historical fiction

You might also try Beryl Bainbridge's According to Queenie for info on Samuel Johnson and his ilk, or Master Georgie if you fancy the Crimean War.

I will also chuck in my usual recommendation for Patrick O'Brian. You can't get better research than his, and if you like a few sea battles, he's your only man.

I'll check out that carey book too, he seems critically acclaimed and whatnot.

Anybody read "Haussmann, or the Distinction" by paul lafarge?

My Penguin paperback of A Place Of Greater Safety is almost 900 pages long, including the 8-page dramatis personae at the start.

19th Century - Try the Flashman series. Great fun with some serious historical research. As a note of warning, to enjoy this series you must enjoy anti-heroes and must be willing to deal with political incorrectness.

17th-18th Century - Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, Confusion and the System of the World)- 2500 pages+ of brilliance with a cast of characters including Isacc Newtown, Robert Boyle and Christopher Wren.

17th Century - Iain Pears Instance of the Fingerpost, Rashomon style murder mystery set in Restoration England with a very good twist in the tale.

Seconding the Mary Renault, over here.

Rose Macaulay's 'They Were Defeated' - set a few years before the English Civil War with plenty of interesting characters popping up - John Milton, Henry More, John Cleveland, Andrew Marvell, Robert Herrick. Lots of 17th Century poetry in it, but still hugely readable.

Some Canadian historical fiction I've enjoyed recently: Icefields by Thomas Wharton and The Outlander by Gil Adamson.

been on a kick lately: just finished nicola griffith's "hild" which i really loved.

also did luther blissett's Q (mostly very good) and its sequal "altai" (less good)

what should i do next, the dunnett series?

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset, the entire life of a 14th century Norwegian woman. Absolutely transports you to a time and place. The following pull quote is absolutely true but makes it sounds like a ripping bonkbuster, really it's much more serious and considered - This trilogy includes illicit sex, affairs, a church fire, an attempted rape, ocean voyages, rebellious virgins cooped up in a convent, predatory priests, an attempted human sacrifice, floods, fights, murders, violent suicide, a gay king, drunken revelry, the Bubonic Plague, deathbed confessions, and sex that makes its heroine ache 'with astonishment'

You Dreamed of Empires by Alvaro Enrigue - Cortes and Moctezuma and the end of the Aztec Empire in a sardonic and mildly postmodern style.

Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann - The Thirty Years War, how it sucked to be a peasant. Cynical, political, philosophical.

The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk - religious cultism in 18th century poland.

those all sound great, thanks!

I think this has quietly crept up on me to become my favourite genre. A couple more, not at all obscure:

Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar - could do with rereading this, offers a very thoughtful personal perspective.

The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald - concentrates more on character than historical events, slyly and gently amusing, more than you'd expect and more than the main character would appreciate!

i read tyll and you dreamed of empires, as well as the first book of kristin lavransdattar (had to return to the library before i could get to the rest). i enjoyed them all but particularly you dreamed of empires, i loved the psychedelic overtones. i just started the books of jacob too, so thanks for all the recommendations, ledge.

another one i read recently that was very good was the gallows pole by benjamin myers, about a gang of coin clippers (forgers) in england at the dawn of the industrial revolution. i'm slowly working my way through the aubrey & maturin series when i run out of other things to read, a lot of the technical details are over my head but i enjoy the characters and the writing.