Hi guys, I'm looking for some good authors; can you point me in the right direction?

by theMatrixITguy

I was in a book shop today looking for something to read, when I came across the History section. There were all this books about different topics, but I wasn't sure which authors were good, so I end up not buying anything.

The topics I'm interested are:

·The middle ages, and history of Europe in general up to the XX
century.

·Accurate Historical novels from the greeks, romans and onwards.

Thank you guys!

Searocksandtrees

hi! there are some book recommendations in the following places that can get you started:

becca45000

My favourite book for the Middle Ages is The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Tortimer, I think he is a great author. A Short History of England by Simon Jenkins is also a good one (but perhaps not exactly what you are looking for since it covers just England and earlier and later than the Middle Ages). These books are more for the person who is interested, rather than the person who is studying, history. If you want to go deeper then I would be happy to give you a short book list for medieval England. With regards to novels, Philippa Gregory is known for her books being relatively historically accurate, as is Elizabeth Chadwick. Their books are more romantic historical novels, but good all the same. Beware though, (I guess with all historical novels really), that even though they may have a bibliography and seem historically accurate, the authors can still bend the truth! Bernard Cormwell is meant to be good for medieval books that are more about war and less about romance, I haven't read them though so can't vouch for their quality, but I have heard good things about them.

SnarkMasterRay

I'm a big fan of Barbara Tuchman and she covered a variety of subjects. Very well researched and regarded.

becca45000

Ok, here are a few books on medieval England that are a nice guide in rather than throwing you in at the deep end!

  1. The Oxford History of Medieval England (a good introduction and overview of most things)
  2. Bond Men Made Free by Rodney Hilton (good for the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381)
  3. Making a Living in the Middle Ages by Christopher Dyer (exactly what it says in the title but also a part on the Black Death)
  4. The Structure of Medieval Society by Christopher Brooke (a bit like the one above)
  5. A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman (mentioned below) is a good one for the fourteenth century, which is when the good stuff happened, like the Black Death in 1348-9 and the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381.

I think this should start you off quite well! For further books simply look in the footnotes if anything interests you and go from there. There is a lot out there though!