Best Books About Historical Fiction by Ken Follett

Ken Follett is one of the most successful novelists in the world - his books have sold more than 170 million copies - and he is the master of the historical epic: vast, immersive novels that drop the reader into a moment in history and refuse to let go. His great achievement is the Kingsbridge series, which began with The Pillars of the Earth and has followed the English town of Kingsbridge through centuries of history.

Follett’s books are for adults, and some of them - especially the spy thrillers of his early career - are not for every reader. But his historical epics are remarkably clean: the violence and the passion are present but not graphic, and the books are driven by character and craft rather than shock. If you are new to Follett - or if you have read one book and want to know what else he wrote - this guide will take you through his best work, organized by what each book offers.

The Essential Start: The Pillars of the Earth#

The Pillars of the Earth (1989)#

The book that made Follett famous, and the best possible introduction to his work: set in twelfth-century England, it follows the building of a cathedral in the town of Kingsbridge - and the lives of the people caught up in it: Tom Builder, the master mason; Philip, the prior who dreams of the cathedral; Aliena, the noblewoman who loses everything; and Jack, the boy who will become a master builder.

It is the essential Follett: the sweep, the craft, the characters, the immersion. The book is a door into the Middle Ages - you live in Kingsbridge while you read it, and you miss it when you leave. If you read only one Follett book, this is the one.

The Pillars of the Earth, and Why It Endures#

The book’s genius is its structure: the building of the cathedral is the spine of the story, and everything - the politics, the feuds, the loves, the wars - hangs from it. The book is an argument about craft: that the building of a great thing is the work of generations, that the masons and the priors and the merchants are the real makers of history, and that the cathedral is not a monument but a community. It is also a book about ordinary people in extraordinary times - the medieval world rendered with such care that you believe you are in it - and it has never stopped being read.

The Kingsbridge Series: Following the Town Through History#

The Pillars of the Earth is the first book of the Kingsbridge series, and the series is one of the great achievements of historical fiction. These are the essential reads for the series.

World Without End (2007)#

The second Kingsbridge book, set two centuries after the first: the town rebuilt, the plague arriving, and a new generation of characters - Merthin, the builder; Caris, the physician; the Prior Godwyn - caught up in the great crises of the fourteenth century. It is the essential next read: the same town, a new era, the same immersion. The book’s account of the Black Death is among the most powerful in fiction.

A Column of Fire (2017)#

The third Kingsbridge book, set in the sixteenth century: the Reformation, the wars of religion, and the struggle between Catholics and Protestants that tore Europe apart. It is the essential read for the series’ most political volume - the book where the town’s story meets the great religious conflicts of the age.

The Armour of Light (2023)#

The fourth Kingsbridge book, set in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: the Industrial Revolution arrives in Kingsbridge, and the town is transformed. It is the essential read for the series’ most recent volume, and it brings the town’s story into the modern era.

If You Loved the Craft: Follett’s Other Epics#

Beyond Kingsbridge, Follett has written other great historical epics, and the best of them share the Kingsbridge books’ immersion. These are the essential reads for the epics.

The Century Trilogy (2010–2014)#

Follett’s other great series: three novels - Fall of Giants, Winter of the World, and Edge of Eternity - following five families through the twentieth century, from the First World War to the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is the essential read for the epic at its most modern: the same craft, the same immersion, applied to the century we know. The trilogy is one of the great achievements of popular historical fiction.

The Eye of the Needle (1978)#

The book that made Follett famous before the cathedral: a spy thriller set in the Second World War, about a German agent and the woman who discovers him. It is the essential read for Follett’s earlier, thriller register - and it is the book that shows where the epic’s craft came from.

The Man from St. Petersburg (1982)#

A historical thriller set in 1914: a Russian anarchist, an English lord, and a plot that could change the course of the war. It is the essential read for Follett’s historical thrillers at their best.

If You Loved the History: Follett’s Arguments#

Follett’s books are arguments about history: who makes it, what it costs, and how ordinary people are swept up in it. These are the essential reads for the arguments.

The Pillars of the Earth, and the Makers of History#

The book’s deepest argument is about who makes history: not the kings and the bishops alone, but the masons, the weavers, the merchants, the women - the ordinary people whose work builds the world. The book is a meditation on craft and its place in history, and it is the essential read for the argument at its most explicit.

World Without End, and the Great Crises#

The book’s account of the Black Death is an argument about crisis: how societies respond when everything breaks down, how the survivors rebuild, and how the ordinary people - the physicians, the builders, the merchants - carry the world through. It is the essential read for the argument at its most powerful.

A Column of Fire, and the Wars of Religion#

The book is an argument about religious conflict: how faith can be used as a weapon, how the wars of religion tore Europe apart, and how the people who wanted tolerance fought against the forces of fanaticism. It is the essential read for the argument at its most contemporary - the book is, among other things, a meditation on the dangers of religious extremism that has only become more relevant.

If You Loved the Characters: Follett’s People#

Follett’s books are full of characters who are real - builders and priors and physicians, noblewomen and merchants and spies - and his mysteries are always, at bottom, about the people involved. These are the essential reads for the characters.

The Pillars of the Earth, and the People of Kingsbridge#

The book is a portrait of a community: Tom Builder, the craftsman who loses everything and builds the cathedral; Prior Philip, the man of faith who dreams of it; Aliena, the noblewoman who loses everything and rebuilds her life; Jack, the boy who becomes the master builder. The book is an argument about character: that the people who build the world are the ones who matter, and that their stories are the story of history.

The Century Trilogy, and the Families#

The trilogy follows five families through the century - the English, the German, the American, the Russian, the Welsh - and the book is about how the great events of the century land in their lives. It is the essential read for the characters at their most far-reaching.

Winter of the World (2012)#

The second book of the Century Trilogy, set in the Second World War: it is the essential read for the characters at their most tested - the war, the Holocaust, the bombs - and it is among the most powerful of Follett’s books.

If You Loved the Immersion: The Craft of the Epic#

Follett’s great gift is immersion: the sense that you are inside his world, living in his century. These are the essential reads for the craft.

The Pillars of the Earth, and the Craft of the Middle Ages#

The book is a door into the twelfth century: the building of the cathedral, the feudal politics, the daily life of the medieval world - all rendered with such care that you believe you are there. It is the essential read for the immersion.

The Armour of Light, and the Craft of the Industrial Age#

The fourth Kingsbridge book renders the Industrial Revolution - the mills, the machines, the new world being built - with the same immersion. It is the essential read for the craft at its most modern.

The Evening and the Morning (2020)#

The prequel to the Kingsbridge series, set in the year 1000: the book follows the town’s founding, and it is the essential read for the series at its beginning - the same craft, applied to the dawn of the millennium.

On Reading the Long Book#

A practical word for new readers: Follett’s books are long - The Pillars of the Earth runs to over a thousand pages - and that length is the point. The books are immersive in the truest sense: they take the time to build the world, to people it with characters you know, to let the decades pass slowly enough that you live in them. Readers who are daunted by the length should know that the books are also page-turners: Follett’s chapters end on hooks, his plots move, and most readers find the thousand pages pass faster than they expected. The books are also best read in company: the Kingsbridge series rewards reading aloud, or at least reading together, and the Century Trilogy is a natural family project - one volume a season. The length is not a barrier; it is the gift. The books give you time - time to know the masons and the priors, the families and the wars, time to live in the century before you have to leave it.

Building Your Own Shelf: A Reading Order#

Here is a suggested path through Follett’s best work:

• Start with The Pillars of the Earth for the essential introduction.
• Move to World Without End for the next chapter of the town.
• Try The Evening and the Morning for the prequel.
• Pick up The Century Trilogy for the modern epic.
• End with The Eye of the Needle when you want the thriller register.

For more books in this spirit, our best books without explicit content list gathers substantial reads that are rich without being graphic, and our best books without graphic violence list extends the shelf into stories with real weight and real craft. The stories section of our site is full of guides like this one, so there is always another era to enter.

Why Follett Endures#

Ken Follett is the master of the historical epic - the writer who can drop you into a cathedral in the twelfth century or a city in the twentieth and refuse to let go. His books are arguments about history: who makes it, what it costs, and how ordinary people are swept up in it. They are driven by craft and character rather than shock, and they are remarkably clean for books of their ambition. The Pillars of the Earth is one of the great novels of the past fifty years, and the Kingsbridge series is one of the great achievements of popular fiction. The cathedral is waiting, the town is open, and the century is ready to be entered. A final note on the series’ scope: the Kingsbridge books span nearly a thousand years of the town’s history, from the founding in The Evening and the Morning to the Industrial Revolution in The Armour of Light - and each book can be read alone or as part of the sweep. Readers who start with The Pillars of the Earth often find themselves committed to the whole span, following the town the way other readers follow a family. It is one of the great commitments in historical fiction, and it rewards every page.