|summary=It's 2am in Paris on Tuesday 11th November 1918. Negotiations for ending World War I are almost complete and both sides will announce the Armistice at 11am. But the people actually fighting the war don't know that yet...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408826232</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Pamela Hartshorne
|title=Time's Echo
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Grace Trewe has temporarily moved to York to sort out the affairs of her godmother, Lucy, who died suddenly. After surviving the Indonesian tsunami the previous Christmas, Grace has decided to live life to the full and plans more travelling once Lucy's house is sold. She hasn’t a care or a tie in the world, as long as she doesn't remember little Lucas back on that Christmas beach. As it turns out, that's not the only thing she needs to avoid. Strange, horrific dreams disrupt her sleep and vivid daydreams start to attack her waking moments as 21st century York keeps fading to be replaced by its 16th century streets. Grace will be fine though; it's just stress and her oddly acquired knowledge of the past is just a coincidence, or so says seemingly kindly neighbour, historian and single father Drew. Meanwhile, 500 years before, there was a woman named Hawise who met a terrible death…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>033054425X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kevin Crossley-Holland
|title=Scramasax: The Viking Sagas, Book Two
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=We left Solveig finally reunited with her Viking father, after a journey that took her all the way from her Scandinavian home to Miklagard (Constantinople). There, her father is in the service of Harald Hardrada, who in turn serves the Empress Zoe. Zoe's court is a dangerous place, full of spies and prisoners and instant punishment by death - for the smallest of transgressions. So Solveig needs to learn fast if she is to persuade Harald to allow her to stay with the Viking guard.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184724940X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=James Long
|title=Ferney
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=History lecturer Michael Martin thought that the chance of love and marriage had passed him by. Then Gally, a history nut and lecture gate crasher, attended one of his lectures and dared to contradict him. Contradiction led to courtship and the marriage that had previously seemed so elusive but despite their love and accompanying emotional security, Gally has a dark subconscious that haunts her. She's unsettled by repeating nightmares and, worse, night terrors that can't be explained by counsellors' logic. However when Mike and Gally find their (or rather, Gally's) ideal home in the shape of a derelict cottage in the Somerset village of Penselwood, Gally's nightmares are augmented by a strong feeling of déjà vu. Meanwhile the Martins seem to have developed a benevolent stalker in the shape of aged local Ferney Miller. Mike considers him a bit of a pain while for Gally he represents something else entirely; something that she can't explain nor understand but will become a threat to her marital happiness and Michael's peace of mind.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780875304</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Andre Brink
|title=Philida
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Philida falls in love with Frans, the son of Cornelis Brink and they have four children together creating a tragedy on two counts: only two children survive and their love is troubled. For this is South Africa in 1830 and Philida is only the Brinks' 'knit girl': a slave specialising in the family's knitting.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846557046</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Buchan
|title=Huntingtower
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Dickson McCunn is on his travels through rural Scotland when he meets a man he doesn't warm to at first, by the name of John Heritage. They are quite chalk and cheese – McCunn an older man, who has only just sold up his very well-known Glasgow grocery shop and made this trip his first steps into retirement on a complete whim. Heritage is younger, English, and a soldier. McCunn seems the old Romantic, Heritage modern poetry in contrast. But when they meet up it's at the edge of the Huntingtower estate, a coastal country house, guarded by suspicious landlords turning guests away and unfriendly foreign types, and found to contain a young beauty who just happens to be the love of Heritage's life, since they met a few years previous. She is being coerced into staying against her will, but lo and behold – the cynical Heritage can come over all chivalrous and try and rescue her – with desperate consequences for both men…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184697223X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=A N Wilson
|title=The Potter's Hand
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The man of clay that A N Wilson throws onto his storytelling wheel in ''The Potter's Hand'' is the great Josiah Wedgwood, but this is much more than a historic telling of his life. Indeed, Josiah already has a thriving business at the start of the book. What Wilson does particularly impressively is to put Wedgwood's achievement and works into the context of the politics and social philosophy of the times, sandwiched between the two great revolutions in America and France. In order to do this, Wilson has to play slightly loose with artistic licence by altering dates and time lines a bit, but it works well. He also balances the real historic figures with several key figures of his own invention and where the historic figures don't quite fit with his narrative, he alters their ages and invents 'facts' to the benefit of the fictional narrative.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848879512</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Buchan
|title=The Gap in the Curtain
|rating=3
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=A short stay with friends in society for Sir Edward Leithen is just what he needs, being an overworked MP and lawyer. Among the collection of fellow guests, some of whom he knows and some he doesn't, is the extraordinary mind of Professor Moe, a scientist who decides to select some of the houseguests as subjects for his latest experiment. He declares that he can make sure they can see into the future, and the people he chooses – for various reasons – do indeed get a mental snatch of The Times newspaper exactly a year into their future, and what's more, one that comes completely true – either for good or bad…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972248</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ben Kane
|title=Spartacus the Gladiator
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Given Ben Kane's tendency to write strong characters who rebel against their Roman leaders, it's perhaps slightly predictable that he should take on the story of Spartacus, who led a slaves' rebellion against Rome. This is, perhaps, the only thing you can say about Kane's writing that is predictable.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099561921</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Robin Binckes
|title=Canvas Under The Sky
|rating=3
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Rauch Beukes is a 17 year old Boer lad living with his family on the Eastern Cape frontier in Africa. Sadly for them, the year is 1834: not a good time as the Boers live under the dictates of the British and in fear of indigenous local tribes. This becomes all too real to Rauch when, returning from a trip with his father, he discovers a smouldering heap where his home once stood and a row of graves bearing the remains of his mother and sisters. Wanting a better life, a group of farmers decide to travel towards Africa's southern interior to establish a self-determining Boer homeland and so Rauch, his father and brothers join them feeling they have nothing to lose. The momentum grows and the migration will become known as 'The Great Trek', a tough, dangerous period of South African history, challenging Rauch's strength, courage and a fair bit of his libido.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1920143637</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rose Tremain
|title=Merivel: A Man of His Time
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Rose Tremain has made fans of her 1989 book ''Restoration'' wait for a long time before picking up the story of Sir Robert Merivel. Almost as much time has passed in Merivel's world with the book opening in 1683. Leaving a follow up so long can be fraught with danger. For those, like me, who loved ''Restoration'' at the time, the memory of its central character has grown in fondness over time while some of the detail has been inevitably lost to memory. Thankfully, this is one of those rare things in literature; a very good follow up.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701185201</amazonuk>
}}
