Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog
The topic today is a Genre freebie (Pick any genre you’d like and build a list around it. You can even narrow the topic if you’d like, such as: thrillers with unreliable narrators, fantasy romance with fae characters, or historical romance with suspense elements.)
I decided to list ten of my favourite historical fiction books:
- Nero by Conn Iggulden. Ancient Rome (beginning in AD37)
- The Abbess of Whitby: a Novel of Hild of Northumbria by Jill Dalladay (7th century Britain)
- The Raven’s Head by Karen Maitland (13th century England)
- Turn of the Tide by Margaret Skea (16th century Scotland)
- Dacre’s War by Rosemary Goring (16th century Scotland and England)
- Catching the Eagle by Karen Charlton (1809 -1811 Northumberland)
- The Potter’s Hand by A N Wilson (the Wedgewood family 1785 – 1805)
- Silver Lies by Ann Parker (1880s USA)
- A Medal for Murder by Frances Brody (1922 England and 1899 South Africa – the Boer War)
- A Climate of Change by Hilary Mantel (1950s Africa and 1980s England)
BooksPlease 
I’ve read only the Hilary Mantel from your list. Enjoyed it though not as much as her Cromwell trilogy. They’re unsurpassable IMHO
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I agree the Cromwell trilogy is superb. I included A Change of Climate today because I’ve written about the Cromwell books several times now.
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There’s so much historical fiction that I haven’t read any of these.
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2025/08/05/top-ten-tuesday-ya-books-that-seem-to-be-forgotten/
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Yes! I’ll not run out of reading historical fiction!
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Love this list Margaret. I’ve only read a couple of them and definitely need to look out for the Frances Brody.
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There are still some of Brody’s books left for me to read!
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This is an excellent list, Margaret! I like historical fiction, and these are some interesting and appealing choices for me to try. Well done!
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Thanks, Margot!
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My favorite historical fiction book is a book I saw on a list a long time ago. It’s The World is Not Enough by Zoe Oldenbourg. It is one of the best books I’ve read and it is about life in the 12th century.
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Thanks Deb Nance, I haven’t heard of that book – I’ll see if I can find a copy.
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I love historical books but haven’t read any of yours. How interesting.
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There are so many to choose from!
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I’m curious about The Abbess of Whitby. I haven’t read a ton of historical fiction from that era.
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Nice work–all are new to me and I love historical fiction. Thanks!
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What a nice list you made, Margaret. Several that I hadn’t heard of. I have read Silver Lies a long time ago. Historical fiction is a good genre.
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I’m not familiar with any of these, but that’s not surprising as I prefer historical fiction that’s from the mid 1800s to recent years.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!https://readbakecreate.com/football-reads-ten-books-to-prepare-for-football-season/
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I really enjoy historical fiction but haven’t actually read any of these!
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I am loving seeing all the Historical Fiction lists today! I read a lot of HF but I haven’t read any of those particular books. I have read a couple of the authors but not the books!
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