Historical Fiction Recomendation

Oh yes. A bit overzealous on blood and body count, but excellent historical fiction.

Not that I'm much into fiction anymore, but I did read a lot of Cornwell, back in the day.

And he did a "Saxon series", set in Dark Age [sic] England, with Alfred the Great and so on.



Cornwell is pretty good about including an epilogue in his books, wherein he explains how his fiction necessarily departs from historical fact in places, for dramatic purposes, or to fill in gaps in the historical record. His historical fiction always does have a pretty solid foundation of historical fact, and as such, he's pretty educational as well as entertaining.

I always found James Michener to be the same way with his historical novels. Very educational while also entertaining. (OMG, you must read The Source.)

Ditto Ken Follett (The Pillars of the Earth, et al).

Oh- and Edward Rutherfurd (Sarum, etc.)

For an older (1940) historical novel set in medieval England, I enjoyed Norah Lofts' The Town House.