This week’s Book Blogger Hop asks if we read historical fiction. Well... yeah. Not even “do you read historical fiction because...”
It’s too long to go into all the areas of historical fiction I’ve read over the years, since I discovered it at about eleven or twelve, so ...just a few memories. And that includes historical fantasy.
For some time I was bingeing on Richard III fiction. My very first, which I still reread occasionally, is We Speak No Treason by Rosemary Hawley Jarman. That one was beautiful! It’s seen from the viewpoint of three characters, the Maiden, the Fool and the Man Of Keen Sight. The Maiden becomes the mother of Katherine Plantagenet, Richard’s illegitimate daughter, who married the Earl of Huntingdon. We don’t know who her mother was, so she is invented. The Fool is Patch, Edward IV’s Court fool. He turns up in a sequel, The Courts Of Illusion, which was about the Perkin Warbeck business, and also featured the family of the Man Of Keen Sight. There was also an Elizabeth Woodville novel, The King’s Grey Mare, not as good as We Speak No Treason, but good. I believe the author eventually moved into fantasy.
If you enjoy Richard III fiction, there’s plenty to choose from, including murder mysteries and fantasy fiction, and I’ve read a whole lot of it. Here is a list on Goodreads. There are 43 there and that’s nowhere near all of them.
When I was younger, I enjoyed stuff set in the ancient world, such as Mary Renault’s The King Must Die(Theseus) and Howard Fast’s Spartacus. I actually have several copies of that one, found in secondhand shops, one of them hardcover. Another Spartacus novel I discovered back in secondary school was Arthur Koestler’s The Gladiators. However, I binged on Fast as well, all through those years - Moses Prince Of Egypt, Agrippa’s Daughter, My Glorious Brothers(which I found on the book rack in my local milk bar while buying bread and milk), his American history novels...It wasn’t until years later that I found out he was also a science fiction writer from the golden age of SF, plus writing crime fiction under a pen name.
I confess to having discovered Rosemary Sutcliff as an adult! By then, I was already a fan of Arthurian fiction, and was thrilled to discover her classic Arthurian novel The Sword At Sunset. It was, of course, only one of many about a family living through British history, beginning with Eagle Of The Ninth and ending some time in the Middle Ages. You knew the characters were descended from Marcus Flavius Aquila because of a family heirloom, a dolphin ring with a flawed emerald. That might be the only connection, but I’d read the line where whoever was the hero got it out and say, “Ohhh...” in delight.
I do have Arthurian favourites, of course, and that was my other binge reading. Apart from the Sutcliff novels, I love Mary Stewart’s Merlin novels, which had just a touch of fantasy and were based on Geoffrey of Monmouth. The first is The Crystal Cave, the only one to be dramatised. That’s worth finding if you can.
Bernard Cornwell’s Arthurian fiction is great too. His Warlord Chronicles have a touch of fantasy, but only a touch, and I have to say, any author who doesn’t like Lancelot is okay with me!
Another historical Arthur - with the tiniest bit of fantasy - is the one in Parke Godwin’s Firelord. This American author did a good job with British heroes. I just adored his Romano-British Arthur, whose mother was a sort of changeling, a daughter of a poverty stricken indigenous tribe swapped for the stillborn child of a Roman woman, to give her a chance at life. The natives are not really Faerie, but everyone is superstitious about them. It’s the only book where the Holy Grail quest begins with Arthur saying, “Oh, go look for your silly cup!”
The same author did the best Robin Hood fiction I ever read, Sherwood and Robin And The King, which we’re set, not in Richard the Lionheart’s era, but just after the conquest of William. This Robin is presented as a rebel, though he does eventually realise it’s going to cause a civil war and offers his allegiance to William. The Sheriff of Nottingham is a decent man in this duology and they become friends. The Sheriff marries Robin’s cousin.
In more recent years my historical fiction reading has been mixed with crime fiction, such as the Phryne Fisher novels and some set in Henry VIII’s England. It’s very easy to find those in your local library, and mine is particularly good.
So, do you have any historical favourites?
It’s too long to go into all the areas of historical fiction I’ve read over the years, since I discovered it at about eleven or twelve, so ...just a few memories. And that includes historical fantasy.
For some time I was bingeing on Richard III fiction. My very first, which I still reread occasionally, is We Speak No Treason by Rosemary Hawley Jarman. That one was beautiful! It’s seen from the viewpoint of three characters, the Maiden, the Fool and the Man Of Keen Sight. The Maiden becomes the mother of Katherine Plantagenet, Richard’s illegitimate daughter, who married the Earl of Huntingdon. We don’t know who her mother was, so she is invented. The Fool is Patch, Edward IV’s Court fool. He turns up in a sequel, The Courts Of Illusion, which was about the Perkin Warbeck business, and also featured the family of the Man Of Keen Sight. There was also an Elizabeth Woodville novel, The King’s Grey Mare, not as good as We Speak No Treason, but good. I believe the author eventually moved into fantasy.
If you enjoy Richard III fiction, there’s plenty to choose from, including murder mysteries and fantasy fiction, and I’ve read a whole lot of it. Here is a list on Goodreads. There are 43 there and that’s nowhere near all of them.
When I was younger, I enjoyed stuff set in the ancient world, such as Mary Renault’s The King Must Die(Theseus) and Howard Fast’s Spartacus. I actually have several copies of that one, found in secondhand shops, one of them hardcover. Another Spartacus novel I discovered back in secondary school was Arthur Koestler’s The Gladiators. However, I binged on Fast as well, all through those years - Moses Prince Of Egypt, Agrippa’s Daughter, My Glorious Brothers(which I found on the book rack in my local milk bar while buying bread and milk), his American history novels...It wasn’t until years later that I found out he was also a science fiction writer from the golden age of SF, plus writing crime fiction under a pen name.
I confess to having discovered Rosemary Sutcliff as an adult! By then, I was already a fan of Arthurian fiction, and was thrilled to discover her classic Arthurian novel The Sword At Sunset. It was, of course, only one of many about a family living through British history, beginning with Eagle Of The Ninth and ending some time in the Middle Ages. You knew the characters were descended from Marcus Flavius Aquila because of a family heirloom, a dolphin ring with a flawed emerald. That might be the only connection, but I’d read the line where whoever was the hero got it out and say, “Ohhh...” in delight.
Bernard Cornwell’s Arthurian fiction is great too. His Warlord Chronicles have a touch of fantasy, but only a touch, and I have to say, any author who doesn’t like Lancelot is okay with me!
Another historical Arthur - with the tiniest bit of fantasy - is the one in Parke Godwin’s Firelord. This American author did a good job with British heroes. I just adored his Romano-British Arthur, whose mother was a sort of changeling, a daughter of a poverty stricken indigenous tribe swapped for the stillborn child of a Roman woman, to give her a chance at life. The natives are not really Faerie, but everyone is superstitious about them. It’s the only book where the Holy Grail quest begins with Arthur saying, “Oh, go look for your silly cup!”
The same author did the best Robin Hood fiction I ever read, Sherwood and Robin And The King, which we’re set, not in Richard the Lionheart’s era, but just after the conquest of William. This Robin is presented as a rebel, though he does eventually realise it’s going to cause a civil war and offers his allegiance to William. The Sheriff of Nottingham is a decent man in this duology and they become friends. The Sheriff marries Robin’s cousin.
In more recent years my historical fiction reading has been mixed with crime fiction, such as the Phryne Fisher novels and some set in Henry VIII’s England. It’s very easy to find those in your local library, and mine is particularly good.
So, do you have any historical favourites?