FIVE BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ THIS AUTUMN

Here is the best history and historical fiction I've read this season so far...

Before we get onto autumn books, two exciting things.

• First, my novel Lion Hearts is now out in the United States! You can order it from your preferred bookseller here, and I’d be very happy if you did.

• Second, a reminder that I have some live talks and signings coming up in the UK. Tickets are linked below.

25 September - St Swithun’s, Bath (Intelligence Squared)

29 September - Sinfonia Smith Square, London (Intelligence Squared)

2 October - St James’ Church, London (in conversation with Ken Follett)

8 October - Staines Library (in conversation with Helen Castor)

10 October - Henley Literary Festival

17 November - Southwark Cathedral

Now, on with the show.

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Autumn is peak season for book releases, and there are so many great history titles already in bookshops. Here are five that I have enjoyed in the last few weeks. No doubt there are plenty more to come.

Let me know what you’re reading this autumn in the comments below.

Dan

The Wars of the Roses by John Watts

The Wars of the Roses is somehow both a well-trodden subject and still a confusing one. But this book, adapted from a lecture series by the Oxford medievalist John Watts, manages to do something brilliant. It helps make sense of the tortured history of the wars - politically, economically and culturally - while also offering a series of original historical frames for the conflict. One of Watts’ most interesting insights concerns the problem that fifteenth-century observers called ‘variance’ or ‘envy’ - what we would today term ‘polarised politics’. Along with Christine Carpenter’s textbook The Wars of the Roses, this should be the go-to introduction for anyone with a serious interest in fifteenth century England.

More details: The Wars of the Roses: A Medieval Civil War by John Watts (Cambridge University Press)

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Circle of Days by Ken Follett

There is something almost impossibly captivating about Stonehenge. In fact, last time I was driving past I almost put my car into the ditch trying to drive with my knees and film a video. (Don’t do this, this is a bad and reckless idea.) In Circle of Days, we are transported to the Neolithic era, when the monument was about to be radically redesigned and the iconic sarsen stones erected around the much more ancient bluestone ring. Think Pillars of the Earth meets Fred Flintstone and you’re on the right track.