​Favourite books with a bit of history.
​
Adult:​
Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell
The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams
The Colour Purple, Alice Walker
Josephine’s Garden, Stephanie Parkyn
The Lady of the Tower, Elizabeth St. John
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid
Fled, Meg Keneally
The Girl in the Painting, Tea Cooper
The Spitfire Girls, Soraya M. Lane
The Lady and the Unicorn, Tracy Chevalier
Girl With a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
The Doll Factory, Elizabeth Macneal
​The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah
City of Girls, Elizabeth Gilbert
The Romanov Empress, C.W. Gortner
Radio Girls, Sarah-Jane Stratford
The Kitchen Boy: a Novel of the Last Tsar, Robert Alexander
The Queen’s Prophet, Dawn Patitucci
​The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris
Tidewater: a Novel of Pocahontas and the Jamestown Colony, Libbie Hawker
The Lace Weaver, Lauren Chater
Sapphire Skies, Belinda Alexandra
​The Women in the Castle, Jessica Shattuck
The Moon in the Palace, Weina Dai Randel
The Empress of Bright Moon, Weina Dai Randel
Crocodile on the Sandbank, Elizabeth Peters
​The Orphan's Tale, Pam Jenoff
A Memory of Violets: a Novel of London's Flower Sellers, Hazel Gaynor
The Girls at the Kingfisher Club, Genevieve Valentine
Cinnamon and Gunpowder, Eli Brown
Burial Rites, Hannah Kent​​
The Girl in the Glass Tower, Elizabeth Fremantle
Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
​At the Water's Edge, Sara Gruen​
The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
World Without End, Ken Follett
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer
The Confectioner's Tale, Laura Madeleine
The Great Alone, Janet Dailey
The Forgotten Garden, Kate Morton
A Kiss From Mr Fitzgerald, Natasha Lester

Young adult:
Code Name Verity, Elizabeth E. Wein
​Out of the Easy, Ruta Sepetys
​Bloody Jack, L.A. Meyer
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

Children:
​Angel on the Square, Gloria Whelan
Tru and Nelle, G. Neri
The War That Saved My Life, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Withering-By-Sea, Judith Rossell
The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick​​

Historical fantasy:
Kindred, Octavia E. Butler
The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, Imogen Hermes Gowar
​Life After Life, Kate Atkinson
Bitter Greens, Kate Forsyth
​The Dovekeepers, Alice Hoffman​​​​
The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller
Playing Beatie Bow, Ruth Park
​The Moon and the Sun, Vonda N. McIntyre
​The Girl From Everywhere, Heidi Heilig
Tapestry, Fiona McIntosh
Fire Spell, Laura Amy Schlitz
​​

---