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[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]==Historical fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Sax Rohmer|title=Fu<!--Manchu Remove - The Hand of Fu-Manchu>|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Nayland Smith has summoned the loyal Dr Petrie back from Egypt to the familiar setting of London. The streets of the capital have seen much terror in the early 20th century, but with Fu <!--Manchu dead, surely the worst is over? Not so… for the agency of the SiINSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-Fan, the doctor's masters, still lurk. Can Smith and Petrie put an end to their terror once and for all?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857686054</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jude Morgan|title=The Secret Life of William Shakespeare|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Books about Shakespeare vary hugely both in terms of approach and quality. Some focus on historical fact, while others play rather more loosely with the romance of his life. Fortunately for readers, Jude Morgan's books are rather more reliably excellent. What's more, he has a track record of fiction that concerns great writers, having previously tackled the Brontës (''The Taste of Sorrow'') and the romantic poets (''Passion''). So my expectations were already quite high coming into his ''The Secret Life of William Shakespeare'' - expectations that he has again surpassed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755358228</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jane JohnsonTananarive Due|title=The Sultan's WifeReformatory|rating=4.5

|summary=Alys Swann Gracetown, Florida. June 1950. After a scuffle with a white boy, twelve year-old Robbie Stephens Jr is leaving her native Holland sentenced to accomplish six months at the marriage her mother arranged Gracetown School for her in London. Alys's parents are English but fled to Holland when her late father discovered he was on Boys, otherwise known as the wrong side during the English Civil WarReformatory. The trip turns out to be more adventurous than Alys would like as she's kidnapped by pirates and delivered to Moroccan potentate Sultan Moulay Ismail whoIt's a little mentally unstable (place with a brutal and that's an understatement)dark reputation. His plan for her But the segregated reformatory is as a welcome addition to his globally sourced harem. There she meets Nus-Nuschamber of horrors, eunuch and haunted by the Sultan's scribe, who has problems of his ownboys that have died there. A local apothecary dies in a most unnatural way and Nus-Nus seems In order to be survive the only suspect. The royal court has always been a dangerous place but, for Nus-Nus, school governor and indeed Alyshis Funhouse, staying alive has suddenly become more Robert must enlist the help of a challenge than it seemed before.the school's ghosts – only they have their own motivations.. and that's saying something.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0670918008</amazonuk>1803366532}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jane SullivanKatherine Howe|title=Little PeopleA True Account

|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=Unemployed governess Mary Ann rescues what seems Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to be live with a child family who run an inn, and being made to work there from the currents of the Yarra River in Australiaa young age. However, the 'child' turns out When she hears there is to be none other than Charles Stratton, aka General Tom Thumb, 'midget' and star of PT Barnum's touring 'Lilliputian' show. As a token hanging of gratitude for her act of heroism some pirates in the troupe's tour managertown, Sylvester Bleeker, offers Mary Ann work she decides to go and a solution to her dilemmawatch. For she is not only out of work Enthralled and alone... and pregnant. Shehorrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's made to feel welcome and a sense death at the hands of belonging at last although all isn't what it seemstwo vicious pirates. She may well be everything hides away, so that Tom Thumb and his wife Lavinia have been looking for but that may not be a good thing. Even the title itself isnthey don't all it seems find and has an additional meaningkill her too, not just a reference and then to escape them completely she runs away to the small of stature. Mary Ann gradually realises thatsea, dressing as a lone single parent, she would be destitute (boy and everything that meant at that time) without joining the troupenotorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She too soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a little personmutiny on board, but and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of no account rather than reduced heightlife on the ocean waves. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1742378854</amazonuk>0861547438

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marcello FoisSarah Marsh|title=Memory A Sign of the AbyssHer Own

|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=We are on Sardinia, over After a hundred years ago. It is bout of scarlet fever as a land of legendchild, where storytellers can see a different nature to the moon each night and convey that in their earthly storiesEllen Lark loses her hearing. It's Suddenly plunged into a world of wondersilence, where sheep can fall from the skies for more than one reasoneverything about her life changes. It's Living in a poor landtime when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where lads are expected she is taught to be responsible shepherds by the time they are ten. As a result people look after each other - exceptlip read, while returning but physically restrained from a Christening Samuele and his father are refused basic hospitalitysigning. Later when From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the boy runs away one night the land falls away beneath him - yet he finds deaf and using a girl to ground him to this earthsystem called Visible Speech. Which At the same time, Bell is most relevant when he goes to warworking on other inventions and ideas, and particularly when he comes back and Ellen finds himself herself unwittingly caught up in a wronged man, and in need complicated tangle of vengeance..espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906694001</amazonuk>1035401614

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Youssef Ziedan and Jonathan Wright (translator)Claire North|title=AzazeelHouse of Odysseus

|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=An archaeologist in a time and place close to that of modern troubled Syria discovers thirty scrolls. These are the writings of a Coptic Christian monk born into Roman dominated Egypt in AD391. A door thus opens into an ancient world and the emerging vista stretches from the present into the distant past, as if eliciting an omnipresent dimension to reality. The fluent evocative prose flows like a meandering river or a ribbon connecting continuously the present moment with the ancient world. A panorama emerges dominated by Rome and Constantinople and extends to Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848874278</amazonuk>}}''What could matter more than love?''

{{newreview|author=Belinda Seaward|title=The Beautiful Truth|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=There are two parallel story lines in Belinda Seaward's follow-up to the excellent ''The Beautiful TruthIthaca'': one set in picks up a few months after where we left off. In the present day palace of Odysseus, with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husband, who sailed to war at Troy and one in wartime Polandthen by divine intervention never returned home. Both involve love stories As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for the throne of the Western Isles. Having survived – politically and personal strugglesphysical – the chaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought to Ithaca's shores, and there are repeating themes such as horses and Queen Penelope is on the stars brink of a fragile peace. One that effectively provide links between shatters however with the two in this clearly well-researched return of Orestes, King of Mycenae, and engrossing narrativehis sister Elektra, seeking refuge.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0719521114</amazonuk>0356516075

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ginny BailyB0C7J9D21B|title=Africa JunctionA Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J Lewis

|summary=HughWhen we first meet our hero, the Earl his name is Ettore and he lives at The House of BriarlyBeautiful Swallows. Idyllic as this might sound, has acknowledged his mortality after it's a nasty accident, bordello and has decided to take a wifeEttore's mother died when he was born. Not being a very sociable person He's not been short of mothers, though - but for someone of his background in late- he likes horses better than people eighteenth- he asks his married sister Carolyn century Amalfi, it's difficult to produce a list obtain decent employment. The stint working with the preparation of eligible young ladiesanchovies didn't work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. She does so, Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and then invites them determined - and various other friends to it was not long before he had a successful business as a house partyguide for visitors. He was even saving some money.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>074995776X</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Knud Romer and John Mason (translator)|title=Nothing But Fear|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The Danish writer/actor Knud Romer has a gallery of fascinating relatives which collectively feature in ''Nothing But Fear''. This biographical novel is a collection of memories from his grandparents' era, moving forward, to that of his parents, including World War II and his own childhood in 1960s and 70s small town Denmark. The vignettes aren't in chronological order but that's because memories normally aren't. The stories are narrated almost as if they're fresh from the mind, ensuring a natural flow. The interesting thing is that no matter how fascinating his other relatives are my mind's eye always seemed to return to one: his mother, Hildegard.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687144</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Evelyn Eaton|title=Go Ask the River|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=In ninth century China, Hung Tu was almost unique as a woman breaking into the restricted male preserve of education, particularly the fields of poetry and calligraphy, and becoming a highly respected and renowned writer. Eaton constructs a fascinating narrative around her poems, imagining Hung Tu’s idyllic childhood which turns to potential chaos as she is sold into prostitution, followed by her rise to Official Hostess for the Governor.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848190921</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nelle DavyEssie Fox|title=The Legacy of EdenFascination|rating=3.54

|summary=Much The Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as I hate a setting for historical fiction (matched only, perhaps, by the Second World War) which has often led to appear to be on more than a few writers mishandling it. There's such a glut of media set in the fence about this book – I’m on era that the fence about this book! All the seeds of a great saga appear hallmarks we've come to associate with it are familiar to be present - strong characters, an engaging setting in the form point of Aureliabeing cliched, the family farm, and an inciting incident early onhackneyed even. All this is backed up with some superb description in the early part of the novelsimply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to do poorly. But despite that, with the period something about it still grabs me – and the handful of characters we meet at the start all being carefully drawnsomething about this book's description did as well. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848450931</amazonuk>1914585526

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Charlotte BettsNicole Jarvis|title=The Apothecary's DaughterA Portrait in Shadow

|summary=Susannah is ''I want all of Florence to know my name'' Cast out from Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an intelligent young woman oasis in which her twenties who assists art can find a home and where her father in his pharmacyfuture can thrive rather than stagnate. But as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the date is 1665 so he's actually called an apothecarypowerful Accademia, creating herbal remedies from scratch; moreoever this is an era when women did not, generally, do work the self-proclaimed guardians of this kind. However, London is in the grip of healing magics that through paintings have the power to protect the bubonic plaguecity and its citizens from plagues and curses. So apothecaries must work overtime to produce nosegays The all- supposedly to ward off evil humours - as well as plague preventative medicine, herbs male Accademia has hoarded power over art and architecture for poulticescenturies and guard it above all else. To them, Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and so ontheir society.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749954493</amazonuk>1803362340

{{newreview|author=M L Stedman|title=The Light Between Oceans|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Thomas Sherbourne returns to Australia after World War I. Internally scarred like many of his generationSet in the near-distant future, he chooses in a world on the solitary life verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a lighthouse keeper on remote Janus Rock hero (or several) to escape save the world day and its conflictrescue what little remains. However, he soon learns What no-one expected was that there is one part of the world he can't live without – Knights of the sassy, beautiful Izzy Graysmark, a local from Round Table would answer the nearest port and country town of Partaguese. They have a happy marriage in all respects apart from one: they're haunted by their inability to have children. Therefore, one day, when a boat washes up onto Janus bearing a dead man and a crying baby, apparent salvation arrives toocall.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857521004</amazonuk>0356518523

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ros BarberG K Holloway|title=The Marlowe PapersIn the Shadows of Castles

|summary=When a scholarly historian turns a hand to fiction, complications can followWe begin after the momentous battle in 1066 and on the day of William of Normandy's coronation as King of England. Sometimes William's position is not secure and the result is new king has many challenges. Imposing authority through a dry work of proud, thinly disguised research, where all discerned information coronation is hurled at the pageimportant. Sometimes the demonstrated research levels are just And William is right, but the characterisation is more reminiscent of cardboard cut outs than real peopleto worry. However, if While the historian is [[Category:Stella Tillyard|Stella Tillyard]]previous king, cited as being phenomenally gifted by none other than Simon SchamaHarold, there's no need for concern. ''Tides is dead and the likelihood of War'' more pitched battles is an engrossingover, sweeping epic the rebels are stirring and much of the country does not wish to recognise a novelnew overlord.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0701183179</amazonuk>1800422466

{{newreview|author=Jane Harris|title=Gillespie and I|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The 'I' Maya is a young girl living in a hunter gatherer village during the title Mesolithic era. Climate change is occurring, the Sea of Jane HarrisGrass encroaches further and further into Maya's ''Gillespie forest home, and I'' food is Harriet Baxterbecoming more and more scarce. Now elderly and residing in London in 1933, she is finally telling her events of what happened in What to do? Can the early 1880s law givers in Glasgow and her relationship with the Gillespie family. At federation of villages muster peaceful ways to cope? Can the timeTraveller, a spinster of independent means, she arrived in Glasgow to visit spiritual figure who interprets the International Exhibition and became a champion wisdom of and friend to a young Scottish painterAll Life, Ned Gillespie and his young family. We know from early on that tragedy struck the Gillespie family leading to Ned destroying his career, but Harriet wants to set the record straight with regard to her involvement in events. You may or may not believe her story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571238300</amazonuk>provide solutions?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Karin Altenberg1529125898|title=Island of WingsGodmersham Park|author=Gill Hornby

|summary=Rev Neil MacKenzie has been assigned to the Hebridian island of St Kilda. His mission is to bring the locals back to the Victorian idea of God and propriety. He and his pregnant wife Lizzie ''If it were not only have to fight for the elements but also centuries casual dereliction of superstition that have trickled into the islandersodd gentleman' Christian faith. Life is made harder for Neil by a secret guilt emanating from the death of a friend years ago. However, the going becomes harder still for Lizzies duty, isolated by an inability there would no women to speak the local language and the burgeoning fear engendered by Neilteach well-bred daughters at all.''s behaviour and attitudes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857382322</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Georgina Harding|title=Painter of Silence|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=A young, anonymous, vagrant collapses on Anne Sharpe was thirty-one years old when she arrived at Godmersham Park to take up the steps position of a hospital in Romaniagoverness to twelve-year-old Fanny Austen. He doesn't speak and remains She had no experience of teaching but this was a mystery to the staff that tries to treat his obvious symptoms but can't seem to reach the silent person beneathcase of necessity. However, SaftaUntil the death of her mother, Anne had a nurse, suggests that he may be deaf comfortable life and produces drawing materialswas loved by both parents although her father was frequently absent from the household. CoincidentallyWhen her mother died, the man is able to draw beautifully, but this is no coincidence her father cast her off and would have nothing more to Saftado with her. There are reasons why she can't disclose it, No explanation was offered but she knows this manwould receive an annuity of £35 a year. They grew up together in pre-war RomaniaHer maid, a whole world away when the country had a kingAgnes, beautiful cities untouched would receive nothing but was fortunately taken in by bombing and being able to read a foreign language wasn't punishable by imprisonment in work camps... or worsesome neighbours.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408821125</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lindsey DavisMelissa Fu |title=Master and GodPeach Blossom Spring |rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Imagine first century Rome as seen through I loved the eyes of prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a wry Brummie with a fine sense short chapter entitled ''Origins''. Unfortunately it is the only truly poetic part of humour and a real talent for introducing you book that I expected more from. Covering Chinese history from 1938 to characters so real you could easily see yourself having a drink with them after a hard week at the office2005 as viewed through one family's perspective. That When their home city is Lindsey Davis' giftset ablaze during the war with Japan, a young mother (Meilin) and while this book is a departure from her usual Falco novels, the trademark charmfour-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who flee. The story follows them on their journey across China, piercing intelligence and ready wit are as abundant as everin Renshu's case eventually to America. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444707329</amazonuk>1472277538

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Emma Donoghue1916072038|title=The Sealed LetterHouse in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)|author=Allie Cresswell

|summary=If you are We meet part of the Talbot family in Yorkshire in the mood for a deliciously scandalous Victorian pageNovember 1811. Twenty-seven-year-turner, look no further than Emma Donoghue's ''The Sealed Letter''. Set old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in 1864some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, it's based on to the real life story of secrets and scandal surrounding Helen Codrington's divorce from her older husband, house in the rather dull Vice Admiral Codringtonhollow. There's added spice The two women are angry with each other and intrigue provided by the unwitting involvement in events Jocelyn is well aware of Emily her mother'Fido' Faithfull, an early mover in the rights of women movement s strengths and that good old standard, the Victorian spinster.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447205987</amazonuk>}}weaknesses:

{{newreview|author=Jennifer McVeigh|title=The Fever Tree|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Frances Irvine enjoys a privileged lifestyle in Victorian England: a beautiful house''She is practiced at subterfuge, servantsat concealing, rich gowns and all the trappings her position as the daughter beneath a facade of an industrialist demands. Howeverrespectability, Frances' lifestyle proves to be a precarious house of cards balanced on her fatherthe deplorable truth's investment in the Northern Pacific Railroad in North America. When the Canadian terrain proves too much for the railroad construction to continue, her father's shares are rendered worthless. As this occurs just before his sudden death, Frances is forced to make a choice as her finery and home are auctioned off. Does she throw herself on the mercy of her lower class relatives or commit herself to a loveless marriage to distant cousin Dr Edwin Matthews? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670920894</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Sax Rohmer|title=Fu Manchu - The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=A couple of years after their encounter with the villainous Dr Fu Manchu, Dr Petrie and Nayland Smith are reunited once more Hester is furious about Jocelyn's refusal to take on the returning evil genius. When the Rev JD Eltham vanishes after conversing with Petriedo as she was asked, the two realise that Fu Manchu which has returned precipitated ''this violent and must risk life and limb to save their friendunexpected removal''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857686046</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Margaret Dickinson|title=Jenny's War|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Jenny's home life in Then we are told of the East End is an uncomfortable one. Her mother Dot cares little for her and thinks nothing birth of giving her a slap to make sure she knows her place. Dot's boyfriendchild and, soon after, ArthurHester Talbot departs, tries to show Jenny some kindness but has issues of his ownleaving Jocelyn in shame and isolation in Yorkshire.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330544306</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tan Twan EngAnnabel Abbs|title=The Garden Language of Evening MistsFood

|summary=Malay Chinese Teoh Yun Ling travels to Eliza Acton is a poet who has never had the Cameron Highlands of Malaya slightest inclination to meet the legendary Japanese garden designer and expert, Nakamura Aritomoboil an egg. As the sole survivor of When tasked with writing a World War II Japanese slave labour campcookery book, Yun Ling has many reasons to hate the Japanese but some things are stronger than hatredshe recruits Ann Kirby, a local woman with a troubled home life. ForTogether, whilst in the campthey test, she promised her sister a Japanese garden. When life became difficult during intermentcraft, the sisters discussed refine and visualised reshape the finished result to keep them hanging on. Ling's sister perished but the dream world of a memorial garden drives her on. Nothing is that straightforwarddomestic cookery, though. The designer refuses reinventing the commission. Instead he suggests that she stays, as his apprentice, learning recipe book and changing the art in order to become her own designer. Yun Ling agrees and discovers more than horticultural finesseface of cookery writing forever. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1905802625</amazonuk>1398502227

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Meg ClothierFreya Marske|title=The Girl KingA Marvellous Light

|summary=King Giorgi, King of Georgia, Robin Blyth is without an heir so he does nudged into a job in the unthinkable. He names his eldest daughterCivil Service, Tamar, as 'King' on much to his deathchagrin. Tamar is strong, feisty There he meets Edwin Courcey and learns that the streets of London are threaded with magic. Desperate to remove a total tomboy butcurse that threatens to swallow him, Robin follows Edwin to the fact remainscountryside, she's female. Therefore when Giorgi passes away where the kingdom he's held together starts to crack as the opportunists equate hedgegrows bristle with incantations and the fairer sex people shimmer with weakness and possibilitiespower. If Tamar is to gain united lands, she must lose something There they uncover a sinister plot that threatens the lives of all magicians in returnthe British Isles. Is this a sacrifice too far?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099553139</amazonuk>1529080886

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ella March ChaseB09F4CTKJR|title=The Virgin Queen's DaughterFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer|rating=4.5

|summary=Elinor de Lacey (Nell) has an eager, quick mind thatIt's been trained by her scholarly father, against her mother's wishesthe later stages of World War I and the United States has just entered the conflict. Nell would rather be discussing Copernicus' latest theories than learn how to keep Petrol Petronus is a wet larder or how young American who has signed up and joined the 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the first US Aero Squadron to be a dutiful wife. It's Nell's greatest wish, trained in factCanada, the first to be attached to attend the court of Queen Elizabeth I so that she can discuss RAF and argue with the finest scientific and philosophical minds of first to be sent into the skies to fight the day, but her mother is ardently against it. Nell doesn't understand whyGermans in active combat. Not, But before that iscan happen, until her dream becomes a reality Petrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult but by then it's too late to go backmajestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091947162</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Victoria LambChristophe Medler|title=The Queen's Madrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret|rating=3.54

|summary=It was July 1575 and Set against the court had left the unpleasant atmosphere backdrop of London for its annual progress round the homes of the more prominent nobles. It was to stay at Kenilworth CastleEnglish Civil War, home of the Earl of Leicester a secret plan (better known as code-named Madrigal) is discovered by Sir Robert Dudley, Douse in the queen's favourite) for some three weekssummer of 1642. The expenditure on As a loyal servant of the stay was enormousKing, but Leicester was determined to persuade Queen Elizabeth to marry him. The fact that he was also having an affair with Lettice Knollys, wife and Head of the Earl of EssexSecret Service, was beside it is Robert's duty to uncover the point. Lucy Morgan, a black entertainer details of Moorish descent, was drawn into the midst of this intrigue plan and found herself on follow the edge clues to uncover one of a the most guarded secrets in history—especially since the plot to assassinate could affect the queenKing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0593067991</amazonuk>B095HY8SXQ

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dasa Drndic and Ellen Elias-Bursac (translator)1471187179|title=Trieste|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Haya Tedeschi, an 82 year old woman, sits alone in Italy, waiting. She waits for the adult son she hasn't seen since he was a baby. As Haya waits, she goes through her red basket of photographs and memorabilia, hanging ''out her life on an imaginary washing line''. She then takes the reader back in time, back to her life as a Catholicised Jew, before, during and after World War II in an area called Trieste.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050222</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewA Beautiful Spy|author=Elaine di Rollo|title=Bleakly Hall|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Nurse Montgomery (Monty to her friends) and daring ambulance driver, Ada, met in Belgium during World War I. They worked as a team collecting the injured from the front line, dodging snipers and shells and ignoring social standards that accompanied the class system of the day. Monty may have been Ada's social 'superior' but such things were irrelevant whilst they faced death on an hourly basis. After the war Monty comes to work at Bleakly Hall, a hydropathic or country house hotel specialising in hydro therapies for the rich and ailing and is reunited with Ada, working as a mechanic and all-round assistant.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099513471</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Helen Dunmore|title=The Greatcoat|rating=4|genre=Horror|summary=Set in 1952 in Yorkshire, a young couple move into a rented flat. Philip is the new, young doctor while his new wife Isabel struggles with the isolated life with no friends or family and Philip's frequent absence due to the demands of his job. Things take a turn to the spooky when, waking from under the warmth of the old greatcoat Isabel finds in the flat, she hears a tapping at the window and finds there an RAF pilot, Alec, who appears to know Isabel intimately.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099564939</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Marina Endicott|title=The Little ShadowsRachel Hore

|summary=Flora AveryMinnie is an 's schoolmaster husband dies suddenly, leaving her three daughters and ordinary' girl living an unexciting life in a dilemma: how does she find leafy provincial suburb. The book is set in the money to raise them? Her answer 1930s and Minnie is expected to return live up to her pre-marital professionmother's expectations and find a nice young man to marry, produce children and spend the one rest of which her days looking after her husband disapproved so vocallyand their home. Flora decides Unfortunately, this isn't what she wants to put her family on the stage do at all and neither does she want to continue working as a vaudeville actsecretary. So begins As a new life as they tour result of a chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the backwater theatres of America secret service and their native Canada, dreaming of effectively living a big future whilst weathering double life - attempting to infiltrate the presentCommunist Party of Great Britain. Set prior to Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and during World War I, it wasn't just the Averys who faced changes friends she has made - and uncertaintylikes - whilst working for the Communist Party.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091944023</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Karen Harper|title=Shakespeare's Mistress|rating=2|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The conceit of ''Shakespeare's Mistress'' is that Shakespeare was married to Anne Whateley the day before he was married to Anne Hathaway, Afonso Cruz and Anne W remained the love of his life, with an affair Rahul Bery (if you can have an affair with your 'wife'translator) continued in London where the same Anne was also the famed ''dark lady'' of his sonnets. There is some basis for this theory in that the parish records do show a mysterious entry into the register for just such a contract the day before the Hathaway marriage but although the author claims this is 'faction', it's very much at the fiction end of that scale and is really a 'what if?' piece.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091940427</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robin Wasserman|title=The Book of Blood and Shadow|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Nora is an unusual heroine. She is sharp, snarky and funny, and her wry tone and contemporary references will resonate with her readers. But she is also uncompromisingly geeky, and she opts to complete her independent study assignment by joining her three friends at the local university in a research project on the Voynich Manuscript by Edward Kelley (This manuscript actually exists, and has taxed the abilities of some of the greatest code-breakers in the world in the last hundred years.). However Professor Hoffpauer does not consider Nora mature enough to work on the manuscript itself, despite the fact that her linguistic ability is far superior to that of the others, and instead he gives her the lesser task of translating the letters of Kelley's step-daughter Elizabeth Weston. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907411445</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt|title=NoahKokoschka's ChildDoll|rating=42.5

|summary=JosephWell, this looked very much like a young Belgian Jewbook I could love from the get-go, which is sent away by his parents when they grow nervous about the treatment why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of Jews during World War Twoit. He is taken in by I found things to potentially delight me each time – a village priest, Father Pons, and given a new identity and a place weird section in Father Pons' school along with an assortment of other childrenthe middle on darker stock paper, some of whom are genuine pupils and others who are, like Joseph, seeking sanctuary.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848874189</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robert Lyndon|title=Hawk Quest|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=''Hawk Quest'' is an epic of a historic novel set chapter whose number was in the 11th century. A band of companions led by Vallon20,000s, the mysterious Frankish warriorletters used as narrative form, travel from England to Scandinavia and so on to Anatolia in order to capture and deliver four rare pure white falcons as a ransom for Sir Walter, . It intrigued with the son of subterranean voice a Norman nobleman held by the Seljuk Turks.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847444970</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Chris Womersley|title=Bereft|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Quinn Walker, a young Australian man fresh from fighting on the European front hears in World War One, returns to the very town he was drummed out wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of ten years beforeit mentioned, after being accused of raping and killing his own younger sistertoo. Two things have beaten him to the small settlement - one, the global flu pandemic; two a telegram saying he died bravely in action earlier in the war. And the less But you know of what he meets and does back in Flint 've seen the better, the more to keep this fresh and brilliant book's many intrigues as secret as they were for me.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857386549</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kate Williams|title=The Pleasures of Men|star rating=4|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Catherine Sorgeiul is a woman that comes with burdens. Living with her uncle in London’s East End during the reign of Queen Victoriathis review, hers is a life and can tell that seems empty – yet in fact is full of things she is trying to push away.  Filling her days has become a problem, so when a series of grisly murders begins, Catherine is drawn to the mystery of the Man of Crows in a way that seems bound to change her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241951399</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Katy Darby|title=The Whores' Asylum|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The Whores’ Asylum, a debut novel, is a tale of friendship, if lovewas on these pages, sin and criminality set in late 19th century Cambridge and Oxford. The comparison to one of my favourite historical novelists, Sarah Waters, also caught my attention. Sadly, I it was a little bit disappointednot actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1905490801</amazonuk>1529402697

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Eric OrsennaChristina Hammonds Reed|title=The Indies EnterpriseBlack Kids

|genre=Historical FictionTeens |summary=As soon as you pick up a novel about ColumbusChristina Hammonds Reed's discovery debut novel is set against the backdrop of the Americas1992 Los Angeles riots, certain expectations come a reaction to mind. Orsenna however is much more than your average writer and he manages to subvert almost all the absolution of these by delivering four police officers for beating a quietblack man, scholarly account Rodney King, nearly to death. Told from the perspective of what seems at first a diversionAshley Bennett, the art novel follows her evolution from a silent bystander when confronted with matters of map making. But this book is not about Columbus himselfrace, but rather his brother Bartholomew, and how he is swept into the excitement to a woman finding her voice and ambition of his older siblingembracing her heritage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906598932</amazonuk>1471188191

{{newreview|author=Louisa Young|title=My Dear I Wanted Move on to Tell You|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=It takes a while for the full power of Louisa Young's remarkable ''My Dear I Wanted To Tell You'' to become apparent, but when it does, it can hardly fail to move you. Set just before and during World War One, it's a story of love and human spirit against the odds. The impact of the book is in what happens to the characters, so I don't want to give too much away, but it's worth pointing out that it's not for the overly squeamish reader particularly in some of the descriptions of surgical procedures, which have clearly been meticulously researched by Young. The title itself it taken from the opening words of the standard letters that the wounded were given to send to loved ones back home. The wounded were required to fill in the blanks.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007361432</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Janette Jenkins|title=Little Bones|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=While this might sound like the afterlife of a brilliant and unlikely cabaret mimic, it's not. It's a rich, evocative and engaging novel set in the last years of Victoria's reign, in the depths of her darkest London. Fate - and being abandoned by, in turn, her mother and older sister - leaves Jane Stretch living with and working for a doctor and his lumpen, housebound wife. Jane is alternatively called an 'unfortunate' and a 'cripple' for her disabilities and distorted frame, but she has enough bookish intelligence to pass herself off as an assistant to the doctor, who only ever does one operation - abortions, for music hall artistes. The plot is evidently gearing up to reveal how dangerous such a criminal business might be, for the both of them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>070118194X</amazonuk>}}[[Newest History Reviews]]