It’s time for Historia’s summer reading suggestions. We asked 12 historical writers to each recommend two books for history lovers, fiction or non-fiction, which stood out for them recently. Whether you’re going overseas for the first time this decade or relaxing at home, we hope you enjoy our picks!
Jean Fullerton
My first must-read is The Darkest Sin by DV Bishop, featuring Cesare Aldo, an officer of the Ottodi e Bilia, the venal and corrupt magistrates’ court in 16th-century Florence. Fabulous character plot, setting and a twisted mystery and crime to solve. The Darkest Sin, which I read in two days, is the second in what is promising to be a cracking series. But to get the maximum enjoyment I would recommend you read the first in the series, City of Vengeance, first.
The second must-read book I offer you is A Marriage of Lions by Elizabeth Chadwick. I have been a long-standing fan of Ms Chadwick’s books, particularly the William Marshal and Eleanor of Aquitaine series. In A Marriage of Lions we’re taken to the turbulent court of Henry III through the eyes of Joanna and William de Valance. As with all of Ms Chadwick’s books they are the very best of historical fact with the heartbeat of historical fiction. A combination which fired my love of historical fiction as a teenager.
Jean Fullerton is best known for her Ration Book series of Second World War novels set in London’s East End. She chaired the judging team for the 2021 HWA Gold Crown Awards. Her autobiography, A Child of the East End, is published on 4 August, 2022, and Jean’s feature about it will be in Historia near that date.
Catherine Hanley
My two recommendations are one novel and one book of non-fiction history. The latter is very much hot off the press: the newly published Empires of the Normans by Levi Roach. If you think that the Normans only travelled as far as England in the Middle Ages, then think again and join Levi as he tells us – in a brilliantly accessible and engaging way – how they also made their presence felt across Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa.
My fiction recommendation has been around a little while longer, but is perfect for reading on a lazy summer’s day: Jeeves and the Leap of Faith, the second in Ben Schott’s continuation of PG Wodehouse’s stories (fully authorised by the author’s estate). I’m a huge Wodehouse fan, and Schott has caught the great man’s tone so well that it’s simply a joy to be in the company of Jeeves and Bertie Wooster once more. To be read while sipping a nice glass of something iced!
Catherine Hanley writes historical fiction (as CB Hanley) and non-fiction. Two Houses, Two Kingdoms: A History of France and England, 1100-1300, her new history book, publishes on 12 July this year.
Tim Hodkinson
River Kings by Cat Jarman: a truly fascinating read, and not just for Viking nerds like me. In this history book that sometimes resembles a detective novel, Cat Jarman follows the trail of a bead found in a Norse grave in Derbyshire to its origins thousands of miles away in India. Along the way she tells the tale of the Vikings who went east along the Varangian way. Even for those who may be familiar with the topic there is much to learn in the new archaeological and genetic evidence presented in the book.
Crusader, the second book in Ben Kane‘s excellent series about Richard Cœur de Lion, continues where book one, Lionheart, left off. Richard, now King of England, sets off to do what he does best in the Holy Land, only to be confronted by someone every bit his equal: Saladin. The unstoppable force meets the immovable object in battle, all observed by Richard’s Irish side kick, Ferdia. Great stuff.
Tim Hodkinson‘s The Bear’s Blade (out as an ebook on 5 April) gets its paperback publication on 7 July, 2022. It’s the fifth in his Whale Road Chronicles series, set in the blood-soaked 10th century.
Catherine Hokin
I have two recommendations for brilliant reads this summer, both of which explore madness and power and are blessed with the kind of writing which will keep you turning the page long after you promised to stop reading and pay attention to the people who are disturbing your holiday.
The first is The Madwomen’s Ball by Victoria Mas. Set in 1885 in the Saltpêtrière asylum in Paris, the novel tells the tale of a group of women who have been cast out of society – labelled as mad but more usually an inconvenience to the men who no longer want them – and the ball held every year to which the city’s great and good come to be titillated and shocked. It is a deliciously gothic tale with a wonderful cast of characters, you will be consumed by it.
The second also centres around a woman who has had her life judged and labelled with every possible epithet from goddess to insane. Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates is a novel about Marilyn Monroe which reads more like an intimate conversation, or an exercise in mind-reading. It is mesmerising and written with a compassion for its subject which shines off all 750 pages. Yes, it is long, but it is so worth it and it’s soon to be a major movie. Dive in and enjoy!
Catherine Hokin writes fiction set against the backdrop of Nazi Germany and its aftermath. The second in her Hanni Winter series, The Pilot’s Girl, was published on 4 April, following The Commandant’s Daughter in January 2022.
Vaseem Khan
Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare. Set in the 1930s, our eponymous protagonist is a mixed-race woman who finds herself aboard the Queen Mary, travelling to a bright new future in America, only to become ensnared in the web of a fiendish murderer. Tackling issues of race and class, the novel delivers as both a Golden Age mystery and an examination of the social mores of the age.
The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley. Pulley’s novel is set in 1963 in a Russian gulag and a mysterious forest town. It showcases a finely-drawn period setting, a vein of dark humour, and a plot that blends historical fact and fiction. with a nuclear scientist seeking to do the right thing in the face of a brutal political machine.
Vaseem Khan is the award-winning author of the Baby Ganesh Agency series of crime novels. The second in his new Malabar House series, The Lost Man of Bombay, will be on the shelves on 18 August, 2022.
Chris Lloyd
Not One of Us by Alis Hawkins. Set in 1850s Ceredigion, the hugely atmospheric and beautifully-observed Teifi Valley Coroner books have quickly become one of my favourite series. Spoken in alternating chapters from two very distinct viewpoints, coroner Harry Probert-Lloyd and his assistant John Davies, they are the perfect blend of intelligent and enthralling crime story and impeccably-researched historical fiction. Not One of Us, the fourth in the series, features a fascinating and puzzling mystery set against a vividly-painted backdrop of local rumours and secrets in a rural Wales coming to terms with the effects of the Industrial Revolution.
Punishment of a Hunter by Yulia Yakovleva, translated by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp. One of the great strengths of Punishment of a Hunter is the recreation of 1930s Leningrad, with its depiction of the tribulations of communal living, shortages and paranoia, creating a powerfully authentic and claustrophobic world. Against this backdrop, Detective Vasya Zaitsev struggles to survive in a post-revolutionary city, trying to solve an increasingly puzzling and brutal series of crimes, while coping with the frightening machinations of the Soviet establishment. Thoroughly absorbing and compelling, it is an intelligent and gripping story that piles intrigue upon intrigue to combine with a wonderful and strongly-drawn protagonist and a vivid evocation of a tumultuous period.
Chris Lloyd won the 2021 HWA Gold Crown Award for The Unwanted Dead, a thriller set in newly-occupied Paris in 1940. Read his Historia interview about winning the award and the ideas behind his new historical crime series. The second Eddie Giral book, Paris Requiem, is out on 23 Februry, 2023.
SG MacLean
Damian Dibben‘s The Colour Storm is a vivid and convincing depiction of the lives of artists in Renaissance Venice. The primacy of colour, the essentials of its make-up are bound into the daily struggle to create and survive in a world fraught with religious and political danger and the advance of plague. A beautifully-written and emotionally-satisfying novel.
Sean Lusk‘s The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley is the story of the unusually gifted Zachary, his naïve and good-hearted father, and the troupe of engaging characters who both help and impede them in their struggle to find and come to terms with one another. In a journey spanning London to Constantinople, from the 1750s to the 1770s, the book is filled with images and ideas to be savoured as the world of the 18th-century novel is rendered perfectly for a 21st-century readership.
SG MacLean is the award-winning author of the Damian Seeker and Alexander Seaton historical crime series. Her new novel, The Bookseller of Inverness, is published on 4 August, 2022 and takes place shortly after the Jacobite Rising of 1745. We’ll be reviewing it in Historia.
Clare Mulley
I have just finished Lucy Ward‘s engrossing, entertaining and incredibly resonant The Empress and the English Doctor. The doctor was Thomas Dimsdale, who left his comfortable life in the English home counties to risk ruin on an Imperial scale when he was called to inoculate Catherine the Great and her young son and heir, Paul, against smallpox. Filled with pus, snow, anxiety and adrenalin, this story pays wonderful tribute to the courage of both main protagonists, and ultimately to the triumph of reason on the shoulders of excellent PR.
Next up is Helen Rappaport‘s new biography In Search of Mary Seacole, The Making of a Cultural Icon. Rappaport’s fascination with her subject started twenty years ago when she discovered the 1869 portrait of Seacole that now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. This image of an older woman, resolute, unfussy yet proudly wearing her honours, seems incredibly modern. The book, equally measured and impressive, feels like the biography Seacole has so long deserved.
Clare Mulley is an award-winning author and historian. Her books include The Spy Who Loved and The Women Who Flew for Hitler. She is working on the recently-commissioned Agent Zo. Clare chaired the judging panel for the 2021 HWA Non-fiction Crown Award.
Gill Paul
Acts of Love and War by Maggie Brookes. The Spanish Civil War was a bitter, complex one, and Maggie Brookes captures this perfectly by focusing on two brothers fighting for opposite sides, and the woman who loves them both. I was moved to learn about the Quakers’ role in helping refugees: her descriptions are vivid and immersive, so you can picture these ragged, starving people who’ve lost everything, the overflowing hospital wards, and the traumatised children who found respite in a villa by the coast. I genuinely couldn’t put it down!
In Madwoman Louisa Treger takes us deep inside the mind of the extraordinary investigative journalist Nellie Bly, who, in 1887 had herself committed to a lunatic asylum on Blackwell’s Island, New York, to report on conditions there. It’s a moving, absorbing and beautifully written story that brings to life a determined and ambitious woman. Nellie pays a steep price in order to reveal the terrifying brutality with which women deemed ‘insane’ were treated, and we are with her every step of the way.
Gill Paul is the bestselling author of a number of historical novels, which have been translated into 20 languages. Her latest, The Manhattan Girls, is set in 1920s New York and comes out on 18 August, 2022.
Frances Quinn
All About Evie by Matson Taylor. As someone who grew up in the 70s, it’s a shock to see them categorised as historical fiction, but they are. This warm and funny sequel to The Miseducation of Evie Epworth captures the era perfectly, as the irrepressible Evie embarks on life in swinging London, complete with Ossie Clark poncho.
The Hidden Child by Louise Fein is set against the background of the 1930s eugenics movement, a mother finds her misguided beliefs thrown in her face when her own child turns out to be less than ‘perfect’. This sensitively written, moving story reveals an aspect of British history that’s long been swept under the carpet.
Frances Quinn moves on from the 17th century of her debut novel, The Smallest Man, to the 18th in her new book, That Bonesetter Woman, out on 21 July, 2022. Fran’s feature connected to her new book will appear in Historia in September.
Simon Turney
And By Fire, the debut by Evie Hawtrey, is a dual-timeline thriller, with a modern police procedural investigation colliding with mysteries centring around the Great Fire of London. The pace never lets up, the detail is fascinating, the history well researched and well presented, and the tale itself clever and masterfully told, drawing little remembered historical threads into a plot to be reckoned with.
Daily Life in Ancient Rome by Jerome Carcopino. While modern scholarship continues to uncover and clarify the ancient world, sometimes old staples just cannot be beaten. Published during World War Two and displaying certain biases, Carcopino’s sourcebook for Roman life remains a go-to must for all historians. Covering every aspect of life in ancient Rome, rather than being a modern exploration, it uses ancient texts and sources and presents them to the modern reader, which means that we see the ancient world through ancient eyes.
Simon (SJA) Turney has written several series of historical novels, mostly set during the Roman period. The first book in a new Roman series, The Capsarius, was published on 14 April. He also writes biographies in the Damned Emperors series; the next, Domitian, comes out on 20 October, 2022.
AJ West
The Leviathan by Rosie Andrews. I had the great pleasure of meeting Rosie Andrews at the Granite Noir Festival in Aberdeen this year. Her novel is brilliantly researched and artfully told with a sense of dark magic throughout. She cares so deeply about her craft, and it shows.
Portrait of a Killer by Patricia Cornwell. She is known as the queen of crime fiction, but I’ve been reading her book about the British artist Walter Sickert and his possible links to the world’s most infamous serial killer. Portrait of a killer it may be, but it’s also a fascinating insight into the mind of a legendary author.
AJ West‘s debut novel, The Spirit Engineer, is out in paperback on 21 July, 2022. It’s based on a true story from early 20th-century Belfast, as AJ explains in his feature, Should historical authors feel guilt when they write real people as antiheroes?.
Image:
Woman Reading by a Window by Julius Garibaldi (Gari) Melchers: Gandalf’s Gallery for Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
