Ken Follett is one of the best-selling novelists alive, with nearly 200 million copies of his books sold. He made his name with the Second World War spy thriller Eye of the Needle, then surprised everyone with The Pillars of…
Bernard Cornwell is one of the most popular historical novelists in the world. Over more than four decades, he has written over 60 novels, from Richard Sharpe’s battles against Napoleon to Uhtred’s fight for the birth of England, and three…
For a long time, historical fiction told the past through kings, generals and the men who made the decisions. But women were always there: ruling, spying, healing, writing, running farms and households, and surviving wars they had no say in…
There’s something uniquely satisfying about diving into a historical fiction series. Unlike standalone novels, series allow you to spend years, sometimes decades, with beloved characters as they navigate the sweeping events of history. You watch them grow, struggle, triumph, and…
One of the most common questions readers ask about historical fiction is: “How accurate is this?” It’s a fair question. When we read novels set in Tudor England, ancient Rome, or World War II, we’re trusting authors to transport us…
The Second World War is the most popular setting in historical fiction, and it is easy to see why. It reached every continent, it forced ordinary people into impossible choices, and its stories of courage, collaboration, and survival still feel…
The Viking Age runs roughly from the raid on Lindisfarne in 793 to the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066. In those centuries, Norse sailors from Scandinavia raided, traded, and settled from Ireland to the Volga, served emperors in Constantinople,…
Rome lasted for more than a thousand years, from a village of shepherds on the Tiber to an empire that stretched from Scotland to Syria. Along the way, it produced some of history’s greatest drama: the fall of the Republic,…
The Middle Ages span a thousand years, from the fall of Rome in the West to the end of the Wars of the Roses, and historical fiction has found great stories in every century of that period. Warlords and saints,…
Historical fiction spans thousands of years of human history, but certain eras consistently capture readers’ imaginations more than others. From the glory of Ancient Rome to the drama of World War II, these popular time periods offer rich settings for…