SARUM ? ? is that it ?
History via architecture. A fun read, though implausable lineage derived characters that span centuries. My hazy recollection is that it was a damn fun read, and you learnd lots bout cathedral construction… if that’s ur thing.
me, I liked it, but then, I like cornbread in buttermilk yum yum 
Well, the best ever historical series set in Britain, IMHO is the ongoing Dynasty series bt Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. I don’t think they are easy to find in the US, but they are available at Amazon, I think. This is a continuing series, starting in the 1400s with the Wars of the Roses, and follows the fortunes of a Yorkshire family (and a house) over history. Right now she is on volume 26, and has hit about 1910. She is an excellent writer- some of her characters are unforgettable- and there are no feisty modern 20th century heroines in long dresses- the characters think and act in the character of their times.
Through the eyes of a family (mainly the women, but some of the men too)- she covers the Wars of the Roses, the Tudor reformation (you would like volume 2- the Dark Rose, set at the Tudor court, although I think she is a little easy on Anne Boleyn!), the Civil War, the Restoration, Jacobite Rebellions, The American Revolution, and the industrial age, and everything in between- from the lives of servants to life at court.
The early volumes cover more time (40 or 50 years in some cases), but as the series goes on, you can tell she fell in love with her characters and slowed down, filling in a lot more details and secondary characters.
I can’t recommend this series highly enough- as soon as one book comes out, it’s hard to wait a year for the next one (and I’ve been waiting for “the next one” each year for 15 years or so!). Her website is at http://www.cynthiaharrodeagles.com/morland.htm
I just thought of another mystery series and I can’t believe I forgot it. The Catherine Levendeur mysteries by Sharan Newman. Even though they’re mostly set in medieval France, in later books the characters travel to England, and a rather prominent character IS English. The first one just astounded me when I read it, as I hadn’t been expecting it to be much good, just coming off a Mary Higgins Clark kick and having a general low opinion of mystery novels. The first one is Death Comes as Epiphany. There are about six of them, and I believe they can all be found on Amazon.
Fun topic! I can’t wait to hunt down some of the books folks have mentioned.
Some others:
Also a children’s/young adult book, but The Forestwife is another great take on the whole Maid Marian story.
I highly recommend Possession, which is half modern-day literary mystery and half love story about two nineteenth-century poets whose characteristics are cribbed from the Brownings, a couple of more obscure Victorian poets, the poems of Coleridge and Keats, etc. And forget what the critics said, the movie was fantastic.
And if you haven’t discovered them yet, run, don’t walk, and get the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters. They take place both in Victorian England (although the series is now up to post-World War I in its chronology) and the British-occupied Egypt of that period, and the heroine and her family are early Egyptian archaeologists (British in nationality) who keep getting caught up in murder mysteries. The author is an Egyptologist herself, and her geographical and archaeological details are flawless - I once wrote a paper on a site mentioned in her books, and everything my research turned up sounded familiar! Plus the characters are great, the writing style is very funny (I find myself reading bits aloud to whoever’s in the room), and you’ll love Amelia. The first book (and one of the best) in the series is Crocodile on the Sandbank - but do yourself a favor and don’t read the back of the book before you read the book. In my opinion, they give too much away.
Hope that’s what you meant by historical fiction! Although in the Amelia Peabody series, real characters and real historical events are woven in quite nicely.
Wow! I am so grateful so many people replied with so many good suggestions. I am heading off to the bookstore tomorrow.
You might try this series by Dewey Lambdin.
Historical fiction - British Naval stories centered around Alan Lewrie
Forever Amber by Kathleen Windsor. It’s set in Restoration London.
I recommend just about anything by Norah Lofts. Her books portray everyday life in historical Suffolk with a stark reality that is almost bleak.
I had to resurrect this thread because I just finished Phillipa Gregory’s The Queen’s Fool. If you liked The Other Boleyn Girl, I think you’ll like this book.
I warn you: it has a touch of the supernatural, so if this kind of thing irritates you, you may not like it as much as the other. (It’s the story of a young girl in Queen Mary’s court who has occasional precognative visions.)
Water Music by T. Coraghessan Boyle is a favorite of mine. Here is a link to an article about how accurate it really is. OTOH, it isn’t all set in England. OTOOH, it is about British colonialism and exploration of the Congo, so it is history.
These are all YAs, but I think adults should read YAs–they’re often wonderful. Anyway, Rosemary Sutcliffe has some terrific books set in Roman Britain: The Silver Branch, The Lantern Bearers, The Eagle of the Ninth. E.L. Konigsberg (the one who wrote From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler ) wrote A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, which tells the story of Eleanore of Aquitaine.
If you want to learn English history, don’t read the hilarious series by Joan Aiken that starts with Black Hearts in Battersea. I devoured them as a kid, and for years I actually believed that the line of King James continued uninterrupted, although challenged by the Hanoverians who wanted to replace him with Bonnie Prince Georgie.