Author Spotlight: Ken Follett

Once when visiting relatives I ran out of books (I know - how disorganised of me!). Sitting on a shelf

was Ken Follett’s Fall of Giants, the beginning of his family epic set during WWI. Once I started it, I couldn’t put it down and finished the tome in two days. I learnt more about WWI and how it affected different strata’s of people reading this book than I did studying it at school. At the time I didn’t have access to any of his other books but I had never forgotten how Follett had drew me into the story and wouldn’t let me go.

Last year I finally had more than one copy of his classic ‘Eye of the Needle’ so I squirrelled it away home and to read. The only disappointing part was that I would have loved it to have been the length of Fall of Giants. It was a brilliant WWII spy drama, that I can see has influenced many of the more recently published books that I’ve read.

So slowly but surely I’m making my way through his books. I’ve already read Pillars of the Earth and in the previous Christmas break I ripped through Whiteout. So for those who have read him - what should I read next? And for those that haven’t and love a good historical novel to sink your teeth into he’s a must.

But what if you’ve read all his books?! Here’s a list of authors I would recommend to keep you going until his next one.

Edward Rutherfurd

Conn Iggulden

Bernard Cornwell

Martin Cruz Smith

Jeffrey Archer

Michael Dobbs

Philip Kerr