It’s not my intention here to list a ‘Top 10’ or even a ‘Top Anything’, and nothing in the order of books featured here should be interpreted as anything other than the vagaries of my thoughts and memories. These are simply books I have enjoyed and sometimes learned from: above all I recommend them because they appealed to me.
Some of the writers featured here are sadly out of print: you will have to find a copy on eBay or amongst second hand bookshops. I was delighted to find a copy of ‘The Fall of the Russian Empire‘ by Donald James in a second-hand bookstore in Pennsylvania, delivered to me in the UK in perfect condition. Of course, Amazon Marketplaces has made the task of finding these retailers easier, and this particular book made it eventually to the Kindle.
This page is incomplete. I know you will understand when I say that it will be permanently incomplete. I’ll be adding titles all of the time and hope to share recommendations that others have made to me. Recommendations will extend from classics through modern fiction and to indie/self-published work. I hope you will find these pages useful.
Fiction is my passion, and I have two stipulations: it must be well written and it must be entirely credible.
Even dragons can be made credible with enough thought and enough craft. One thing guaranteed to make me put down a book is if the narrative veers from credibility.
I confess I don’t read nearly enough non-fiction. I read as a diversionary tactic, and I like nothing better than losing myself in a fictitious landscape peopled by characters I can interpret for myself. When I do find a factual account that I enjoy it’s a revelation. Factual books for me conjured up those dry texts I read at school. It doesn’t have to be like that, and I list here some of the most inspired and well-written non-fiction that I have read. I want to find others that have been written this way, capturing my imagination at the same time that they inform..
