Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up devouring old Classics Illustrated comics. By the time I was 12, I’d read all the great adventure stories from H. Rider Haggard to Jules Verne. My childhood obsession became my career. My research has taken me down the Silk Road, into the jungles of Mexico and the mountains of the high Atlas, and following opium caravans through the Golden Triangle. I’ve now written more than twenty novels of historical adventure that have been translated into 25 languages.


I wrote

When We Were Gods

By Colin Falconer,

Book cover of When We Were Gods

What is my book about?

Caesar, Antony, Cleopatra, Augustus. Only one can rule. Only one can live. Alexandria 51 BC: When Cleopatra VII assumes…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

The books I picked & why

Book cover of Shōgun

Colin Falconer Why did I love this book?

Set in Feudal Japan at the end of the 16th century, Clavell’s towering novel is for me the benchmark for historical epics. It balances sheer adventure with Clavell’s consummate eye for historical detail. If you want action, while feeling totally immersed in another time and culture, then Clavell’s classic is the book for you. I love the way he uses actual people and events to build a plausible and gripping story. Although a little long for contemporary tastes, it remains one of the best books of Asian fiction ever written, and one I come back to again and again.

By James Clavell,

Why should I read it?

10 authors picked Shōgun as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Clavell never puts a foot wrong . . . Get it, read it, you'll enjoy it mightily' Daily Mirror

This is James Clavell's tour-de-force; an epic saga of one Pilot-Major John Blackthorne, and his integration into the struggles and strife of feudal Japan. Both entertaining and incisive, SHOGUN is a stunningly dramatic re-creation of a very different world.

Starting with his shipwreck on this most alien of shores, the novel charts Blackthorne's rise from the status of reviled foreigner up to the hights of trusted advisor and eventually, Samurai. All as civil war looms over the fragile country.

'I can't…


Book cover of Shout at the Devil

Colin Falconer Why did I love this book?

This is loosely based on the 1915 sinking of the SMS Königsberg, in the Rufiji delta of East Africa. I love this not only for the fast-paced plotting, but for the characters, who are far less wooden and predictable than in some of Smith’s later work. The amoral and irascible Flynn O’ Flynn is impossible not to love, as is the utterly gormless hero, Sebastian Oldsmith—brave, loyal and handsome, if not actually the full quid. I like the sheer unpredictability of this one. Smith was not constrained by the formula he followed later in his career. It is by turns thrilling, funny, and shocking. I imagine his publishers eventually persuaded him not to write any more like this. He died with more than a hundred million pounds in the bank, so perhaps they were right. But for me, this outlier remains an absolute gem.

By Wilbur Smith,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Shout at the Devil as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In German East Africa on the eve of the First World War, two freebooting adventurers pit their wits against the gross German Commissioner from whose territory they are making their living as game hunters and ivory poachers.


Book cover of Flashman

Colin Falconer Why did I love this book?

Sir Harry Paget Flashman, VC, KCB, KCIE, originally appears in Thomas Hughes’ 1857 novel Tom Brown’s School Days as the notorious Rugby School bully who is expelled for drunkenness. Fraser’s reinvention of him remains one of my favourite fictional creations. Flashman’s adventures encompass many of the British Empire’s 19th-century wars, and Fraser is able to blend real historical characters and incidents with non-stop action. Flashman, which details our eponymous hero’s exploits in India and Afghanistan in the early 1840s, sets the tone for the rest of the series. It’s funny, page-turning, and extensively researched. There are even footnotes. Addictive.

By George MacDonald Fraser,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Flashman as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For George MacDonald Fraser the bully Flashman was easily the most interesting character in Tom Brown's Schooldays, and imaginative speculation as to what might have happened to him after his expulsion from Rugby School for drunkenness ended in 12 volumes of memoirs in which Sir Harry Paget Flashman - self-confessed scoundrel, liar, cheat, thief, coward -'and, oh yes, a toady' - romps his way through decades of nineteenth-century history in a swashbuckling and often hilarious series of military and amorous adventures. In Flashman the youthful hero, armed with a commission in the 11th Dragoons, is shipped to India, woos and…


Book cover of Caravans

Colin Falconer Why did I love this book?

The story is set in Afghanistan, just after the end of World War 2, and takes the reader on a journey that would be virtually impossible for a westerner today. I love its authenticity—Michener travelled the country extensively in the sixties—and the combination of brutality and humour make this a unique adventure. There’s also a handful of characters who could have come straight out of Game of Thrones. It’s not one of Michener’s usual house brick size novels—this is less intimidating, more like a roofing tile. I’ve read it many times over the years. For me it remains his best work. A great story combined with a breathtaking insight into the culture, history, and geography of a forbidding and fascinating country. 

By James A. Michener,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Caravans as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

First published in 1963, James A. Michener’s gripping chronicle of the social and political landscape of Afghanistan is more relevant now than ever.

Combining fact with riveting adventure and intrigue, Michener follows a military man tasked, in the years after World War II, with a dangerous assignment: finding and returning a young American woman living in Afghanistan to her distraught family after she suddenly and mysteriously disappears. A timeless tale of love and emotional drama set against the backdrop of one of the most important countries in the world today, Caravans captures the tension of the postwar period, the sweep…


Book cover of Sharpe's Tiger

Colin Falconer Why did I love this book?

This prequel to the Sharpe series covers the eponymous hero’s adventures in India at the siege of Seringapatam before the Peninsular War. For me, Cornwell’s books are a perfect mix of history and breathless action. This one even features a cameo from Wellington. If only they’d let me read this in history at school, I might have stayed awake more often. Cornwell pays great attention to historical detail, and if he messes with it, he does it deliberately. There are sumptuous palaces, epic battle scenes, rockets exploding, and people getting eaten by tigers. There’s also the deliciously nasty Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill. What’s not to love? 

By Bernard Cornwell,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Sharpe's Tiger as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

*The brand new novel, SHARPE'S ASSASSIN, is available to pre-order now*

Sharpe's Tiger is the brilliant beginning of Sharpe's adventures

India, 1799

The citadel of Seringapatam is under siege. Navigating this dangerous kingdom of bejewelled palaces and poverty, Private Richard Sharpe embarks on a rescue mission to save a senior officer from the clutches of the Tippoo of Mysore - and oust the Sultan from his throne.

The fortress of Mysore is considered impregnable, but one of the greatest threats comes from betrayal within the British ranks. And the man to outwit enemies from both sides is Sharpe . .…


Explore my book 😀

When We Were Gods

By Colin Falconer,

Book cover of When We Were Gods

What is my book about?

Caesar, Antony, Cleopatra, Augustus. Only one can rule. Only one can live. Alexandria 51 BC: When Cleopatra VII assumes the throne of Egypt, the Roman empire rules the Mediterranean with an iron fist. But Cleopatra has an audacious plan to change the course of history. Allied first with Caesar and then with his protégé Marc Antony, she dares to challenge the might of Rome. What follows is a bloody game of thrones, in the palaces and on the battlefields of Greece, Syria, and Egypt.

"Spectacular historical fiction blazing with intrigue, romance, and dramatic action." Booklist.

Book cover of Shōgun
Book cover of Shout at the Devil
Book cover of Flashman

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,187

readers submitted
so far, will you?

You might also like...

Follow Me to Africa

By Penny Haw,

Book cover of Follow Me to Africa

Penny Haw Author Of The Invincible Miss Cust

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Storyteller Dog walker Dreamer Runner Reader

Penny's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

Historical fiction inspired by the story of Mary Leakey, who carved her own path to become one of the world's most distinguished paleoanthropologists.

It's 1983 and seventeen-year-old Grace Clark has just lost her mother when she begrudgingly accompanies her estranged father to an archeological dig at Olduvai Gorge on the Serengeti plains of Tanzania. Here, seventy-year-old Mary Leakey enlists Grace to sort and pack her fifty years of work and memories. 

Their interaction reminds Mary how she pursued her ambitions of becoming an archeologist in the 1930s by sneaking into lectures and working on excavations. When well-known paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey…

Follow Me to Africa

By Penny Haw,

What is this book about?

Historical fiction inspired by the story of Mary Leakey, who carved her own path to become one of the world's most distinguished paleoanthropologists.

It's 1983 and seventeen-year-old Grace Clark has just lost her mother when she begrudgingly accompanies her estranged father to an archeological dig at Olduvai Gorge on the Serengeti plains of Tanzania. Here, seventy-year-old Mary Leakey enlists Grace to sort and pack her fifty years of work and memories.

Their interaction reminds Mary how she pursued her ambitions of becoming an archeologist in the 1930s by sneaking into lectures and working on excavations. When well-known paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in the Irish, sieges, and Ireland?

The Irish 64 books
Sieges 10 books
Ireland 308 books