Here are 90 books that Virgin and the Crab fans have personally recommended if you like
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I studied the Tudor era in high school and have been hooked ever since. It was an era of enormous change. The world was opening up, science was advancing, religion was losing its grip over people, and new ideas were challenging every level of society. Discovery was everywhere–new planets, lands, theories, foods, and trading routes. Society was changing, and women were beginning to have a voice and education. It was also an era of characters–men and some women who made a mark on the world through their wit and wisdom–and some just by being rogues. There are no dull moments in Tudor times.
When you turn the pages of this book, you feel you can see, smell, and hear the dark streets and alleys of Tudor London. This book inspired me to place my books in Tudor England and start The Tudor Rose Murders Series.
It is Tudor Crime at its best. I was so captivated by the characters, the detail, the pace, and the plotting that I could not put it down and felt wretched when I turned the last page.
Awarded the CWA Diamond Dagger - the highest honor in British crime writing
From the bestselling author of Winter in Madrid and Dominion comes the exciting and elegantly written first novel in the Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery series
Dissolution is an utterly riveting portrayal of Tudor England. The year is 1537, and the country is divided between those faithful to the Catholic Church and those loyal to the king and the newly established Church of England. When a royal commissioner is brutally murdered in a monastery on the south coast of England, Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's feared vicar general, summons…
I’m a blogger, vlogger, historian, and author of 14 history books, and have a true passion for Tudor history. Tudor history grabbed me at the age of 11, when I had to do a project on Henry VIII and his six wives, and has never let me go. Anne Boleyn is my historical heroine and area of expertise, but I love anything to do with the Tudors. I’m a complete Tudor nut and if I’m not researching and writing about Tudor history, I’m talking about it or getting lost in a good book about it. I love any book that brings my favourite character to life or transports me back to the 16th century.
This is my all-time favourite history book. It’s non-fiction, but is far from dry or academic, it grabs you from the get-go and is like a thriller, a real page-turner.
We all know about the religious persecutions of Mary I’s reign, a queen who has gone down in history as Bloody Mary, but in God’s Traitors, historian Jessie Childs explores just how dangerous it was being a Catholic in Elizabethan England.
Childs focuses on the Vaux family and their experiences of being Catholic as Elizabeth I swings from religious tolerance to viewing Catholics as the enemy.
*Winner of the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize* *Longlisted for The Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction* *A Sunday Times Book of the Year* *A Daily Telegraph Book of the Year* *A Times Book of the Year* *An Observer Book of the Year*
A woman awakes in a prison cell.
She has been on the run but the authorities have tracked her down and taken her to the Tower of London - where she is interrogated about the Gunpowder Plot.
The woman is Anne Vaux - one of the ardent, brave and exasperating members of the aristocratic Vauxes of Harrowden Hall.
I’ve been fascinated by the early modern period–the Tudors and the Stuarts–since falling in love with Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth, Henry VIII, and his wives when I was a child. I graduated from Horrible Histories as a child to lengthier nonfiction and fiction books about the era as a teenager before gaining a BA Honours, a Masters, and a PhD focussing on Elizabethan language and literature. I now teach English Literature at Strathclyde University. Because I never lost the urge to read everything I could about the Tudors and Stuarts, I began writing about them, too, and because I devour both fiction and nonfiction, I write both!
This beautifully written nonfiction book brings to life Henry VIII’s tragic fifth queen. It reveals the complexities and colour of the ageing tyrant’s court.
It’s a book packed with detail and yet so rich in narrative that I couldn’t put it down. Henry’s wives are popular figures for biography–but Russell breathes new life into his youngest, most tragic consort.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 2017
During one of the hottest summers on record the court of Henry VIII is embroiled, once again, in political scandal. The King's marriage to Anne of Cleves has failed, his closest adviser Thomas Cromwell is to be executed for treason and, in the countryside, an aristocratic teenager named Catherine Howard prepares to become fifth wife to the increasingly irascible, unpredictable monarch.
Her story is both a very dark fairy tale and a gripping thriller. Born into nobility and married into the royal family, Catherine was attended every waking hour by…
I’m a blogger, vlogger, historian, and author of 14 history books, and have a true passion for Tudor history. Tudor history grabbed me at the age of 11, when I had to do a project on Henry VIII and his six wives, and has never let me go. Anne Boleyn is my historical heroine and area of expertise, but I love anything to do with the Tudors. I’m a complete Tudor nut and if I’m not researching and writing about Tudor history, I’m talking about it or getting lost in a good book about it. I love any book that brings my favourite character to life or transports me back to the 16th century.
We’ve all heard of Lady Jane Grey, "The Nine Day Queen”, but not many know that all three Grey sisters had tragic lives. Their Tudor blood and proximity to the throne made them rivals to the monarch, whether they wanted to be or not.
Leanda de Lisle does a wonderful job telling the stories of these three fascinating women: Jane, Katherine, and Mary. I love how she banishes the many myths surrounding them. Jane may have been a victim of the executioner, but the Jane that rises from the pages of this book was one tough cookie, as were her sisters.
All three of them challenged authority and were willing to pay the price. An excellent read.
`Leanda de Lisle brings the story of nine days' queen, Lady Jane Grey and her forgotten sisters, the rivals of Elizabeth I, to vivid life in her fascinating biography' Philippa Gregory
The dramatic untold story of the three tragic Grey sisters, all heirs to the Tudor throne, all victims to their royal blood.
Lady Jane Grey is an iconic figure in English history. Misremembered as the `Nine Days Queen', she has been mythologized as a child-woman destroyed on the altar of political expediency. Behind the legend, however, was an opinionated and often rebellious adolescent who died a passionate leader, not…
I am passionate about solving problemsof any type. I have a long history of solving Computer problems that are known traditionally as “bugs”. After retiring, I turned my attention to other problems & mysteries, discovering I had a talent for historical detective work too! I wasn’t satisfied with the - very unconvincing - traditional “chocolate box” narrative of Shakespeare’s family and life. He musthave had much more impact on the wider world than is currently known and I believe, after 450 years, I finally cracked it!
Alan Green hosts a popular Youtube channel that explores the mysteries and secret codes built into the works of Shakespeare and his decryptions are quite extraordinary in their depth.
Green has been investigating these hidden “Bard codes” for more than 15 years and his book reflects the incredible effort he has put into his work. He was at one time the musical director of The Monkees!)
Six years' of intense research into Shakespeare's grave, monument, and Sonnets dedication, went into producing this ground-breaking work. Readers are taken on a fascinating journey in which they're guided to solve the codes that explain a hitherto completely unsuspected side to the greatest literary mystery ever. In a revelation of detective work, the author thoroughly documents the supporting role of Dr. John Dee, alchemist, mathematician, and leading cryptographer in the Elizabethan court.The codes predict an actual location — the Holy of Holies Altar Stone within the poet's church in Stratford-upon-Avon — where the Bard claims to have left physical evidence…
My name is Polly Schattel, and I’m a novelist, screenwriter, and film director. I wrote and directed the films Sinkhole, Alison, and Quiet River,and my written work includesThe Occultists, Shadowdays, and the novella 8:59:29.I grew up loving fantasy—Tolkien, Moorcock, Zelazny—but phased out of it somewhat when I discovered writers like Raymond Carver, EL Doctorow, and Denis Johnson. Their books seemed more adult and more complex, not to mention the prose itself was absolutely transporting. In comparison, the fantasy I’d read often felt quite rushed and thin, with get-it-done prose. I drifted away from genre fiction a bit, but dove back to it with my first novel, the historical dark fantasy The Occultists.
Crowley is the author of the timeless classicLittle, Big, of course (which is also essential reading), but his novel, The Solitudes, began a tetralogy that explores history, alternate history, and the grand Hermetic framework which contains it all.
Centering around a historian working to connect an alternate imagined world, Ægypt, with the real one today, Crowley’s readers take a deep dive into the Renaissance world of Giordano Bruno, Doctor Dee, Shakespeare, and others, while simultaneously exploring the arcane world of the present.
It feels strangely akin to something Umberto Eco might come up with if he ever wanted to write fantasy.
As with any Crowley novel, the prose is absolutely gorgeous—a masterclass of beautiful, thoughtful writing. This series has been unjustly overlooked. Give it a try.
Reengaging the ideas of alternate lives, worlds, and worldviews that pulsed through his remarkable Little, Big, John Crowley’s Ægypt series is a landmark in contemporary fiction. The series helped earn Crowley the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, and Harold Bloom installed the first two books in the series in his 1993 Western canon. Now, following the Spring 2007 hardcover release of the final book in the series (Endless Things), Overlook is bringing the entire tetralogy back into print and, for the first time, presenting it as a real series. In The Solitudes, the opening of the…
From the time I was very young, Witchcraft and the supernatural have always fascinated me. I can remember staying up late to watch horror movies or reading an Edgar Allen Poe book under the sheets with a flashlight when I was supposed to be asleep. I knew this was never a phase or something I would “outgrow”; the spell had been cast and I was forever in its power. I’ve tried to read everything I could on Witchcraft, its history and practice and anything regarding the occult. It was all of this reading and research that really helped me to write Widdershins and everything that came after. Enjoy the list!
This is an excellent, yet brief history of the Black Arts and the famous (or infamous) people who practiced them. It was while reading this book, particularly the chapter on LaVoisin, that inspired the story of Christina Lafage, the main character in Widdershins. The book also describes other interesting practitioners, such as Dr. John Dee, Eliphas Levi, Nostradamus, Aleister Crowley, and many more. The chapters on Black Magic and Sorcery and Raising the Dead also contributed to my ideas for my book. I often find myself referring to this book over and over again for great source material.
I’ve studied and written about the Tudors for many years including a monthly article in Tudor Life magazine, plus I’ve written several successful books looking at the lives of ordinary people in history and now, my first full scale look at the Tudors. The Tudor period is one of the best known in our history and is dominated by so many well-known and fascinating characters but my interest rests with the ordinary folk and how their lives changed so fundamentally in this time. The dissolution of the monasteries changed everyday life for many and marked the end of the medieval period and the beginning of a more enlightened time.
This entertaining book is aimed at children but could really be enjoyed by everybody as a light-hearted introduction to the Tudors.
I think the whole Horrible Histories series shows that history can be fun and is a great place for children to start to look into the past. I enjoy looking at history from another perspective: how horrible can it be?
Discover all the foul facts about the Terrifying Tudors with history's most horrible headlines. All the foul facts about the Terrifying Tudors are ready to uncover, including:
who invited Queen Lizzie to visit his brand new toilet
and what you get when you sew the front of a chicken to the back of a pig
Fully illustrated throughout and packed with horrible stories - with all the horribly hilarious bits included
with a fresh take on the classic Horrible Histories style, perfect for fans old and new
the perfect series for anyone looking for a fun and informative read
I grew up reading Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and everything British. My first novel celebrated American literature and small towns, and my first murder mystery was a love letter to England. I once spent twenty days visiting almost thirty bookshops and reading my way all over England, and let me tell you, I learned a thing or two about murders.
What could be more quintessentially British than Her Majesty, the Queen, solving murders at her different castles? Her Majesty The Queen Investigates is a charming series based on meticulous research. It offers fascinating insights into the large organization surrounding the palace and a convincing portrait of the Queen herself.
With just the right amount of corgis and murders, Her Majesty the Queen Investigates is a cozy murder series to delight all anglophiles. Fans of The Crown will be especially pleased—the fourth book in the series, A Death in Diamonds, is the start of a historical trilogy.
For fans of The Crown and The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. On a perfect Spring morning at Windsor Castle, Queen Elizabeth II will enjoy a cup of tea, carry out all her royal duties . . . and solve a murder.
'Like an episode of The Crown - but with a spicy dish of murder on the side' (DAILY MAIL) ______________________
The morning after a dinner party at Windsor Castle, eighty-nine-year-old Queen Elizabeth is shocked to discover that one of her guests has been found murdered in his room, with a rope around his neck.
I was born within sight of Pembroke Castle, birthplace of Henry Tudor, who later became King Henry VII and began the Tudor Dynasty, so I’ve always had an interest in his story. I found several biographies, but no novels which brought the truth of his story to life. The idea for the Tudor Trilogy occurred to me when I realised Henry Tudor could be born in book one, ‘come of age’ in book two, and rule England as king in book three. Since then, I’ve continued to follow the Tudor ‘thread’ all the way from Owen Tudor’s first meeting with Catherine of Valois, and culminating with the Elizabethan Series.
The third book of The Elizabeth of England Chronicles has Elizabeth finally becoming Queen of England and trying to unite a divided country. A Protestant queen surrounded by Catholic kings, all she has to do is marry well and secure the succession. Gemma Lawrence has a talent for developing convincing characters and evoking a compelling sense of time and place.
The witty, wily princess, Elizabeth Tudor has survived the turmoil of her formative years, and finally, is now Queen of England. Rising to the throne on a wave of popularity, Elizabeth is keen to avoid the mistakes of her siblings, and bring England to a new sense of unity and hope. But in the first two years of her reign, Elizabeth will be tested as in no other. She is seen as scandalous for her faith and sex in the courts of Europe. Untested in power and authority, Elizabeth must use all the weapons at her disposal to survive as…
