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Great historical fiction does something no textbook can: it puts you inside a moment in the past and lets you feel what it was like to be alive in it. The best of the genre marries scrupulous research to genuine storytelling - you finish knowing more, but you keep reading because you simply have to find out what happens next.
The short answer
- The one to start with
- Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel — Thomas Cromwell’s Tudor court, up close
- Best wartime story
- The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah — two sisters in occupied France
- Best for book clubs
- The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton — seventeenth-century Amsterdam and its secrets
What makes great historical fiction?
Look for a world so fully imagined you can smell the streets, characters whose dilemmas feel urgent rather than quaint, and research worn lightly - woven into the story, never lectured. The richest novels use the distance of the past to ask very present questions about power, love, faith and survival.
The list below spans the Tudor court, the trenches of the First World War, occupied France and medieval England, so there's a way in whatever period draws you.
Our pick of the best historical fiction books
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Booker-winning portrait of Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII's court - political, intimate and dazzlingly written.Audiobook read by Simon SlaterHamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
A luminous, grief-struck reimagining of the death of Shakespeare's son; winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction.“Inspired by Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, this imagined story, earthy, otherworldly and emotional, is simply and beautifully glorious”Our review, by Liz Robinson
Reviewed by Liz RobinsonThe Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Nazi Germany narrated by Death itself - devastating, tender and quite unlike anything else.“A 2012 World Book Night selection”Our review, by Sarah Broadhurst
Reviewed by Sarah BroadhurstAudiobook read by Allan CordunerBirdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Love and the unbearable horror of the First World War; a modern classic that stays with you for life.“Editor's Comments: Since its publication in 1993 Birdsong has established itself as one of the most important novels of recent years”Our review, by the LoveReading team
Reviewed by the LoveReading teamAudiobook read by Samuel WestThe Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
The building of a medieval cathedral becomes an utterly absorbing epic of ambition, faith and feud.Audiobook read by John LeeThe Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Two sisters in Nazi-occupied France; an emotional, page-turning story of resistance and courage.Audiobook read by Polly StoneThe Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
Seventeenth-century Amsterdam, a mysterious cabinet house and a marriage full of secrets - atmospheric and gripping.“One of the Top 10 Lovereading Reader Review Panel Summer Read selections”Our review, by Sarah Broadhurst
Reviewed by Sarah BroadhurstAudiobook read by Jessie BurtonThe Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
The Tudor court seen through Mary Boleyn's eyes - sumptuous, scandalous and impossible to put down.“This is an absolutely cracking read, gripping from the very start”Our review, by the LoveReading team
Reviewed by the LoveReading teamAudiobook read by Vanessa Kirby
Who chose these books, and why that matters
This is not a list pulled from a bestseller chart. Every title here was read and chosen by the LoveReading editorial panel, and we turn far more books down than we put forward.
The panel includes a former judge of the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger; a past Chair of the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals; a former children’s editor of the Guardian, who is also Children’s Director of the Hay Festival; a former Managing Director of the Hay Festival; the founder of the Murder One bookshop, who has reviewed for the Guardian, The Times and the Daily Telegraph; and two UK School Librarians of the Year.
Each is named, with a photograph and full biography, on our editorial experts page.
Members of the panel include:
Liz RobinsonLoveReading reviewer since 2014 and former judge of the CWA Gold Dagger
Alison FloodBooks journalist and critic whose work has appeared in the Guardian, Observer and Sunday Times
Lyndy CookeFormer Managing Director of Hay Festival, with more than 35 years in books and literature
Paul BlezardMulti-award-winning broadcaster, author and literary commentator
Their judgements are informed by our Reader Review Panel — several hundred readers across our adult and children’s sites who read titles before publication and tell us plainly whether a book delivers.
LoveReading has been recommending books since 2004 and has reviewed more than 33,000 titles in that time. We review for schools, for publishers and for readers, and we are a winner of the Small Business x Sage pop-up shop competition on London’s Oxford Street.
Every physical book bought through us donates 25% of the cover price to a school of your choice — more than £100,000 in books so far.
Where to go next
If one period grips you, follow it: a reader who loves Hilary Mantel's Tudors often falls just as hard for Philippa Gregory, and a Birdsong reader rarely stops at one war novel. Browse our historical-fiction reviews and editors' picks to keep your next read lined up.
Your questions answered
What counts as historical fiction?
Fiction set in a real period of the past - usually at least a generation or two before it was written - where the world, events and often real figures are recreated with care. The history is the stage; invented or reimagined characters carry the story across it.
Are these historical fiction recommendations chosen by an algorithm?
No. Whether research is worn lightly, whether a vanished world feels real, whether the past speaks to the present - these are judgements only a reader can make. Our editors and 800-strong Reader Review Panel have chosen historical fiction on merit, not sales rank, since 2004. These are the novels our reviewers press on everyone they know.
Where should I start with historical fiction?
For sheer storytelling momentum, start with The Pillars of the Earth or The Nightingale. If you want literary brilliance, Wolf Hall or Hamnet reward every page. Then follow the period that grips you most - the genre is vast, and one era usually leads happily to the next.
Which period does each of these novels cover?
They span centuries: Wolf Hall and The Other Boleyn Girl bring the Tudor court to life; Hamnet is Elizabethan; The Pillars of the Earth is medieval; The Miniaturist is seventeenth-century Amsterdam; and Birdsong, The Book Thief and The Nightingale carry you through the two World Wars. Follow whichever era pulls you in first.
More from the LoveReading blog
- Guest Editor, Louise Fein and Historical Fiction UnderdogsFebruary 2026
- Around the World in 80+ Historical Novels.March 2021
- Glorious Victoriana - 25 Historical Novels Set in the Victorian EraOctober 2022
- Alice Jolly wins £25k Walter Scott Prize for Historical FictionJune 2026
More guides from our editors
Browse every title we have reviewed in this genre: Historical Fiction books.