Books to read if you loved Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light

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Reading lists

Books to read if you loved Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy

The House Of Niccolo 4

Scales Of Gold

The exquisitely-researched standalone prequel series to Dorothy Dunnett's revered Lymond Chronicles, following the ancestors of Francis Crawford of Lymond in Continental Europe. 
 
Scales of Gold is Book Four in The House of Niccolo series. 
 
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'You know what is drawing him? He is going to the market no white men attend. He is going to sail up the River of Gold.' 
 
In the Spring of 1464 Nicholas vander Poele returns to Venice in time to witness a plot to wipe out Casa de Niccolo - his own bank. Near-ruined, he secures a ship, a crew and sails for the one place he is confident none of his rivals would dare follow - Africa. 
 
Yet Nicholas is disconcerted to find he is racing against another vessel as they head for the fabled lands of Prester John and his fountains of gold, where strangers and plunderers alike are treated with suspicion. 
 
But nothing will turn Nicholas away from the glittering prize he seeks - Timbuktu, the legendary city by the desert edge . . . 
 
'A glorious panorama of medieval times. The historical research is impeccable' Sunday Express

A storyteller who could teach Scheherazade a thing or two about pace, suspense and imaginative invention

Marvellous, breathtaking

A masterpiece of historical fiction

One of the greatest tale-spinners since Dumas

Lashings of excitement, colour and subtlety

Vivid, engaging, densely plotted - are almost certainly destined to be counted among the classics of popular fiction

'A glorious panorama of medieval times . . . The historical research is impeccable'

Frequently described as the finest historical fiction writer of her time, Dorothy Dunnett earned worldwide acclaim for her blend of scholarship and imagination. She is best known for her two superb series of historical fiction - The Lymond Chronicles and The House of Niccolo - set in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and ranging across Europe and the Mediterranean, and for King Hereafter, the eleventh-century story of Earl Thorfinn of Orkney whom Dorothy believed was also King Macbeth. In 1992, Dorothy Dunnett was awarded the OBE for her services to literature, and in 2014 Dunnett's most enduring hero, Francis Crawford of Lymond, was voted Scotland's favourite literary character - beating the likes of Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter and Ivanhoe. Dunnett died 9 November 2001, having sold half a million copies internationally.

The year 1464 finds our hero Nicholas in Venice. Plagued by enemies bent on dissolving his assets and smearing his character, he sets sail for Africa, legendary location of the Fountain of Youth and the source of gold in such abundance that men prefer to barter in shells. He will discover the charms of the beautiful Gelis - a woman whose passion for Nicholas is rivalled only by her desire to punish him for his role in her sister's death. Erotic and lush with detail, SCALES OF GOLD embraces the complexity of the Renaissance, where mercantile adventure couples with more personal quests behind the silkeb curtains of the Age of Discovery.

The House of Niccolo 5

The Unicorn Hunt

The exquisitely-researched standalone prequel series to Dorothy Dunnett's revered Lymond Chronicles, following the ancestors of Francis Crawford of Lymond in Continental Europe. 
 
The Unicorn Hunt is Book Five in The House of Niccolo series. 
 
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'Rich, newly wed, with a palatial banking house, a busy fleet, a small army, why should Nicholas vander Poele choose to travel to Edinburgh?' 
 
That is the question on everyone's lips in the Autumn of 1468 - especially those of his enemy, Simon de St Pol of Kilmirren, who seeks nothing less than the destruction of the House of Niccolo and its cunning head. 
 
But Nicholas soon proves that there are very good mercantile reasons for expanding his trading empire into the north. They also help to conceal his attempts to discover the true father of the child his vengeful wife insists is not his own. 
 
From Scotland to the Tyrol, Cairo to Cyprus, Nicholas pursues a truth that many fear will destroy him and everything he has tried to build . . . 
 
'Terrifically exciting. Some wonderful set-pieces and a cliff-hanging climax' The Times

The fifth title in the "House of Niccolo" sequence, recreating the perilous world of trade, war and banking in Renaissance Europe. Niccolo has returned to Venice from Africa - richer, wiser yet ever unpredictable. He journeys to Scotland, closer at hand to the secrets of his birth.

The House of Niccolo 6

To Lie with Lions

The exquisitely-researched standalone prequel series to Dorothy Dunnett's revered Lymond Chronicles, following the ancestors of Francis Crawford of Lymond in Continental Europe. 
 
To Lie With Lions is Book Six in The House of Niccolo series. 
 
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'We are going to the Westmann Isles. We are going to tamper with Nature, defy law and cheat pirates. We are going to sail the stiffening ocean to Iceland.' 
 
It is 1471 and Nicholas de Fleury has confounded the Lions of Europe - the courts of England, France, Burgundy, Venice and Cyprus. The very future of the continent hinges on the fate of his bank, the enigmatic House of Niccolo. 
 
Yet Nicholas' attention appears to lie elsewhere. Having overcome the schemings of his wife, Gelis, he now seeks a truce. He looks north to the lands of ice and fire, and new treasure to wrestle from the hands of rivals. 
 
And, in Edinburgh, there is a play to perform - one that might have repercussions for those puzzled but powerful Lions . . . 
 
'Imaginative, scholarly and compelling' Mail on Sunday

Merchant-banker Nicholas de Fleury, having wrested his infant son from the boy's formidable mother, pauses en route to the land of golden light to set in train a deception that will ensnare nations in the triumphant ruin of his enemies. This is volume six in the "House of Niccolo".

The House of Niccolo 2

The Spring of the Ram

The exquisitely-researched standalone prequel series to Dorothy Dunnett's revered Lymond Chronicles, following the ancestors of Francis Crawford of Lymond in Continental Europe. 
 
Spring of the Ram is Book Two in The House of Niccolo series. 
 
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'Catherine de Charetty, having chosen a lover just after the Feast of Exaltation of the Holy Cross, was much put out to learn that, at nearly thirteen, she did not possess all the required qualifications . . .' 
 
Yet her secret suitor, Pagano Doria, claims he will wait and spirits her away from Bruges, first to Florence and then eastwards. On their trail is Nicholas vander Poele, her step-father, conducting his own journey to the fabled city of Trebizond, a Byzantine outpost on the Black Sea. 
 
Known as the treasure-house of the East, Trebizond in 1461 is the ideal location for Nicholas to open the House of Niccolo's new trading post. However, the city's riches are threated by a Turkish army while rival merchant families seek to thwart Nicholas' ambitions. 
 
Not least among them is Doria himself, harbouring a plan involving young Catherine to rain ruin on the head of House Niccolo. . . 
 
'A sorceress of the genre' Daily Mail

Praise for Dorothy Dunnett

A storyteller who could teach Scheherazade a thing or two about pace, suspense and imaginative invention

Lashings of excitement, colour and subtlety

In 1461, the mysterious enigmatic Nicholas is in Florence. Backed by none other than Cosimo de' Medici, he will sail the Black Sea to Trebizond, last outpost of Byzantium, and the last jewel missing from the crown of the Ottoman Empire.   But trouble lies ahead. Nicholas's step-daughter - at the tender age of thirteen - has eloped with his rival in trade: a Machiavellian Genoese who races ahead of Nicholas, sowing disaster at every port. And time is of the essence: Trebizond may fall tot he Turks at any moment. Crackling with wit, breathtakingly paced, THE SPRING OF THE RAM is a pyro technic blend of scholarship and narrative  shimmering with the scents, sounds, colors and combustible emotions of the 15th century.

The House of Niccolo 1

Niccolo Rising

The exquisitely-researched standalone prequel series to Dorothy Dunnett's revered Lymond Chronicles, following the ancestors of Francis Crawford of Lymond in Continental Europe. 
 
Niccolo Rising is Book One in The House of Niccolo series. 
 
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'It began with sea, and September sunlight, and three young men lying stripped to their doublets in the Duke of Burgundy's bath . . .' 
 
Meet Caes - Nicholas vander Poele - an eighteen-year-old orphan and dyer apprentice's working for the widow Marian de Charetty in Bruges. After fetching up in jail for accidentally sinking a lighter and breaking the leg of a nobleman, his young life seems over before it is even begun. 
 
However, fate and the fifteenth century have great expectations for Nicholas and he soon finds himself leading the Charetty company into adventures and intrigues both mercantile and military, even as enemies plot their downfall. 
 
Through cunning, bravery, wit and an unexpected wisdom, Nicholas begins to lay the foundations for the House of Niccolo . . . 
 
'As brilliant and interesting as Lymond. A generous feast' Daily Telegraph 
 
'A series that will give us our fill of high Renaissance adventure and espionage' Guardian

The time is the 15th century, when intrepid merchants became the new knighthood of Europe. Among them, none is bolder or more cunning than Nicholas vander Poele of Bruges, the good-natured dyers apprentice who schemes and swashbucukes his way to the helm of a merchantile empire.  NICCOLO RISING, Book One of the series, finds us in Bruges, 1460. Street smart, brilliant at figures, adept at the subtleties of diplomacy and the well-timed untruth, Dunnett's hero rises from wastrel to prodigy in a breathless adventure that wins him the love of the strongest woman in Bruges and the hatred of two powerful enemies. NICCOLO RISING combines history, adventure and high romance in the tradition stretching from Alexandre Dumas to Mary Renault.

The House of Niccolo 7

Caprice And Rondo

The exquisitely-researched standalone prequel series to Dorothy Dunnett's revered Lymond Chronicles, following the ancestors of Francis Crawford of Lymond in Continental Europe. 
 
Caprice and Rondo is Book Seven in The House of Niccolo series. 
 
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'A companionable fellow who now spends his time raising hell . . .' 
 
Winter, 1473, and Nicholas de Fleury's schemes have at last caught up with him, costing everything - friends, family and firm. Losing himself in the icy port of Danzig, he drinks and fights, but most of all he forgets. 
 
Meanwhile, his wife Gelis, bruised from their years of dueling, sets off to find out the truth of her husband's lost parentage - and discovers a traitor within Nicholas's close circle of friends. 
 
As Nicholas is drawn eastwards in a search for the lost gold to restore his fortunes, so the titanic forces he has long-attempted to marshal for his own ends reach out to exact a terrible price of their own . . . 
 
'The best historical novelist since Sir Walter Scott' Sunday Times

January 1474, in the deep cold of an ice-bound Danzig: a man is spending a frivolous winter not facing up to his responsibilities ... It is the merchant Niccolo, diviner, soldier, banker to Kings; shunned by all who know him after revelations of hismurderous mischief-making. But his talents are too great to be squandered, and a subtle political dance ensues as rivals in Poland, Venice, and Persia bid for his services in trade and war and diplomacy. Niccolo has lost his family; but he will discover a new purpose in life...

Dorothy Dunnett

The House of Niccolo 3

This is the third book in the "House of Niccolo" series. Set in 15th-century Cyprus, this novel continues the saga of Nicholas van der Poel, international mercenary who started out as a dyer's apprentice, as he plays for the highest stakes with the greatest super-powers in Europe.

Dorothy Dunnett

Race Of Scorpions

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