Hmm. What History Books would I recommend? Depends on the period of history I suppose.

If you’re looking at the Ancient World I’d look at Conn Iggulden’s Emperor series and possibly David Gemmel’s Troy series. David Gemmel also wrote two books about Philip and Alexander (off of Macedon) but there was a certain amount of “myth and magic” to them.

For medieval fiction try Robyn Young’s Brethren trilogy, set during the crusades, or the Insurrection trilogy set in the Scottish Wars of Independence. Also, Conn Iggulden’s The Conqueror series about Ghengis Khan (because history happened all over the world, even in Mongolia!)

For Dark Ages look no further than Bernard Cornwell. The Warlord Trilogy is a historic take on the Arthurian legend and obviously his Saxon Stories (as recently mad into The Last Kingdom TV series) chronicle the life of a Saxon Warrior living under Alfred’s reign.

If we’re looking at Black Powder then I think that this era is probably better covered than most others. Iain Gale’s Jack Steele series is also good because it is set during the War of Spanish Succession which also stars one of Britain’s greatest although perhaps least appreciated, generals; John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. About 100 years before Wellington was strutting his stuff through Europe, Marlborough was doing the same thing (also against the French). And obviously, we can’t talk about the black powder era without mentioning the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell. There’s some other interesting reads set around this era that perhaps move away from the traditional battlefield setting and might be good for anyone wanting to roleplay in this era. C.C. Humphreys’ Jack Absolute series tell the story of a British Spy around the time of the Seven Years War. But my two personal favourites are the Harry Lyttle books by Paul Lawrence (set during the Restoration/Glorious Revolution period of the late 17th century) and the Matthew Hawkwood series by James McGee which is set in the early part of the 19th century, around the time of Waterloo. Both Hawkwood and Harry Lyttle are detectives of sorts and the books are crime stories set in London

On top of that, I don’t feel we can really talk about historic fiction without mentioning some of the classics (although beware, some of them can be quite hard going if you decide you want to read them). Alexander Dumas never fails to provide inspiration; the Musketeers stories are great fun although I tried to read the Count of Monte Christo and didn’t get more than a third of the way through it. Also, and maybe this is relevant to the current series on the French Indian War, J Fenimore Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans is an excellent story and for a classic is surprisingly easy to read.