Books YOU think we should be reading

Recommended reads from the Telling Their Tales community

Ooooh I know, I know - I shouldn’t really post on back-to-back days.

And if I were to break this taboo, I definitely shouldn’t do it in an off-the-cuff, totally unplanned, ‘written while sat on my couch with no redrafts or edits’ kinda way (though I did do that recently HERE, in a book review of a historical fiction piece set in Ancient Greece, and it went down pretty well…).

But the comments on yesterday’s post, sharing my honest reflections on the state of medieval history publishing (linked HERE if you’re interested in reading that) were simply too good not to share.

So here I am, writing my second post in two days (yesterday’s linked HERE), intending to hit send as soon as I’m done writing.

You have restored my faith in medieval history publishing.

Well, kind of.

I still find it frustrating that in many mainstream bookstores, it’s nigh on impossible to find books about medieval history / historical fiction that delve into topics beyond just kings and battles.

Your recommendations, however, showed that there are great medieval history books out there - if we go looking for them. And if we pass round our knowledge of them, sharing the love, as it were.

So, without further ado…

---

Here are the books YOU think we should be reading.

Not all are strictly within the remit of medieval history, but all strive to tell a different kind of history.

Kim and the Cat

:

• The Middle Kingdoms, Martyn Rady

• Black Tudors, Miranda Kaufmann

• Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination, Paul Freedman

• Afterlives: The Return of the Dead in the Middle Ages, Nancy Mandeville Caciola

• African Europeans, Olivette Otele

• The Great White Bard, Farah Karim-Cooper

• England’s Other Countrymen: Blackness in Tudor England, Onyeka Nubia

• Black Knights: Arab Epicsand the Making of Medieval Race, Rachel Schine (pre-order only; released November 2024)

• The Half-Drowned King trilogy by Linnea Hartsuyker - generational story about Scandinavians before and during the reign of Harald Finehair

• Every Rising Sun, Jamila Ahmed - Scheherazade tale set during the Third Crusade

• Rose Nicolson, Andrew Grieg - Story about religious strife and love in James I's Scotland

• Learwife, JR Thorpe - Retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear from the point of view of his wife, set in a nunnery in an unspecified medieval time

• To Calais, in Ordinary Time, James Meek - a motley collection of people trying to get to Calais as the Black Death begins to spread through England. Told partially in Middle English-adjacent language

• Gorse, Sam K. Horton - I (Kim) haven't read this one yet, but a friend highly recommended it. It's a gothic tale set in Cornwall in 1786 and features a clash between older folk beliefs and Christianity

Larry Bone

:

• The Last Queen of Kashmir, Rakesh K. Kaul

Marian L Thorpe

:

• Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England, Annie Whitehead

• Mercia: The Rise and Fall of a Kingdom, Annie Whitehead

• Sharon Bennet Connolly’s books mostly focus on (high-status) women in history too

• Women in the Medieval Countryside, Judith Bennett (it’s caught Marian’s eye but she says she hasn’t read it yet!)

Yvonne Elizabeth Aston

:

• Anything by Lisa Picard who presents her history of ordinary folk during the reigns of various monarchs in The City of London is eminently readable.

Susan Nolen

:

• Susan seconds Marian’s recommendation of Judith Bennett’s books

• Femina, Janina Ramirez (and I, Holly, highly recommend this one - you can read my review of it HERE)

• Peter Larson’s work on life and power in 14th-century villages

---

And my recommendations?

• The Bone Chests, Cat Jarman (review HERE) - plus her first book, River Kings

• Alice Roberts’ trilogy:

  • Crypt (review HERE)

  • Buried

  • Ancestors

• Mother Tongue, Jenni Nuttall (review HERE)

• Winters in the World, Eleanor Parker (review HERE)

  • And Conquered, about the lost children of the Norman Conquest

• The Private Lives of the Saints, Janina Ramirez

• Anything Amy Jeffs writes!

  • Wild

  • Storyland - which we’re currently reading in my Substack book club, linked HERE

  • Saints - just released recently

• Lost Realms, Thomas Williams

---

Do you have any recent medieval historical reads that are worth picking up?

Fiction or non-fiction? Drop a comment below with your recommendations and let’s see if we can build a resource for others to consult when, like me, they find themselves bewildered in a book shop.

---

In October, our cosy book club begins!

Want to dive deep into a book that I think really is worth your time?

We’ll be starting a slow read of Storylands by Amy Jeffs on 3rd October. I would love to have you join our small community as we journey through this book together, sharing insights and building relationships along the way.

---

Do you write serial fiction, or are you looking for a serial fiction read?

Check out our Directory of all the best serial reads on Substack, and add yours to share your writing with a global readership.

Serialised Fiction On Substack