Readers’ top ten historical novels revealed as voting opens for winner

3rd December, 2019

We’re thrilled to reveal readers’ top ten favourite historical novels of all time, as nominated by you throughout November! The shortlist of ten (in alphabetical order by title) is:

Checkmate by Dorothy Dunnett
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
Days Without End by Sebastian Barry
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
Waverley by Walter Scott
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

We received hundreds of nominations, from classics by Walter Scott, Margaret Mitchell, Patrick O’Brian, Robert Louis Stevenson and George Macdonald Fraser, through to beloved authors from the last century including Dorothy Dunnett, Rosemary Sutcliff, Umberto Eco, Robert Graves and Mary Renault.  More contemporary authors made up the majority of the nominations, including many of those shortlisted by the Walter Scott Prize, such as Hilary Mantel, Sebastian Barry, Andrew Miller, Eleanor Catton, Patrick Winter, Sarah Waters and Hannah Kent.  Thanks to everyone who nominated – a set of signed books and WSP book bags are winging their way to the ten lucky winners of our draw!

The winner of our Poll to find the nation’s favourite historical novel will be announced in early January 2020.  Which of the ten will it be?  It’s up to you to decide, so get your vote in now!  Please note, voting will close on 16th December 2019, and you can only vote once.