Best of
Historical-Fiction

1982

The Sunne in Splendour


Sharon Kay Penman - 1982
    Loyal to his friends and passionately in love with the one woman who was denied him, Richard emerges as a gifted man far more sinned against than sinning. This magnificent retelling of his life is filled with all of the sights and sounds of battle, the customs and lore of the fifteenth century, the rigors of court politics, and the passions and prejudices of royalty.

Ride the Wind


Lucia St. Clair Robson - 1982
    This is the story of how she grew up with them, mastered their ways, married one of their leaders, and became, in every way, a Comanche woman. It is also the story of a proud and innocent people whose lives pulsed with the very heartbeat of the land. It is the story of a way of life that is gone forever....

The Lieutenants


W.E.B. Griffin - 1982
    From the Nazi-prowled wastes of North Africa to the bloody corridors of Europe, they answered the call gladly. It was their duty, their job, their life. They marched off as boys, and they came back--those who made it--as soldiers and professionals forged in the heat of battle...

Run with the Horsemen


Ferrol Sams - 1982
    is a precocious, sensitive, and rambunctious boy trying to make it through adolescence during the depression years. On a red-clay farm in Georgia he learns all there is to know about cotton chopping, hog killing, watermelon thumping, and mule handling. School provides a quick course in practical joking, schoolboy crushes, athletic glory, and clandestine sex. But it is Porter's family - his genteel, patient mother, his swarm of cousins, his snuff-dipping grandmother, and, most of all, his beloved though flawed father - who teach Porter the painful truths about growing up strong enough to run with the horsemen.

North and South


John Jakes - 1982
    Though brought together in a friendship that neither jealousy nor violence could shatter, the Hazards and the Mains are torn apart by the storm of events that has divided the nation.

Seven Daughters and Seven Sons


Barbara Cohen - 1982
    Buran cannot—Buran will not—sit quietly at home and wait to be married to the man her father chooses. Determined to use her skills and earn a fortune, she instead disguises herself as a boy and travels by camel caravan to a distant city. There, she maintains her masculine disguise and establishes a successful business. The city's crown prince comes often to her shop, and soon Buran finds herself falling in love. But if she reveals to Mahmud that she is a woman, she will lose everything she has worked for.

Saigon: An Epic Novel of Vietnam


Anthony Grey - 1982
    He is lured back again and again by his enduring fascination for the country and for Lan, a beautiful Vietnamese mandarin's daughter he could never forget. Over five haunting decades Joseph's life becomes deeply enmeshed with Vietnam's turbulent, war-torn fate - until he attempts to salvage something of lasting value during the final desperate helicopter scramble to flee defeated Saigon. First published in 1982, it has stood the test of time as critics predicted, and is now providing a new generation of readers with insights into that historic conflict - and its tragic echoes in Iraq. It has since become a bestseller in 15 countries and in eight other languages.

King Hereafter


Dorothy Dunnett - 1982
    Her hero is an ungainly young earl with a lowering brow and a taste for intrigue. He calls himself Thorfinn but his Christian name is Macbeth.Dunnett depicts Macbeth's transformation from an angry boy who refuses to accept his meager share of the Orkney Islands to a suavely accomplished warrior who seizes an empire with the help of a wife as shrewd and valiant as himself.

War Horse


Michael Morpurgo - 1982
    With his officer, he charges toward the enemy, witnessing the horror of the battles in France. But even in the desolation of the trenches, Joey's courage touches the soldiers around him and he is able to find warmth and hope. But his heart aches for Albert, the farmer's son he left behind. Will he ever see his true master again?

...And Ladies of the Club


Helen Hooven Santmyer - 1982
    A true classic, it is sure to enchant, enthrall, and intrigue readers for years to come.

The Iron Stallions (The Goff Family War Thrillers Book 3)


Max Hennessy - 1982
    In the 1920s, Josh Goff runs away from school and enlists under another name in the ranks of what to his family was always simply known as The Regiment.Soon enough, he finds himself on the front lines in the Second World War, from France to the Western Desert, from the D-Day beaches to Nazi Germany.The time of cavalrymen has long since passed, but Josh finds himself thinking that the mindset still prevails. Though the weapons have changed, the men have not, and so he moves forward bravely, in his iron stallion. The awe-inspiring finale to the Goff war trilogy, perfect for fans of Alistair MacLean, Jack Higgins and Frederick Forsyth.

The 13th Valley


John M. Del Vecchio - 1982
    Bryan, author of "Friendly Fire"" "The 13th Valley" is dynamite! This is the most sensuously honest interpretation of the Vietnam experience I've ever read." --Al Santoli, author of "Everything We Had"

A Midnight Clear


William Wharton - 1982
    Here they play at being soldiers in what seems to be complete isolation. That is, until the Germans begin revealing their whereabouts and leaving signs of their presence: a scarecrow, equipment the squad had dropped on a retreat from a reconnaissance mission and, strangest of all, a small fir tree hung with fruit, candles, and cardboard stars. Suddenly, Knott and the others must unravel these mysteries, learning as they do about themselves, about one another, and about the "enemy," until A Midnight Clear reaches its unexpected climax, one of the most shattering in the literature of war.

The Bright Blue Sky


Max Hennessy - 1982
    Dicken Quinney never forgot that first flight in a fragile contraption of sealing-wax and string, the start of a lifelong obsession with aviation. He was to spend the next four years in the deadly cut-and-thrust of aerial dogfights over France and Italy, collecting a chestful of medals, and a reputation as one of the Great War’s leading aces.He would hone his skills in an array of aircraft – the BE2, the 1½-Strutter, the Camel –  and as the war reaches its climax, Dicken is maturing into a daring pilot. But then he must undergo one final test in order to emerge victorious. And with his life intact… The Bright Blue Sky is a love letter to aviation, a brilliant read, perfect for fans of Thomas Wood, Wilbur Smith, and Mark Sullivan.

Molly


Teresa Crane - 1982
    Fleeing her fanatical republican family, Molly O’Dowd arrives nearly penniless in London at the end of the nineteenth century. Plunged into the world of East End gambling houses and brothels, Molly invests what little money she has in a typing course, her only way out. This investment will lead her on the path to establishing herself as a woman of power and means.From the rough-and-tumble world of the London docks to the luxurious hotels and restaurants of the fashionable West End, Molly captures the temper of the times – the unrest of the labouring classes, the courage of the suffragette movement, the ravages of the First World War. Molly wins and loses in the tempestuous world of the capital but her energy and determination never flag and tides change when she meets a man who could match her in business… and in love. This rags-to-riches historical romance is perfect for fans of Lily Graham, Natalie Meg Evans and Fiona McIntosh.

Shike


Robert Shea - 1982
    Beautiful young Taniko struggles under oppression as the mistress of the cruel Kublai Khan, and Jebu, a young monk, is transformed into a fierce warrior, in a saga of the ancient Orient during a time of bloodshed and magic.

Promises


Catherine Gaskin - 1982
     A sweeping family saga, from the grand homes of Yorkshire and London in the Edwardian era, to the heartbreak of a French nursing station during World War I, and the glamour of American high society in the 1920s. Lally Leeds is just a baby when wealthy Black Jack Pollock finds her abandoned in a Yorkshire street and decides to raise her alongside his own children. As Lally blossoms into a young woman, the love and loyalty she feels towards her adoptive family bring her both happiness and heartache. Over time, it is Lally’s strength and devotion which hold the Pollock family together: her dashing brother, Jon; her selfish and self-destructive sister Margaret; and fragile Alice, who must been protected from herself. And the family’s fortunes become entwined with those of another foundling ‒ the mysterious, self-made businessman Brock Weymouth. Lally discovers to her cost that sometimes the most difficult promises to keep are to those we love. The latest historical blockbuster from the bestselling author of The Property of a Gentleman and The Summer of the Spanish Woman. An enjoyable page-turner that you won’t be able to put down. Perfect for fans of Barbara Taylor Bradford, Danielle Steel and Downton Abbey.

One in Thine Hand


Gerald N. Lund - 1982
    He makes a journey to Israel in the summer of 1973, at the height of the uneasy days leading up to the Yom Kippur War. Accompanying him through the Holy Land is Miri Shadmi, a fiery Israeli committed to the political survival of her state and scornful of Americans like Brad. With Miri as his reluctant guide, Brad feels the spiritual impact of the Garden of Gethsemane, relives the tragedies of the Holocaust at Yad Vashem, and visits Israel's monument to freedom, Masada. Along the way, the two battle about politics and religion and brave a run-in with Arab terrorists at a remote kibbutz. Rivalry soon gives way to romance, and both are forced to examine their commitment to faith, family and country.

North and South 2


John Jakes - 1982
    Though brought together in a friendship that neither jealousy nor violence could shatter, the Hazards and the Mains are torn apart by the storm of events that has divided the nation. "Superb! You will gain a firsthand knowledge of life at West Point in the early 1800s...a peek at the Texas frontier, a vacation in a posh cottage at Newport...experience the savagery of war in Mexico, suffer the suspense of both the Charleston Battery and beleaguered Fort Sumter before the mortar fire that launched a war. It has been a long time since I enjoyed a book so much." (The Asheville Citizen-Times)

TOM MIX AND PANCHO VILLA: A Romance of the Mexican Revolution and the 20th Century West


Clifford Irving - 1982
    a high-stepping, swashbuckling romance inspired by the unassailable historical fact that in his greenhorn youth, before he became a movie-star cowboy, Tom Mix rode in the company of the peasant revolutionary Pancho Villa ... Who among us has not wished he'd grown up as romantically as Mix does here?" -- New York Times Book Review "With Tom Mix and Pancho Villa, Clifford Irving takes his place among the giants of contemporary literature, dazzling us all with this robust, rousing, rip-roaring work of art." -- Ernest Lehman "Fabulous, big, rawboned wild-blooded adventure tale that gives the sights and sounds and smells of a turn-of-the-century world real enough to touch. Clifford Irving has written a novel to make any writer proud and many readers grateful." -- Los Angeles Herald Examiner "Intelligently conceived, rapidly paced, attitudinally wry, earthy - a well-written, cannily contemporary tale about the past." -- Dallas Times Herald ----- It's 1913, and Tom Mix, young cowboy and future movie star, rides south of the border to fight at the side of the charismatic Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary leader, already a legend. In the violent beauty of war-torn Mexico a partnership is formed, and an epic is born. Caught up in this sumptuous panoramic novel are some of the most dynamic characters ever to come to life on a page: Hannah, Tom's voluptuous Jewish fiancée; Rosa, the beautiful Indian child widow who loves Tom; Elisa, the sophisticated German rancher who becomes his mistress; Rudolfo Fierro, "the butcher," who lives to kill his enemies and vows to end Tom's life; Lieutenant George S. Patton, Jr., who ceaselessly hunts both Villa and Fierro; and above all, the tempestuous Pancho Villa, a man of ungovernable emotions, a hero and, at the same time, a villain larger than life. This is a story of romance and friendship, loyalty and revenge, politics and gold - an adventure that Publishers Weekly called "grand entertainment, full of wit, charm, and zest." The Los Angeles Times wrote that "Irving spins a fantasy worthy of Mark Twain," and the Houston Chronicle said, "Irving's wonderful big new book is a rollicking, ribald tale." The Chicago Tribune concluded that "[Tom Mix's] exploits - on the battlefield, behind the lines, in bed - are told with riveting skill."

The Horse Goddess


Morgan Llywelyn - 1982
    It is a time when mortal men and women are becoming gods and goddesses as news of their extraordinary adventures sweeps across the land. In this world, Epona, a woman whose life is celebrated in legend, meets Kazhak, a Scythian warrior and prince. Their stormy love affair sends them sweeping across eighth-century Europe, pursued from the Alps to the Ukraine by Kernunnos--a mysterious Druid priest known as the "Shapechanger."

Shipwrecks


Akira Yoshimura - 1982
    His people catch barely enough fish to live on, and so must distill salt to sell to neighboring villages. But this industry serves another, more sinister purpose: the fires of the salt cauldrons lure passing ships toward the shore and onto rocky shoals. When a ship runs aground, the villagers slaughter the crew and loot the cargo for rice, wine, and rich delicacies. One day a ship founders on the rocks. But Isaku learns that its cargo is far deadlier than could ever be imagined. Shipwrecks, the first novel by the great Japanese writer Yoshimura to be translated into English, is a stunningly powerful, Gothic tale of fate and retribution.

Space


James A. Michener - 1982
    Michener tackles the most ambitious subject of his career: space, the last great frontier. This astounding novel brings to life the dreams and daring of countless men and women—people like Stanley Mott, the engineer whose irrepressible drive for knowledge places him at the center of the American exploration effort; Norman Grant, the war hero and U.S. senator who takes his personal battle not only to a nation, but to the heavens; Dieter Kolff, Hitler’s rocket scientist, whose specialty is a rare commodity in this new era; Randy Claggett, the astronaut who meets his destiny on a mission to the far side of the moon; and Cynthia Rhee, the reporter whose determined crusade brings their story to a breathless world.

The Magic Army


Leslie Thomas - 1982
    The invasion of Occupied Europe. This army, mainly Americans, British and Canadians, most of whom had no experience of battle, was to be transported across the English Channel. No one knew how. This is the story of the American "occupation" of a wide district of South Devon to permit realistic war games. Its characters range from the Generals Eisenhower and Montgomery to the village simpleton. The Magic Army is an impressively moving, often very funny novel, which recreates the astonishing operation which preceded the Allied landing in France.

The Storm Testament


Lee Nelson - 1982
    Dan settles with the Ute Indians where he courts the beautiful Red Leaf and Ike becomes chief of a band of Gosiutes in Utah's west desert. In an effort to win a dowry for the hand of Red Leaf, Dan teams up with Ike in a daring horse raid on the Northern Commanches. There is plenty of adventure and exitement in every chapter of this sizzling epic novel.

The Whip


Catherine Cookson - 1982
    But Emma Molinero, orphan daughter of an itinerant carnival performer, is beyond that kind of struggle. She is a woman whose fiery independence and skill at performing with the whips -- her father's only legacy -- make her a figure of mysterious but commanding fascination to the villagers among whom she lives. "THE WHIP is Miss Cookson's finest novel to date...a richly detailed, totally absorbing story that will surely add many new readers to the millions who are already devoted Catherine Cookson fans." (Publisher's Source)

Two for Texas


James Lee Burke - 1982
    An evocative novel set during the Texas revolution from award-winning author James Lee Burke.

The Barefoot Brigade


Douglas C. Jones - 1982
    A vivid, emotional account of the war.

Why There is No Heaven on Earth


Ephraim Sevela - 1982
    The narrator, a Russian Jew, remembers the rare and amazing friend of his childhood, before the Nazi invasion of Russia separated them forever.

Flambard's Confession


Marilyn Durham - 1982
    Ranulph was born the son of a poor priest and a woman rumoured to be a witch, and yet rose to become a priest - and the most infamous prince of tax collectors. This fascinating novel weaves the thin threads of history into a vibrant tapestry of adventure centred upon the dramatic lives of two notorious men at the centre of power. Amazon description

The Brave and the Lonely


Robert Vaughan - 1982
    The Holts, an Illinois family, are caught up in the trials of World War II, their sons Martin and Charles as soldiers and their daughter Dottie the wife of a soldier...some may live, some may not, but all, even those at home, will serve.

Second Hoeing


Hope Williams Sykes - 1982
    First published in 1935, the novel was greeted in all quarters as an impressive and authoritative evocation of these recent immigrants and their struggle to realize the promise of their chosen country.

Rivington Street


Meredith Tax - 1982
    Hannah Levy masterminds her family's escape, despite her radical husband's objections, from czarist Russia after the Kishinev pogroms; elder daughter Sarah becomes a union organizer and a socialist while the younger Ruby rises to the top of the fashion design world; their friend Rachel abandons her ultra-Orthodox background to go to work for the Jewish Daily Forward. Through their lives, loves, and convictions, Meredith Tax draws the reader irresistibly into the explosive events that shaped women's possibilities in the early twentieth century. An absorbing, epic novel, "Rivington Street" is also suitable for use as a classroom text.

Winding Valley Farm: Annie's Story


Anne Pellowski - 1982
    Annie could hardly believe her ears. What would they do in town?

Bustenai


Marcus Lehmann - 1982
    A strange dream convinces the king that his own fate is linked to that of the child.Bustenai eventually becomes an important leader whose bold imagination and courage help forge a bond of trust and respect between Jews and Arabs of the growing Moslem movement.

Hermann of Reichenau: The Story of the Salve Regina and the Triumph of the Human Spirit


Maria Calasanz Ziesche - 1982
    As he grew and studied, investing his hope in the medical promises of the time to alleviate his physical ailments, his days meandered between deep despair and his growing faith. When his music was played and sung, an exhilarating joy entered the whole community, and the monks came to see the extraordinary spiritual strength, beauty, and true happiness coming from the weakest among them. A deeply encouraging book about the life of a man who overcame numerous obstacles, this work captures the grandeur of the human spirit.

Portrait of Two Families


Marcus Lehmann - 1982
    

Badge of Glory


Douglas Reeman - 1982
    Captain Philip Blackwood of the Royal Marines rejoins his ship, HMS Audacious, in the August of 1850, anxious to get back into action. Per Mare - Per Terram is the Marines' motto.In the torturous heat of Africa, where they are sent to stamp out the remaining strongholds of slavery, and later, in the bitter war of the Crimea, Philip Blackwood and his men learn to obey it without question. The first novel in an enthralling and colourful saga, spanning 150 years in the history of a great seafaring family and the tradition in which they served, Badge of Glory is a stunning new departure for one of Britain's master storytellers.

Simple Truths


Sheila Levin - 1982
    Recommended for larger fiction collections. Marsha G. Fuchs Crown Publishing, NY What a pleasure that Sheila Levin is alive and writing in New York! Levin’s writing is often bitterly coarse, but only in reflection of the torment of Susan’s life. Perhaps not perfectly polished, this is nevertheless a fine debut, one with power and great feeling. Publisher’s Weekly This affecting book is very self-assured for a first novel. Its heroine, a New York woman in her mid-30s, is not. Susan Warner obsesses about her insecurities, the overwhelming weaknesses that afflict her as the daughter of concentration camp survivors, the hurt of being alone, the sense that the whole world, including herself is divorced. She could be a one-woman Holocaust. What saves Susan and prevents this novel from becoming just another diary of a maddening housewife is her involvement-post break-up with lover and suicide attempt-with an International Committee for Soviet Jews and her efforts on behalf of a dissident Jewish violinist. Los Angeles Herald Examiner Author Sheila Levin has worked as a professional in the Jewish community for many years. As the Public Information Officer of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, she was a member of the press corps on the Nixon-Kissinger trip to the Soviet Union in the late ‘70’s. As Director of the movement to free the famed ballet dancers, Valery and Galina Panov, while visiting them in Leningrad, Sheila was detained by the KGB. Sheila also served as the Executive Director of the Women’s Division of the UJA and as the Vice President for External Affairs of Polytechnic University. Following her years of service to the Jewish community, she became a political consultant, whose clients included Elizabeth Holtzman and President Vincente Fox, among many others. Keywords – Holocaust, Suicide, Jewish, Soviet, Divorce, Survivors, New York, Camp

Yankee


Dana Fuller Ross - 1982
    An American sailor on a secret mission in Turkey is captured by a sultan and falls in love with Mary Ellis, an English fellow prisoner.

Bless This House


Evan H. Rhodes - 1982
    In 1792 the new nation called it the American Palace. As it rose above the Potomac it symbolized the power of the American dream and the magnificence of the national spirit.The House of Brand. Two brothers: Jeremy the builder; Zebulon the adventurer. Rivals for Rebecca Breech, the blazing beauty whose ambitions were greater even than theirs. Together they forged a dynasty whose destiny is forever entwined with that of Washington, the nation, and The American Palace.

Dark Hour of Noon


Christine Szambelan-Strevinsky - 1982
    A young Polish girl becomes involved with anti-German underground activities during World War II.

Three Famous Du Maurier Novels: The King's General / The Flight Of The Falcon / The House On The Strand


Daphne du Maurier - 1982
    

County Woman


Joan Williams - 1982
    News travels fast, gossip even faster, and one ugly incident has the power to set the entire community aflame. Forty years ago, the murder of a local white woman shook Itna Homa to its core and resulted in the conviction—based on circumstantial evidence—of a young black man. Now desegregation at the University of Mississippi is the talk of the town, and fear and prejudice once again threaten to tear friends and families apart.   For middle-aged housewife Allie McCall, the civil rights movement offers a welcome opportunity to reconsider her own life. She is open to the new ideas about race, class, and gender that are sweeping the country, and eager to see them gain greater acceptance in her hometown. Shocking her husband, Tate, and confounding the local political establishment, Allie enters the race for town constable against a long-serving and bigoted incumbent. As a voice for progressive reform, Allie hopes to encourage her like-minded neighbors to speak up. But her quest has another, more personal component—it was Allie’s mother who was killed all those years ago, and Elgie Hale, the man accused of the crime, has recently escaped from prison. Allie will risk everything—her marriage, her safety, her principles—to track down Hale and determine his guilt or innocence once and for all.

We Won a War: The Campaign in Oman 1965 - 1975


John Akehurst - 1982