All time top historical fiction
Explore the best historical fiction books of all time! Dive into captivating stories set in different eras, from ancient civilizations to modern history. Discover must-read novels that bring the past to life with rich storytelling and unforgettable characters.
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Earthly Joys
by Philippa Gregory
#1 New York Times bestselling author and “queen of royal fiction” (USA TODAY) Philippa Gregory brings to life the passionate, turbulent times of seventeenth-century England as seen through the eyes of the country’s most famous royal gardener. John Tradescant’s fame and skill as a gardener are unsurpassed in seventeenth-century England, but it is his clear-sighted honesty and loyalty that make him an invaluable servant. As an informal confidant of Sir Robert Cecil, adviser to King James I, he witnesses the making of history, from the Gunpowder Plot to the accession of King Charles I and the growing animosity between Parliament and court. Tradescant’s talents soon come to the attention of the most powerful man in the country, the irresistible Duke of Buckingham, the lover of King Charles I. Tradescant has always been faithful to his masters, but Buckingham is unlike any he has ever known: flamboyant, outrageously charming, and utterly reckless. Every certainty upon which Tradescant has based his life—his love of his wife and children, his passion for his work, his loyalty to his country—is shattered as he follows Buckingham to court, to war, and to the forbidden territories of human love.
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The Brothers of Gwynedd
by Edith Pargeter
An epic quartet of novels telling the dramatic tale of Llewelyn, the first true Prince of Wales. Llewelyn has a burning vision: one Wales, united against the threat of the English. But, before he can realise his dream, Llewelyn must tackle enemies closer to home. Llewelyn's three brothers all stand in the way of his ambition to create an independent state. The best-loved of the three, David, was brought up at the English court. Restless, charming and torn between loyalties, David is fated to be his brother's undoing. Despite the support of Llewelyn's beloved wife, Eleanor, Llewelyn finds himself trapped in a situation where the only solution is his own downfall and a tragic death... Here, in one volume, is the entire saga of the Brothers of Gwynedd, including: SUNRISE IN THE WEST THE DRAGON AT NOONDAY THE HOUNDS OF SUNSET AFTERGLOW AND NIGHTFALL
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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 First Man in Rome
by Colleen McCullough
On New Year's Day of 110 B.C., two men whom "Fortune" favors stand with a vision and courage that will force change upon the Roman Empire.
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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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Lady of Hay
by Barbara Erskine
This masterfully crafted first novel tells the spellbinding story of a contemporary woman who discovers her past life as a 12th-century Welsh noblewoman. Erskine's extraordinary romance has been translated into 17 languages and has sold well over a million copies worldwide.
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We Speak No Treason
by Rosemary H. Jarman
The pageantry, intrigue, and suspicions that characterize the court of Edward IV finally center on his younger brother who moves through fear, love, envy, and betrayal to the throne and, ultimately, to a bloody death
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Collaborator
by Murray Davies
An enthralling what-if action adventure in the tradition of FATHERLAND, but set in occupied Britain December 1940 and England lies under German occupation. In the West Country, Nick Penny comes home after four months as a prisoner of war to act as interpreter to the provincial governor. He finds his father dead, his mother crippled, and his best friend Roy heavily involved in a resistance movement. When war hero Matty Cordington returns to run his father's estate, the three friends are re-united in a common purpose. Life under the occupation becomes a compromise at every level. Nick's sister Joan sleeps with a profiteer to find food for her family. There are leaks in the resistance movement, and Matty's girlfriend is fingered and dispatched. The occupation turns nastier as Hitler invades Russia, with less food and greater demands on the civilian population to labour in the Reich. Britain's Jews are first deported, then the 'Final Solution' is enacted on English soil. But treachery still dogs the resistance and, hunted by the Gestapo and the British police, Nick and his girlfriend Angel desperately race to eliminate the real traitor. The story then escalates to an explosive climax a
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The Hippopotamus Marsh
by Pauline Gedge
The first in a trilogy about the descendants of the last true king of Egypt who revolt against foreign rule.
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Cue for Treason
by Geoffrey Trease
Fleeing from the evil Sir Philip Morton, Peter Brownrigg finds himself on the wrong side of the law - and on the run. As he makes his way to London, he meets Kit, and the two decide to stick together. With luck on their side, they find jobs as apprentices to William Shakespeare, but a chance discovery endangers their lives once more.
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The Black Rose
by Thomas Bertram Costain
Walter of Gurnie, bastard son of an English peer, is forced to flee from Oxford for his part in the university riots of 1273. Inspired by Friar Bacon, he determines to travel to China. With his friend Tristam, he fights his way to the heart of the fabulous Mongol Empire, and returns famous, to find that he must choose between the first love he thought lost and the exotic flower that he found in the East.
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The Canterbury Papers
by Judith Koll Healey
The only thing I felt was a strong hand around my neck, another around my waist, and -- before I could cry out -- I smelled the thick, sweet scent of a mandrake-soaked cloth. Unforgiving hands clapped it against my face, and all went dark. AlaĂŹs, the king of France's sister, is abducted while on her mission for the wily Eleanor of Aquitaine, the former Queen of England, to retrieve hidden letters that, in the wrong hands, could bring down the English king. In exchange, the French princess was to receive long-heldand dangerous information. Now AlaĂŹs, along with help from the very intriguing leader of the Knights Templar, must unravel a tangled web of family secrets and lies. Filled with intrigue and peopled with compelling legendary figures, The Canterbury Papers is an "electrifying journey into the past" (Booklist).
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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 Complaint of the Dove
by Hannah March
Matthew Hemsley saves Miss Lucy Dove, the toast of Covent Garden in 1760, from an attacker. But when she is discovered strangled in her apartment the next morning, and Matthew is found there in a drunken blackout, Matthew's tutor, Robert Fairfax, must save his young pupil from the hangman. Original.
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Forever Amber
by Kathleen Winsor
The adventures of Amber St. Clare, the willful and beautiful illegitimate daughter of noble parents who was raised on a farm by people she knew as her aunt and uncle.
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Gone with the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
The classic civil war romanctic tale of Scarlet O'Hara and Rhett Butler and the Civil War conflict.
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Daughter of the Game
by Tracy Grant
When their child vanishes, Charles and Melanie Fraser plunge into the dark heart of 1819 London and into a nightmare of intrigue, betrayal, and deception that reaches back to the Napoleonic War to recover the kidnapped child. Reprint.
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The Thistle and the Rose
by Jean Plaidy
From the pen of the legendary historical novelist Jean Plaidy comes the story of Princess Margaret Tudor, whose life of tragedy, bloodshed, and scandal would rival even that of her younger brother, Henry VIII. Princess Margaret Tudor is the greatest prize when her father, Henry VII, negotiates the Treaty of Perpetual Peace with neighboring Scotland. The betrothal is meant to end decades of bloody border wars, but it becomes a love match: To Margaret’s surprise, she finds joy in her marriage to the dashing James IV of Scotland, a man sixteen years her senior. But the marriage, and the peace it brings to both nations, does not last. When King James is struck down by the armies of Henry VIII, Margaret—Princess of England, but Queen of Scotland—finds herself torn between loyalty to the land and family of her birth and to that of her baby son, now King of the Scots. She decides to remain in Scotland and carve out her own destiny, surviving a scandalous second marriage and battling with both her son and her brother to the very end. Like all the Tudors, Margaret’s life would be one of turmoil and controversy, but through her descendants, England and Scotland would unite as one nation, under one rule, and find peace.
