Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
To me there is nothing like the "being there" sense you get from reading Dickens, Austen, Wells ... (pick your author), to give you a sense of the time and place. ... Sure I think Goddard is a wonderful author, and sure I enjoy some of Michener and some others, but the experience is quite different to reading those authors that lived in that time.
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I agree with all those points.
The trouble with a lot of modern historical fiction is that you can see the research, if you know what I mean: the author goes out of their way to slip in odd facts that they've dug up in their research, just for the sake of showing off their knowledge.
Regarding Robert Goddard. For the benefit of those who don't know him, he is a British writer who writes intricate thrillers and conspiracy novels, often involving modern characters investigating some sinister event in the past. His first book,
Past Caring, and also
In Pale Batallions (mentioned by Gmw) are excellent, but I think he went off the boil with his later books.
(I also read somewhere that he is John Major's favourite author. Not sure if that is a recommendation or not.)