A NOTORIOUS VICTORIAN MURDER case, fascinatingly presented, offers insights into the era’s preoccupations. A MINUS

PRETTY JANE AND THE VIPER OF KIDBROOKE LANE: A TRUE STORY OF VICTORIAN LAW AND DISORDER: THE FIRST UNSOLVED MURDER OF THE VICTORIAN AGE
Pegasus Books
2016

A RICH TAPESTRY OF HISTORY comes alive in this vividly told saga of Richard the Lionhearted’s last years. B PLUS

A KING’S RANSOM
A Marian Wood Book/Putnam
2014

THE MEDIEVAL ENGLISH COURT of Aethelred and Emma, vividly depicted in all its wicked intrigue. Tudors? Pfft!

ENGAGING BIOGRAPHY OF architect, artist, antiquarian Sarah Losh, whose 1840s church in Wreay still delights.

IMPRESSIVE NEW BIOGRAPHY of the Brontës reveals much about father and brother as well as the famous sisters.

BACK TO THE TUDORS with Carolly Erickson for a lively novel about Catherine Howard, the 5th Mrs. Henry VIII.

GRANDLY SPRAWLING HISTORICAL novel follows the abdication of Edward VIII from both “upstairs” and “downstairs”.

ENGAGING MEMOIR DETAILS an Englishman’s quest to reconcile the UK’s status symbols with his Pakistani heritage.

GRITTY, CANDID MEMOIR of a childhood in England’s Romany Gypsy community, facing prejudice, violence, abuse.

ENGAGING, IMPECCABLY RESEARCHED account of a high-profile divorce trial that scandalized Victorian England.