Here are expert book recommendations on the best historical fiction. These are engaging reading lists for fans of historical novels.
If you are new to this popular genre get ready to be immersed in the past with gripping story lines. A good place to start would be the best historical fiction.
Hilary Mantel, of course, has twice triumphed at the Booker Prize with the first two instalments of her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. The third, The Mirror and the Light, will chart Cromwell’s inevitable demise and has been dubbed the literary event of the year and included in our Editors' Picks for 2020 fiction.
Historical fiction is great for any reader that enjoys history and a good story.
The Best Historical Fiction: the 2019 Walter Scott Prize Shortlist, recommended by Katharine Grant
The best historical novels are those so immersive and natural in tone that their period setting is a ‘by-the-way,’ says Katharine Grant, the novelist and judge for the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction. Here she discusses the six brilliant books that made the 2019 shortlist.
The Best Historical Novels, recommended by Alison Weir
Bestselling British historian and author Alison Weir plunges us deep into the world of walled-up skeletons, Vikings, poisoning, intrigue, witchcraft and rebellion. This is the best of historical novels – books that never compromise on painstaking research.
