Why am I passionate about this?

I write novels for children, YA, and adults, most of which reflect my fascination with history, mystery, crime, and fantasy. I particularly enjoy writing timeslip novels, exploring how the past can inform the present and vice versa. I recently updated and revised my award-winning Shalott trilogy, which visits both the historical past and also the quasi-medieval world of Camelot in a reinterpretation of the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and with reference also to The Lady of Shalott, the wonderful and mysterious poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. (A reviewer recently compared my Shalott trilogy with the novels of Diana Gabaldon = wow!)


I wrote

Shalott: Into the Unknown

By Felicity Pulman,

Book cover of Shalott: Into the Unknown

What is my book about?

Through magic and a VR program, five teenagers set out into the unknown to change the legend of Camelot. Instead,…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Doomsday Book

Felicity Pulman Why did I love this book?

This is one of my favourite time-slips ever! Oxford University 2054CE, and historians are now travelling back in time to study seminal moments in history. Post-graduate student, Kivrin, goes through the Net to observe life in medieval time, but the coordinates are wrong and instead, she finds herself in a small village at the time of plague, not knowing that she herself is already carrying a virulent form of a flu-like plague sweeping through the History Department. Desperately ill, Kirvrin has no hope of rescue unless she can identify the ‘saviour’ who found her out in the woods and brought her back to the manor house to be nursed. While her supervisor, Mr. Dunworthy, and student Colin, try to locate her, Kivrin becomes involved with the family at the manor house, and the village priest, Father Roche, who is trying to save his flock with only limited medical knowledge and means at his disposal. 

By Connie Willis,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked Doomsday Book as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"A tour de force" - New York Times Book Review

"Ambitious, finely detailed and compulsively readable" - Locus

"It is a book that feels fundamentally true; it is a book to live in" - Washington Post

For Kivrin Engle, preparing an on-site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity's history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing a bullet-proof backstory. For her instructors in the twenty-first century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be received.

But a crisis strangely linking past and…


Book cover of Labyrinth

Felicity Pulman Why did I love this book?

Kate Mosse gives readers a fascinating insight into the turbulent history of Carcasonne in many of her novels, including Labyrinth. In 1209, Alais is given an ancient and mysterious book by her father, which with two other books contain the secrets of the true Grail. But the Cathars, the ‘heretics’ at Carcasonne, are under siege from the Catholic church and the books must be kept hidden. Helping Alais escape are a young boy, Sajhe, the guide, Harif, and the wise woman, Esclaramonde. But others are also determined to locate the Trilogy, among them Alais’ own sister, the ambitious and beautiful Oriane.

On an archeological dig in 2005, Alice Tanner discovers two skeletons in a cave in the French Pyrenees, along with a ring bearing a labyrinth symbol. She begins to experience flashbacks to the past, and understands that she’s disturbed something that was meant to stay hidden forever. Also in the present are the fundamentalist Catholic, Authie, and the greedy and beautiful Marie-Cecile de l’Oradore, both of whom will stop at nothing to secure the secrets of the Grail for themselves.

By Kate Mosse,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Labyrinth as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14.

What is this book about?

July 2005. In the Pyrenees mountains near Carcassonne, Alice, a volunteer at an archaeological dig, stumbles into a cave and makes a startling discovery-two crumbling skeletons, strange writings on the walls, and the pattern of a labyrinth.

Eight hundred years earlier, on the eve of a brutal crusade that will rip apart southern France, a young woman named Alais is given a ring and a mysterious book for safekeeping by her father. The book, he says, contains the secret of the true Grail, and the ring, inscribed with a labyrinth, will identify a guardian of the Grail. Now, as crusading…


Book cover of The Lake House

Felicity Pulman Why did I love this book?

The abandoned Lake House is at the heart of this wonderful family saga that slips in time between the catastrophic events of the Midsummer’s Eve celebrations in June 1933 and the present. The story is centred around Eleanor Edevane and her husband, still shell-shocked after the Great War; their daughter Alice, a budding author, who is secretly in love with the gardener, Ben; and Alice’s two sisters. Each of them has a guilty secret; each feels responsible for the disappearance and probable death of baby Theo. Meanwhile, in the present, disgraced police officer, Sadie Sparrow, seeks to redeem herself by solving this cold case of the missing child.    

Through old letters and diaries, reminiscences and confidences, and with the help of her grandfather and the ageing Alice, Sadie finally discovers the truth of what really happened on that night so long ago.

By Kate Morton,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Lake House as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

June 1933, and the Edevane family's country house, Loeanneth, is polished and gleaming, ready for the much-anticipated Midsummer Eve party. But by the time midnight strikes and the fireworks light up the night skies, the Edevane family will have suffered a loss so great that they leave Loeanneth forever. Seventy years later, after a particularly troubling case, Detective Sadie Sparrow retreats on an enforced holiday to her beloved grandfather's cottage in Cornwall. Venturing further into the countryside on her daily runs, she stumbles upon a long-abandoned house surrounded by overgrown gardens and dense woods, and learns the terrible story of…


Book cover of A Booke of Days

Felicity Pulman Why did I love this book?

This remarkable ‘novel’ opens (and closes) with the author being given a journal written by Roger, Duke of Lunel, ‘l’Escrivel’, from whom he claims to be descended. This diary forms the bulk of the novel, and it seems to be a translation of a real diary, an intimate and detailed account of the penitent Roger’s journey to Jerusalem in company with other pilgrims on the First Crusade. At times poetic and beautiful, Roger lays bare his innermost reflections on his faith, his sexuality, his guilty love for his friend’s wife, and his search for his soul and for redemption. In excruciating detail, we also learn of the venality, ambition, and greed of those in charge of the various crusader armies who seek power and position in their conquered territories, and the absolute brutality of the conquering crusaders who, in the name of Christ, slaughter, behead and burn all those men, women and children who stand in their way, be they Turks, ‘heathens’—or even Christians. A riveting read. 

By Stephen J. Rivele,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A young French nobleman, Roger, Duke of Lunel, leaves his home to join the forces to recapture Jerusalem, yet the holy crusade turns horribly wrong as he witnesses savagery, betrayal, and deceit all around him, and he begins to believe that he will neverreturn home


Book cover of Lady of Hay

Felicity Pulman Why did I love this book?

Medieval time has always interested me, and this tells the story of Matilda, Lady of Hay, her brutal husband, William de Braose, and the vengeful King John, told in flashbacks from the present as Jo Clifford takes part in an experiment with hypnosis and becomes possessed by Matilda. Jo finds herself reliving those dark days in company with her lover, Nick, and his twisted brother Sam, who are themselves reincarnations from Matilda’s past. At stake is Jo’s happiness and even her life as she takes on the persona of the beautiful but doomed Lady Matilda de Braose, while Jo’s lover Nick becomes the vengeful King John, spurned by Matilda in the past. Nick’s twisted brother Sam, who is also in love with Jo, re-enacts the role of William, Matilda’s brutal husband. As past and present collide, Jo’s fight for survival echoes what happened in the past as Matilda fights to save herself and her family from King John’s vengeance.  

By Barbara Erskine,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Lady of Hay as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A story spanning centuries. A long awaited revenge.

In London, journalist Jo Clifford plans to debunk the belief in past-lives in a hard-hitting magazine piece. But her scepticism is shaken when a hypnotist forces her to relive the experiences of Matilda, Lady of Hay, a noblewoman during the reign of King John.

She learns of Matilda's unhappy marriage, her love for the handsome Richard de Clare, and the brutal death threats handed out by King John, before it becomes clear that Jo's past and present are inevitably entwined. She realises that eight hundred years on, Matilda's story of secret passion…


Explore my book 😀

Shalott: Into the Unknown

By Felicity Pulman,

Book cover of Shalott: Into the Unknown

What is my book about?

Through magic and a VR program, five teenagers set out into the unknown to change the legend of Camelot. Instead, they find they are rewriting their own lives and destiny as their true quest is revealed and they become caught up in the illicit love affair between Lancelot and Guinevere, the intrigues of the court, and the deadly magic of the ambitious Morgan le Fay and her nephew, Mordred. Are the teenagers replaying the legend—or creating it? What Callie finds in Camelot will break her heart, while her quest will change all of their lives forever.

Shalott: Into the Unknown is Book 1 of the Shalott trilogy.

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Broken Mirror

By Cody Sisco,

Book cover of Broken Mirror

Cody Sisco Author Of Broken Mirror

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Cody's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

A fractured mind or a global conspiracy? Uncovering the truth can be hell when nobody believes you… and you can’t even trust yourself. 

"A fantastic science fiction thriller with a sincere and important message.”—Kirkus Reviews. 

“A breathtaking, deeply dark alternate-history Earth with complex characters, layered worldbuilding, and twist after twist after twist.”—Julianna Caro, Reedsy Discovery.

Broken Mirror is the first volume in a queer psychological science fiction saga that looks at the stigma of mental illness and the hellish distrust and alienation that goes with it.

Broken Mirror

By Cody Sisco,

What is this book about?

Broken Mirror: the start of a smart, complex, and imaginative cyberpunk alternate history saga. Literary science fiction from a fresh, young voice.

In a skewed mirror universe, a mentally ill young man searches for his grandfather’s killer.

Someone killed Jefferson Eastmore. His grandson Victor is sure of it, but no one believes him.

Diagnosed with mirror resonance syndrome and shunned by Semiautonomous California society, Victor suffers from hyperempathy, blank outs, and sensory overload. Jefferson devoted his life to researching mental illness and curing Broken Mirrors like Victor through genetic engineering, but now that he’s gone, Victor must walk a narrow…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in family secrets, the Crusades, and the Middle Ages?

Family Secrets 206 books
The Crusades 53 books
The Middle Ages 429 books