30 Books to Read Before You Die (Pt. 54)

As we carefully approach the next milestone of 60, I want to say thank you once again to everyone who has made it this far and a special thank you to anyone who remembers the single digit lists. I have still got a fairly long way to go with these things, giving you more books to read and hopefully inspiring you to make your own lists of special books. I’d love to read them if you’re interested in writing your own!

Today we’re going to talk on the topic of English Historical Non Fiction. We’ve talked about non-fiction and we’ve talked about historical non-fiction and now, I want to refine it even further to English Historical Non-Fiction.

A few years ago, I went on a binge read of English Historical Non-Fiction for absolutely zero reason whatsoever other than I found a really good book called “The Lady in the Tower” by Alison Weir in the bookshop near my house. The reason I wanted to read it was because I hadn’t really read too much about Anne Boleyn and I wanted to research her more in-depth without having to read a research paper. I found this book and I read the back of it, and then the first few pages before buying it. It was a brilliantly written account of Anne Boleyn and her final days, the misconceptions about her and the court gossip that surrounded her character. It explains that really, she was hated from the very beginning—even when she had just gotten married, she was hated by the English People. The mother of Queen Elizabeth I, one of history’s greatest monarchs, was shoved in a tower then had her head chopped off for no other reason than she wasn’t very popular. Even the fact that she didn’t give birth to a son was pretty secondary in comparison to the way she was treated. Nowadays that would be called psychological torture but hey, those were the old days when this sort of stuff was clearly acceptable for some reason.

I had read masses of Philippa Gregory books by this time, but I wanted to read more accounts that read more like research and were literary rather than me getting completely lost in the story again. I always get lost in Philippa Gregory books and I get sad when they’re over because I enjoyed them so much. Anyways, the reason we spoke of this now is because you may find some interesting works of English Historical Non-Fiction etc. dotted throughout our piece today. So let’s get on with the list of thirty books I’ve read. I’ll mark out my favourites with a (*) and I’ll talk about one or two intermittently throughout the article. I have to really try to restrain myself with this one because I have been so looking forward to showing you all some incredible non-fiction texts. I waited this long because there were so many books to get over and done with before these that I feel like I might explode if I wait any longer. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

1591-1600

1591. Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII by David Starkey

1592. The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir

1593. Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne by David Starkey

1594. The Plantagenets by Dan Jones*

I don’t think I’ve ever read such a great book about the Plantagenet family in my life. I loved this book because of how informative it was and how well written it was. It gave some great information, as I recall, on the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381 and the reign of Richard II, which are two times of history that I love reading about. The Plantagenets are always interesting because of their troubadour spirits and their doomed lives.

1595. Lady Jane Grey by Eric Ives

1596. Richard I by John Gillingham

1597. King John by WL Warren

1598. Matilda: Queen of the Conqueror by Tracy Borman

1599. Charles II and the Restoration by Antonia Fraser*

1600. Britain’s Royal Families by Alison Weir

1601-1610

1601. The Fears of Henry IV by Ian Mortimer

1602. Becoming Queen Victoria by Kate Williams

1603. Richard the Lionheart by David Miller

1604. The Troubadour’s Song by David Boyle

1605. The Gothic King by John Paul Davis

1606. George III by Christopher Hibbert

1607. Edward IV by Chris Skidmore

1608. Edward III by W Mark Osmond

1609. The Women of the Cousin’s War by Philippa Gregory*

1610. King Rufus by Emma Mason

1611-1620

1611. Henry IV by Christopher Wilson

1612. Edward II by Kathryn Warner*

1613. Elizabeth of York by Alison Weir

1614. Edward II by Seymour Phillips*

This is probably one of my favourite books about Edward II, actually scratch that, this is my favourite book about Edward II ever. I actually took this book with me last year to the burial place of Edward II (because the effigy is on the cover of the book) and went to see where Edward II laid to rest. I had done a lot of research into the life and times of Edward II before then and I was just so happy I got to see his resting place in person.

1615. The Troubled Reign of King Stephen by John T. Appleby

1616. The Devil’s Crown by Richard Barber

1617. Queen of Scots by John Guy*

1618. Edward the Confessor by Richard Mortimer

1619. Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II by Paul Doherty

1620. King John by Stephen Church