My favorite British author is Eleanor Alice Burford Hibbert a.k.a. Jean Plaidy. At the height of her career in the 1950s and 1960s, Jean (who also wrote as Victoria Holt, and Philippa Carr,) was Britain's most popular historical novelist. Although her novels were ‘fictionalized history’, they were all very carefully researched and based on the works of leading contemporary historians. Her greatest joy was to collect a pile of dusty old history books, read them all from cover to cover, and then transforms the events they described into exciting narratives. She wrote five hours a day, seven days a week, starting at 7:30 in the morning and completed at least 5,000 words by lunchtime.
If you enjoy reading or writing in a particular era of English history you will take pleasure in these books. No need to be put off by reading fictionalized history, there are no cobwebs here. Her writing is knife-through-butter easy to read. The kind of reading that draws back into history and holds you there until the end. Her books are mostly out of print, but a search around the internet or at your library should put these books in your hands.
Anglo Saxon Era
The Bastard King The Lion of Justice
The Passionate Enemies
The Middle Ages
The Plantagenet Prelude
The Revolt of Eaglets
The Heart of the Lion
The Prince of Darkness
The Battle of the Queens
The Queen from Provence
Hammer of the Scots (Edward Longshanks)
The Follies of the King
The Vow on the Heron
Passage to Pontefract
The Star of Lancaster
Epitaph for Three Women
Red Rose of Anjou
The Sun in Splendor
The Tudor/Renaissance Era
Uneasy Lies the Head
Katharine, The Virgin Widow
The Shadow of the Pomegranate
The King's Secret Matter
Murder Most Royal
St. Thomas' Eve
The Sixth Wife
The Thistle and the Rose
Mary, Queen of France
The Spanish Bridegroom
Gay Lord Robert
The Mary, Queen of Scots Era
Royal Road to Fotheringay
The Captive Queen of Scots
The Stuart Era
The Murder in the Tower
The Wandering Prince
A Health Unto His Majesty
Here Lies Our Sovereign Lord
The Three Crowns
The Haunted Sisters
The Queen's Favorites
The Georgian/Regency Era
The Princess of Celle Queen in Waiting
Caroline, The Queen
The Prince and the Quakeress
The Third George
Perdita's Prince
Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill
Indiscretions of the Queen
The Regent's Daughter
Goddess of the Green Room
Victoria in the Wings
The Victorian Era
The Captive of Kensington Palace
The Queen and Lord M
The Queen's Husband
The Widow of Windsor
The Queens of England Series
Myself the Enemy (Henrietta Maria)
Queen of this Realm (Elizabeth I)
Victoria Victorious (Victoria)
The Lady in the Tower (Anne Boleyn)
The Courts of Love (Eleanor of Aquitaine)
In the Shadow of the Crown (Mary Tudor)
The Queen's Secret (Katherine of Valois)
The Reluctant Queen (Anne Neville)
The Pleasures of Love (Catherine of Braganza)
William's Wife (Mary II)
The Rose Without a Thorn (Catherine Howard)
