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The History Group meets on alternate Monday mornings at Granfers Hall
Talks are given by members of the group on a wide variety of subjects At the moment there is a waiting list Enquiries to: Pamela Morgan on 020 8642 5103 updated 4/10/22 |
Historical novels reviews
Starting with the earliest setting:
A Trilogy of novels set in Ancient Egypt by author Max Overton.
All three books are called ‘Fall of the House of Ramesses’
Each is subtitled with the name of the key figure in each story.
Book 1: Mernptah. Book 2: Seti. Book 3: Tausret.
These novels are based on the facts that are known about ancient Egypt. (Pharaohs, Gods, Rituals, Battles, etc).
They tell the story of how one of the great Egyptian dynasties fell apart due to greed, family feuds and the lust for power.
And on to Rome:
Robert Harris, especially his Pompeii, set at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius and told by a Roman engineer. Very popular.
Steven Saylor is an American academic who has written a series of 11 novels plus 2 pre- sequels so far [The Roma Sub Rosa Series] on a made up character named Gordianus the Finder, set in a period of the last years of the republic. What is so remarkable about these books is all the events actually happened and he places Gordianus there being employed by various well known people to find out the truth.
The period covered starts when he is a young lad right through until 63 at the time of the murder of Caesar.
Steven Saylor has been highly praised for his accurate and deep research of all the available sources. To ensure these events are backed up by contemporary records, he has a fictional family all caught up in the factual situations that
happened.
The Tudors
A member wrote “My first introduction to historical fiction was with Jean Plaidy who had many other pseudonyms.
I found it a good way to get into the history of the Tudors, and how that has gone on into the present day, via the musical 6 about the 6 wives/ of Henry VIII”.
Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir featured largely.
There was much praise for Hilary Mantel as being a more studious history.
Her trilogy of books about Henry VIII’s Mr. Fixit, Thomas Cromwell, starting with Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies (which have both won the Booker Prize). Followed by The Mirror and the Light. Serious reading.
Modern times – in no particular order:
Charles Dickens - Tale of Two Cities (French Revolution)
Barnaby Rudge - the Gordon (anti-Catholic) Riots.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote some historical novels such as Micah Clarke (Monmouth Rebellion) and The White Company (a 14th century romance)
and the Brigadier Gerard stories.
He would prefer to have been known for those rather than for Sherlock Holmes!
R L Stevenson -Master of Ballantrae - about divided loyalties after the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion.
Bernard Cornwell who has written the Sharpe novels set in the Napoleonic Wars,
and Michael Arnold author of the Stryker books set in the English Civil War.
Nigel Tranter (1909-2000) a Scottish author, not that well known south of the border.
He was a prolific author of some seventy fictional Scottish history books, based on actual historical figures such as Robert the Bruce, William Wallace ('Braveheart'), Mary Queen of Scots, as well as lesser known figures such as James Graham the Marquis of Montrose.
I find his books very readable and entertaining, and seem to be reasonably historically accurate, although they appear to be written in a way that often puts the subject of the novel in a good light, while possibly glossing over some of their character flaws such as their ruthless and blood thirsty nature!
A series of sequenced 11 books by Cora Harrison is set in early sixteenth century in Galway and Gaelic Ireland which is divided into Petty Kingdoms,
this being another well researched into.
To lives then under Gaelic Law which was so very different from English Law
that was trying to be imposed by Henry VIII from the English settlements.
This is a murder series investigated by the Petty King of that area's law upholder, who is a woman who strictly administrates and punishes wrongdoers under the Irish law.
The Flashman books by George Macdonald Fraser have their cowardly anti-hero getting into scrapes in well-written Victorian history coming up smelling of roses. Quite a laugh, but the historical setting is sound.
Starting with the earliest setting:
A Trilogy of novels set in Ancient Egypt by author Max Overton.
All three books are called ‘Fall of the House of Ramesses’
Each is subtitled with the name of the key figure in each story.
Book 1: Mernptah. Book 2: Seti. Book 3: Tausret.
These novels are based on the facts that are known about ancient Egypt. (Pharaohs, Gods, Rituals, Battles, etc).
They tell the story of how one of the great Egyptian dynasties fell apart due to greed, family feuds and the lust for power.
And on to Rome:
Robert Harris, especially his Pompeii, set at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius and told by a Roman engineer. Very popular.
Steven Saylor is an American academic who has written a series of 11 novels plus 2 pre- sequels so far [The Roma Sub Rosa Series] on a made up character named Gordianus the Finder, set in a period of the last years of the republic. What is so remarkable about these books is all the events actually happened and he places Gordianus there being employed by various well known people to find out the truth.
The period covered starts when he is a young lad right through until 63 at the time of the murder of Caesar.
Steven Saylor has been highly praised for his accurate and deep research of all the available sources. To ensure these events are backed up by contemporary records, he has a fictional family all caught up in the factual situations that
happened.
The Tudors
A member wrote “My first introduction to historical fiction was with Jean Plaidy who had many other pseudonyms.
I found it a good way to get into the history of the Tudors, and how that has gone on into the present day, via the musical 6 about the 6 wives/ of Henry VIII”.
Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir featured largely.
There was much praise for Hilary Mantel as being a more studious history.
Her trilogy of books about Henry VIII’s Mr. Fixit, Thomas Cromwell, starting with Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies (which have both won the Booker Prize). Followed by The Mirror and the Light. Serious reading.
Modern times – in no particular order:
Charles Dickens - Tale of Two Cities (French Revolution)
Barnaby Rudge - the Gordon (anti-Catholic) Riots.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote some historical novels such as Micah Clarke (Monmouth Rebellion) and The White Company (a 14th century romance)
and the Brigadier Gerard stories.
He would prefer to have been known for those rather than for Sherlock Holmes!
R L Stevenson -Master of Ballantrae - about divided loyalties after the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion.
Bernard Cornwell who has written the Sharpe novels set in the Napoleonic Wars,
and Michael Arnold author of the Stryker books set in the English Civil War.
Nigel Tranter (1909-2000) a Scottish author, not that well known south of the border.
He was a prolific author of some seventy fictional Scottish history books, based on actual historical figures such as Robert the Bruce, William Wallace ('Braveheart'), Mary Queen of Scots, as well as lesser known figures such as James Graham the Marquis of Montrose.
I find his books very readable and entertaining, and seem to be reasonably historically accurate, although they appear to be written in a way that often puts the subject of the novel in a good light, while possibly glossing over some of their character flaws such as their ruthless and blood thirsty nature!
A series of sequenced 11 books by Cora Harrison is set in early sixteenth century in Galway and Gaelic Ireland which is divided into Petty Kingdoms,
this being another well researched into.
To lives then under Gaelic Law which was so very different from English Law
that was trying to be imposed by Henry VIII from the English settlements.
This is a murder series investigated by the Petty King of that area's law upholder, who is a woman who strictly administrates and punishes wrongdoers under the Irish law.
The Flashman books by George Macdonald Fraser have their cowardly anti-hero getting into scrapes in well-written Victorian history coming up smelling of roses. Quite a laugh, but the historical setting is sound.