIII which is incredibly detailed.
It follows that her fiction will be along the same lines.

It was Zola’s Germinal that made me politically aware in my late teens.

Tracey Chevalier - The Lady and the Unicorn for that period. The historical detail felt authentic and drove me to search out and visit the Cluny tapestries in Paris on a subsequent visit. (I’ve read others by her - always an unrealistic and irritating romance chucked in, but I always feel that I’ve learned something.
Kate Mosse - early modern history.

So sad about CJ Sansom I was really hoping for a final book in the Matthew Shardlake series...love all is books. Also loved Winter in Madrid

I read recently, on the subject of historical fiction and Mary Renault’s novels in particular, that whereas some historical writers are too impressed by their own research, writers like Hilary Mantel and Mary Renault (who Mantel greatly admired) “hold up their lens so close to the readers eye that it is invisible”. I’ve never seen a better, more apt description.

Definitely Phillipa Gregor, also Hilary Mantell, CJ Sansum. S J Parris, Anne Chadwick. Alison Weir and Andrew Taylor. I too am fond of the Tudor period, the end of the Plantagenets and The Stuarts.

Denis Wheatley, especially his Napoleonic era saga, Roger Brook I think was the randy hero! We 'did' the Napoleonic period for O level history and my teacher was very complimentary about the amount of extra reading I had done in the subject!

Literary Fiction rather than historical but the Sebastian Faulks Trilogy on the First World War was incredibly well written and very moving.

Edward Rutherford - his sweeping, centuries-long sagas such as Sarum, London, New York etc, have had me hooked from their opening paragraphs.

My favourite is Mary Queen of Scots for me a woman who knew her own mind and stuck to it, a woman before her time.

Love the Tudor period and Hillary Mantell beats all.

I loved Philippa Gregory, Jean Plaidy and Anya Seton. My all time favourite book is Katherine by Anya Seton. It is the true love story between John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford. Their great granddaughter, Margaret Beaufort, was the mother of Henry Tudor who became Henry VII. I have read it three times over the years and never tire of it.

Oreo

M0nica

How do you know whether an author is historically well researched?

Yes, a good question 😁
I think it’s when you realise that you’ve learned a lot, even tho it’s a novel, about everyday life in a certain time period. I like the authors who bring in facts without it being a clumsy insertion but simply part of what’s happening, and done seamlessly.

But you have got to know what the facts are in any given period. This is more than dates and events, it is understanding the cultural norms governing people's everyday life in the period the book is set.

Yes, the best writers may take a bit of poetic license now and again to roll the plot along but the manners, customs, food and drink, clothes, expressions used and so on all seem authentic to me from what I know.
There are many self published books out there that I would avoid.

Wheniwasyourage

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - the Dynasty series goes from the Wars of the Roses in England to 1935 in 35 volumes about a Yorkshire family. The first one I read was set in 1912, so although the same family features all the way through, you don't have to read them in sequence if you don't want to.

Yes absolutely Wheniwasyourage, Cynthia Harrold -Eagles for me too.
Her books are so authentic & exicting, it's like going back to another place in time. If I could only take one author's books with me to a desert island, then they would be all of hers. I would never be bored. 😊

Highly recommend The Five by Halle Rubenhold. Gripping account of the Ripper's victims and their backgrounds. Eye-opening portrait of patriarchal society.