Best Historical Fiction

  Set in 1900 Skerry – a small Scottish fishing village, where a child’s arrival, washed up at shore, shakes this tight-knit community. Dorothy takes the temporary care of the child. Despite the resemblance, she knows it can’t be her child lost to waters years earlier, same age as this boy now.   The story goes back in time, and at first, is narrated between two women. Dorothy when she comes to this tiny village as a teacher and how she is mocked by other women for no reason and how isolated she feels. And Agnes, who has her eyes on Joseph, but Joseph has his eyes on the newcomer.   The past narrative of Dorothy and Joseph reveals touchingly the story of Moses, Dorothy’s son, and who the father is. The present narrative uncovers the story of the mysterious boy. There is much more to the storyline, uncovering human relationships, how we assume things, instead of asking questions. How those assumptions can lead to wrong decisions, lasting lifetime. There is also mot...

 The Pretender imagines the story of Lambert Simnel, a pretender to the throne of England and a threat to the newly established reign of Henry VII. He was the figurehead of a Yorkist rebellion against the House of Tudor. The story begins in 1480s England with John growing up in a village, believing that his father is Will Collan, but everything changes when he is told that a rich man wants to pay for him to study. When the rich man arrives, he’s accompanied by a younger man and introduced as Maister Richard Simons, a scholar and priest, who is to take over John’s education. Not only that, Maister Richard informs John that he was John Collan, and now, he is Lambert Simnel – something that, of course, makes no sense to John. It is then explained that he is actually the son of George, the Duke of Clarence. By title, he is the earl of Warwick, meaning next in line to the throne. Nothing makes sense to the boy who thinks of himself as a peasant. Oxford becomes his new home, but it’s far...