Philippa Gregory

Although her fiction mostly takes place in England during the Renaissance (especially during the Tudor period,) the depth of her characters makes her novels appealing to a wider audience.  Some highlights include The Other Boleyn Girl (detailing the life of Mary Boleyn, younger sister of Anne,) The Virgin’s Lover (about a young Elizabeth I and her rumored affair with Robert Dudley,) and The Other Queen (about the flirtatious queen Mary, Queen of Scots.)  She has also published novels with a less specifically historical bent, including Early Delights and The Wideacre Trilogy.  Her most recent publication was The White Queen, the first in a series about the War of the Roses.

Jean Plaidy

She isbprobably the most famous (and certainly the most widely-read) historical novelist of the 20th Century.  Like the later Philippa Gregory, her novels mostly take place in England.  However, throughout her long writing career she wrote about many of the most notable women in English history, from the Plantagenet period up until Queen Victoria.  Of particular note is her series about the Tudor queens, which includes The Lady in the Tower (the story of Anne Boleyn,) The Rose Without a Thorn (about Catherine Howard,) and The Thistle and the Rose (about Henry VIII’s sister Margaret Tudor.)  Although all of her novels are thoroughly researched and very entertaining, her writing is strongest when told in first-person perspective.

Mary Renault

Another famous British novelist, her works most focused on the world of ancient Greece.  Her novels are known for the richness of their texture, and the writing style itself is unflawed.  She is particularly well-known for her sensitive and passionate depiction of homosexual love and attraction in the ancient world.  The best-known of her novels is the trilogy dealing with Alexander the Great’s life:  Fire from Heaven (focusing particularly on his relationships with his mother, his father, and his life-long friend and lover Hephaistion,) The Persian Boy (told from the perspective of Alexander’s Persian lover Bagoas,) and Funeral Games (depicting the power struggle that took place after Alexander’s death.)  Other books include the Theseus novels (Bull from the Sea and The King Must Die) and The Praise Singer.

Colleen McCullough-Shifting from ancient Greece to ancient Rome, she focuses particularly on the events immediately preceding and succeeding the rise and death of Julius Caesar.  Her cast of characters is quite large, and involves such famous Roman figures as Marius, Sulla, Aurelia, Cleopatra, Octavian, Marcus Antonius, and of course Julius Caesar.  The novels, in chronological are:  The First Man in Rome, The Grass Crown, Fortune’s Favourites, Caesar’s Women, Caesar:  Let the Dice Fly, The October Horse, and Antony and Cleopatra.  Although her writing tends to become somewhat overblown at times, the actions is non-stop, and the series as a whole is very enjoyable.

Steven Saylor-Again taking place in ancient Rome, these novels are somewhat different than McCullough’s in that they focus on the sleuthing of Gordius the Finder.  The series, which totals several books and several short stories is, in a sense, the classical version of an Agatha Christie murder novel.  That is to say, they are wickedly clever and often very funny, as they are told in the voice of the smart and somewhat sarcastic Gordius.  Novels in this series include Catilina’s Riddle, Caesar’s Triumph, and The Venus Throw.  He has also published a novel detailing the rise and fall of the Roman Republic entitled Roma.  Give any of these a try.  They make for excellent and entertaining reading.