Historical Fiction Favourites
Clearing out the notes app on my phone recently, I came across some short reviews, written in haste and swiftly forgotten about. But the books featured were ones that I loved, and it seemed a shame to waste the chance to shout about how good they were. If you're looking for your next historical read, you could do worse than pick from the selection below...
THE BETRAYAL - KATE FURNIVALL
Every once in a while a book comes along that captivates you completely and has you reading until the small hours of the morning. This is one of those books. Romaine 'Romy' Duchamps and Florence are twin sisters who couldn't be more different. One is a pro-Nazi socialite, the other is a daring aviatrix delivering weapons to the Spanish resistance under the command of the enigmatic Leo Martel. Bonded by blood and a moment of violence from their youth their worlds collide as the threat of war looms large over Paris and a mysterious assassin stalks the streets. The city of Paris is a character in itself in this book. From the splendour of the Champs Elysees to the backstreets of Monmartre you feel the romance and the magic of the place pouring off the pages. This book needs to be made into a film. It has all the components for a tense historical thriller, and the settings are such that I can easily visualise it on the big screen. It's packed with twists and turns, unpredictable to the last, and you wonder just who will actually make it to the end of the novel.
BEATRICE AND BENEDICK - MARINA FIORATO
This has been on my shelves for years, yet inexplicably I've never read it; I say inexplicably because Marina Fiorato is one of my absolute favourite authors, and the Shakespearean play this novel is based on, Much Ado About Nothing, is one of my favourite plays. I'll rectify this appalling neglect by saying I've been saving it for a special occasion.
In Much Ado we meet Beatrice and Benedick - two characters who clearly have a lot of backstory between them. They parted on bad terms in the past and are subsequently reunited by the play's end, but just what happened, how they met originally and what caused their mutual dislike for one another is never really explained. This is the story picked up by Marina Fiorato, who uses clues from the play to piece together the past for the characters.
I loved the little nods to Shakespeare's other plays hidden within the novel - the warring families in Verona (Romeo and Juliet), Benedict's friend Sebastian feared lost at sea (Twelfth Night), as well as the obvious references to Othello, and many more that I probably missed!
FOOLS AND MORTALS - BERNARD CORNWELL
From the title I figured that Fools and Mortals had something to do with Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, but I didn't realise how much. The plot follows the writing, rehearsing and first performance of the play, with lots of bawdy humour, drama and camaraderie along the way. It reminded me very much of the Oscar winning film Shakespeare in Love, obviously in terms of the setting and some of the characters, but also the humour and old English charm, and you can easily imagine this as a kind of prequel to it - even if the great William Shakespeare isn't quite so kindly depicted this time around! My favourite part of this novel was the relationship between all the players. The banter and camaraderie between them was brilliantly written, and each character is so well defined you'd be hard placed to pick out the fictional ones; I went into the author's notes believing the whole troupe to have existed in real life.
This was my first Bernard Cornwell novel, and I was pleasantly surprised. From all I know of his writing, The Last Kingdom books in particular, I was expecting a lot more gore than we actually got, which I was very thankful for. The threat of the Puritans loomed large throughout the novel, as did the references of what happened to the Catholics that were caught practicing, so I was fully expecting some gruesome scenes. Of course there was some violence, but in keeping with the tone of the novel.
I'm aware this book is a standalone, but if Cornwell fancied writing a few more backstories to Shakespeare's writings I'd be very happy - after all there's plenty to choose from!
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There's plenty more half-written reviews where these came from - hopefully I'll get my head back in the blogging game soon! Meantime if you have any recommendations send them my way!
THE BETRAYAL - KATE FURNIVALL
Every once in a while a book comes along that captivates you completely and has you reading until the small hours of the morning. This is one of those books. Romaine 'Romy' Duchamps and Florence are twin sisters who couldn't be more different. One is a pro-Nazi socialite, the other is a daring aviatrix delivering weapons to the Spanish resistance under the command of the enigmatic Leo Martel. Bonded by blood and a moment of violence from their youth their worlds collide as the threat of war looms large over Paris and a mysterious assassin stalks the streets. The city of Paris is a character in itself in this book. From the splendour of the Champs Elysees to the backstreets of Monmartre you feel the romance and the magic of the place pouring off the pages. This book needs to be made into a film. It has all the components for a tense historical thriller, and the settings are such that I can easily visualise it on the big screen. It's packed with twists and turns, unpredictable to the last, and you wonder just who will actually make it to the end of the novel.
BEATRICE AND BENEDICK - MARINA FIORATO
FOOLS AND MORTALS - BERNARD CORNWELL
From the title I figured that Fools and Mortals had something to do with Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, but I didn't realise how much. The plot follows the writing, rehearsing and first performance of the play, with lots of bawdy humour, drama and camaraderie along the way. It reminded me very much of the Oscar winning film Shakespeare in Love, obviously in terms of the setting and some of the characters, but also the humour and old English charm, and you can easily imagine this as a kind of prequel to it - even if the great William Shakespeare isn't quite so kindly depicted this time around! My favourite part of this novel was the relationship between all the players. The banter and camaraderie between them was brilliantly written, and each character is so well defined you'd be hard placed to pick out the fictional ones; I went into the author's notes believing the whole troupe to have existed in real life.
This was my first Bernard Cornwell novel, and I was pleasantly surprised. From all I know of his writing, The Last Kingdom books in particular, I was expecting a lot more gore than we actually got, which I was very thankful for. The threat of the Puritans loomed large throughout the novel, as did the references of what happened to the Catholics that were caught practicing, so I was fully expecting some gruesome scenes. Of course there was some violence, but in keeping with the tone of the novel.
I'm aware this book is a standalone, but if Cornwell fancied writing a few more backstories to Shakespeare's writings I'd be very happy - after all there's plenty to choose from!
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There's plenty more half-written reviews where these came from - hopefully I'll get my head back in the blogging game soon! Meantime if you have any recommendations send them my way!
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