Recommendations for my mother!

[WICKES]

Hi, could someone recommend a novel for my mother? It's her birthday soon and I can't find anything. She loves the historical novels of C J Sansom and Hilary Mantell and is desperate to find a writer similar to Sansom, especially one who sets his/ her novels in the Tudor era (not Philippa Gregory or Bernard Cornwell). She also loves crime novels, especially French ones (she loves Simenon), oh, and she also loves Lee Child (ok, he's a bit trashy, but who doesn't like a bit of trash now and then?).

Also, could someone recommend something funny, preferably British and modern (not Wodehouse or Waugh)? It can be fiction or non-fiction (for a 66 year old woman remember).

Thankyou:)

[Emil Miller]

Hi, could someone recommend a novel for my mother? It's her birthday soon and I can't find anything. She loves the historical novels of C J Sansom and Hilary Mantell and is desperate to find a writer similar to Sansom, especially one who sets his/ her novels in the Tudor era (not Philippa Gregory or Bernard Cornwell). She also loves crime novels, especially French ones (she loves Simenon), oh, and she also loves Lee Child (ok, he's a bit trashy, but who doesn't like a bit of trash now and then?).

Also, could someone recommend something funny, preferably British and modern (not Wodehouse or Waugh)? It can be fiction or non-fiction (for a 66 year old woman remember).

Thankyou:)

Mission impossible dear boy. You might try my novel Pro Bono Publico but, failing that, perhaps Fifth Element could come up with something suitably modern.

[Bill 42]

Also, could someone recommend something funny

I really enjoyed Vernon God Little by D.B.C. Pierre. It won the Man Booker prize for 2003.

I also liked The Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. It's American, not British, but not too American. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for 1981.

[qimissung]

You might try The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's about a female botanist and is set in the 19th century. It's just out and is getting pretty good reviews, as far as I can tell. The New York Times gave it a good review, anyway. I know a lot of people are fond of putting down her memoir "Eat Pray Love but she'd been a writer long before she wrote that.

[TheFifthElement]

It'll be tough to meet all your criteria, that's for sure and I'm not sure I'm the best person as I don't really read historical fiction or crime. But anyway, some possibilities that might hit at least some of your criteria:
- Theodora by Stella Duffy (historical - based on the Byzantine Empress Theodora. Duffy is a Kiwi, but has lived in Britain long enough to be considered British).
- A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse (French, fun, mystery/crime novel set in a bookshop)
- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (historical - based in Dejima Japan, British. Modern. Very, very good)
- Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset (historical - based in 14th Century Scandinavia, not British or particularly modern or funny. But very good.)

Or possible authors: Carlos Ruiz Zafon (not historical, but mysteryish and generally page turners. In the Shadow of the Wind is, by all accounts, very good) - I've read The Angel's Game, which is apparently not one of his best but was still very enjoyable; Conn Iggulden (historical fiction, modern, British. He has a new series 'War of the Roses' which is set a little earlier than the Tudor period); Kate Mosse (historical fiction, British, modern, mysteryish). I haven't read either of the last two, so can't vouch, but both receive good reviews.

Have you thought about heading over to Amazon or Goodreads and searching for Samson and seeing what names come up under the 'people also bought' or 'also liked' section?

Good look with your search.

[prendrelemick]

A good high quality and yet easy read is "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold fry". by Rachael Joyce.


However I know she will like S J Parris, who is another author who writes Tudor whodunnits, very much like Colin Sansom.

Then of course there is Ellis Peters' Cadfael series.

[WyattGwyon]

How about Neal Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy: Quicksilver, The Confusion, The system of the World? Mostly seventeenth century, so slightly later than her preferred period. There is a concentration on the history of ideas — scientific, mathematical, technological, philosophical — with Isaac Newton, Leibniz, etc. as characters. Also, purely fictional characters, swashbuckling adventure, political intrigue. Stephenson, however, is primarily a writer of speculative fiction, and these novels reflect that.

Has she read Eco's The Name of the Rose?

[qimissung]

I'm assuming she's also read Sir Walter Scott? Ivanho, et al? Or The Scarlet Pimpernal, by Baroness Emmuska Orczy?