Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I have a list full of books now.
I am going to recommend Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle series. Its an epic yarn that stretches across the globe during the 1600’s weaving in real historical characters and events. The book is kind of a prequel of sorts to the Cryptonomicon, while you don’t need to have read it first, if you have you notice the tie ins.
Conn Iggulden's Emporer series is a great fictional retelling of Caesar's life.
Or
Conn Iggulden's The Wars of Roses series is a real page turner and does a great job of condensing a convoluted war into an easy to understand format.
James Clavell's Shogun is also good.
There's also a series on Genghis khan which I really liked from the same author.
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett is the start of a great series about life in small town medieval England over a few generations. The Ill-Made Knight by Christian Cameron is a the first in a series following a fighting man during the Hundred Years War. Quite good, but quite brutal at times.
I've quite enjoyed everything I've read by Stephen R. Lawhead. He puts a lot of research into his historical fiction, but also gives them a bit of a fantasy flair, which I like.
Azazeel by Youssef Ziedan. It's a tale set in 5th-century Egypt and the Levant, following a coptic monk’s journey amidst the theological controversies of the early Christian curch. Apart from the protagonist (and his devilish visitor) I think all the characters are historically real as well as for the events. It's a very interesting period during which Christians, Jews and Atheists coexisted, although perturbently.
Oh, that book is so good. Yes! I really need to get myself a copy and re-read it.
Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. Not mediaeval, definitely worthy.
If you want to go earlier still, I heard that the Earth's Children series is rooted in prehistoric archeology.
I read and really enjoyed this series recently. I loved the interactions between humans and Neanderthals and how the author described their cultures and views from the inside. Of course it’s very speculative but beautifully woven, fascinating and engaging.
Virtually anything by Bernard Cornwell.
The Killer Angels is set in the American Civil War, so not really as far back as you described,but it really set the standard for modern historical fiction. The author used primary sources (letters, journals etc of the officers on both sides) to get as accurate a depiction of events, personalities, and inner thoughts as possible. It is the book that the movie Gettysburg is based on, but written like 20-30 years before the movie.
You did say you were open to worthy suggestions and I think this is really a worthy one.
Dissolution by C. J. Sansom. It's my favourite book :)
Set in England during the reign of Henry VIII and the dissolution of the monasteries, it follows a lawyer called Matthew Shardlake who is tasked to solve the murder of one of Thomas Cromwell's commissioners at Scarnsea monastery.
The series touches on the tenuous nature of politics and religion/faith of the time, amongst other things and how peoples lives were affected.
A few years back, during Covid lockdowns, I stumbled upon Alessandro Manzoni's The Betrothed and liked it a lot. It was fascinating to read how people reacted to the plague back then.
Accursed Kings, by Maurice Druon, placed in France and Italy during the reign of last Capetians and first Valois.
The Once and Future King, T. H. White
It's hardly highbrow literature and as far as you can get from "woke", but George McDonald Fraser's "Flashman" series has him at the heart of every 19th century conflict from England to China. Fraser was a journalist, and the history is supposed to be quite accurate, aside from liberties necessary for the plot.
Flashman is the main bully character in the book Tom Brown's School Days. After he is expelled from the school, he manages to get a commission in the British Army and fail upwards even as he is a cad and a coward.
@filister Essex Dogs
The Year of the French
Bernie Gunther novels
Sharpe novels
Hornblower novels
Aubrey-Maturin novels
Wolf Among Wolves
Berlin Alexanderplatz
1900 Trilogy
Rifleman Dodd
Ambler 1930s novels
Kavalier and Clay
Alan Furst spy novels
Life and Fate
Deighton's Bernard Samson novels
The House of Government
Book reader community.