This Rec League comes from our very own Redheadedgirl! This is technically her formal request:
I’m looking for books set in York or Edinburgh. You know. For reasons. York is harder to find.
Now, she says “books,” but I think most members of the Bitchery have a keen sense on what each of us likes to read. RHG likes historical romances, so I’m sure she wouldn’t turn down suggestions of that nature.
But please, don’t limit yourself either as she’s been known to read erotic and contemporary romances, plus nonfiction and women’s fiction as well!
Can we help her out?
@Ms. M & @Stefanie Magura — So happy to see others that love the Dunnett books. My memory about the details is fuzzy because I started reading the series in the fall of 1998, when I was commuting between my home and my parents frequently because of my mom’s illness. They were a great distraction on airplanes, during layovers and while sitting in waiting rooms and hospital rooms. I’m probably due for a re-read.
I second (or third?) the recommendation of the Owen Archer series, starting with The Apothecary Rose. I think the romance in them is very sweet (and, in places, steamy!)
The Sunday Philosophy Club series by Alexander McCall Smith, starring Isabel Dalhousie, has a very nice slow-burn-to-domesticity romance for Isabel (a middle-aged woman finding love and sex, hooray) and various other romances… Isabel is a bit of a match-maker.
I absolutely adore Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, also, though it’s mostly romantic in a capital-R sense.
Also, a good deal of Sir Walter Scott’s The Heart of Midlothian is set in Edinburgh… original early nineteenth-century crazysauce, as I recall (I prefer others of Scott’s novels, but that may be just me.)
A number of Susanna Kearsleys books are set in Scotland near Edinburgh.
@roserita – lovely to see someone else reads the Penelope books. Great illustrations too, and charming stories.
msmonkeyboy – would totally endorse Please don’t stop the Music. So unusual. Her other books are great too.
All my books (called The Yorkshire series on Amazon, but they arent’a series really, all standalone stories no recurring characters), are set in York and on the North York Moors (note – the Brontes are the other side of Yorkshire, not *our* moors).
Thanks to Melissa above for mentioning me.
omg omg, I love these two cities (I studied in Edinburgh and loved daytrips to York).
Another vote for any book about Richard III/Anne Neville (maybe someone could cover them for the real life romance couples things you used to do?). The Sunne in Splendour is jaw-droppingly fabulous when it comes to research, but the dialogue is a bit weird and wooden and tries too hard to be old-timey (People say things like “Be you well, Dickon?” instead of “Are you all right, Richard?” and everyone says “Ma Mère” and “Jésu” a lot). There’s also slut-shaming galore with Elizabeth Woodville being blamed for EVERYTHING that is wrong with the world.
I’d recommend rewatching BBC’s North and South miniseries, as loads of the outdoor scenes were shot in Edinburgh.
The Warlock of Strathearn by Christopher Whyte – Great descriptions of the Old Town, and the factoid that a warlock’s sperm is sweet and cold, rather than hot and salty will stay with me until the day I die, I just can’t unread it.
Someone mentioned The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie? Excellent choice.
So many of Margaret Elphinstone’s novels and short stories (mostly historical, but her short stories have modern settings) have bits set in Edinburgh. I’d think you’d especially enjoy Voyageurs, but that one is mostly set in Canada. Seriously, YOU NEED TO READ HER. Awesome writer.
It’s really the opposite of romance, but Trainspotting? Such an Edinburgh classic. Ditto Laura Hird’s “Born Free”.
I seem to remember that Barbara Erskine has written a few historic romances set in Edinburgh. I particularly remember “Kingdom of Shadows”, which is a bit gothic and features a heroine who has these time-travel trips/dreams where she’s suddenly her ancestor, who was Robert the Bruce’s mistress.
I kind of want to add Elspeth Grey’s “O Caledonia”, but now I’m thinking I might just remember it as an Edinburgh novel because I read it in the uni library? It might actually be set in the Highlands. Still, awesome novel about adolescent girl rage and sorrow.
Oh, dear. That should be “Elspeth Barker”, not Elspeth Grey.
In addition to Candace Robb’s Owen Archer series, she has a new series set in York I think a half-generation later (Kate Clifford series) that I didn’t know about until she mentioned it on a panel discussion at this year’s Kalamazoo medieval congress. (I love that they had several panels on medievalists using their background to write fiction!)
I haven’t read this book yet, but Kathryn Le Veque who has written many medieval romances wrote one set in the time slightly after Richard III called the Dark One: Dark Knight. I bought it because the Kindle book was cheap and the audio book even cheaper, especially for both their sizes, and it looks from the information on it that it is set in Yorkshire. The information also revealed triggery stuff about the heroin being abused by her husband before she meets the hero so mileage may vary. Mileage also may vary because a cursory glance at the reviews of earlier books like this one reveal reader issues with historical accuracy.
Follow-up to last comment: Maybe look at reviews before buying.
The YA fantasy The Falconer by Elizabeth May prominently features Edinburgh in the mid-1800’s. It’s the first in a trilogy.
As a side note, the author studied and lives in Edinburgh, so she often shares of photos Scotland as well as her other travels on her blog.
Just about every Jane Lovering book is set in York (or Yorkshire). She’s a very good writer and a fun read, slightly offbeat sense of humor. Contemporaries, and a couple of contemporary paranormals
I recently started the Morland Dynasty and that sent me off to re-read Barbara Whitehead’s York mysteries (#1 is Playing God) and to finally try her stand-alone historical romance Ramillies, set in a fictional version of Howard Castle, which I found charming.
P. F. Chisholm’s excellent historical mysteries are set in the Borders generally (#1 A Famine of Horses) as is G. M. Fraser’s The Candlemass Road.
A lesser-known Edinburgh author is Quintin Jardine. His Skinner mysteries are an auto-buy for me, every year in time for my birthday, because Big Bob is my fictional boyfriend.
Also anyone who wants a different and compelling reading experience could try O’Neill’s The Lamplighter. Don’t read blurbs or spoilers, just…trust me on that.
Sorry going to be pernickety – suggesting that someone writing in Barnsley is near enough to York to make no difference is like suggesting that someone writing in Trenton is near enough writing in New York to make no difference. Having been to all four I can assure you that they are very very different places.
I’ve just come across Miss Esperance and Mr Wycherley, by Lizzie Harker Allen, from 1908. Haven’t read it yet but Goodreads review (in that link) says it’s set in Edinburgh. It’s online at Gutenberg
In The Further Observations of Lady Whistledown, Suzanne Enoch’s short story features a Marquis from Yorkshire who has to come to London to fetch his wayward bride. Not much Yorkshire flavor but a sweet read just the same.
Excerpt and summary at:
http://www.suzanneenoch.com/books_observations.html