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Author

Norah Lofts

1904–1983

17 fiction · 1 non-fiction

Norah Lofts (1904–1983) was an English novelist best known for her richly researched historical fiction. Born Norah Ethel Robinson in Norfolk, she trained as a teacher at Norwich Training College and spent many years teaching English and history in Bury St Edmunds, a town and region that would strongly influence her fiction. Beginning her publishing career in the 1930s, Lofts became a prolific and internationally successful writer, producing more than fifty books across fiction, biography, short stories and non-fiction. She was particularly admired for combining convincing period detail with an interest in the motives, ambitions and private lives of people caught up in historical events. She also published thrillers and other fiction under the names Peter Curtis and Juliet Astley.

Lofts wrote across a remarkably wide range of historical periods, although medieval and Tudor England feature prominently in her work. Her biographical novels include Eleanor the Queen, centred on Eleanor of Aquitaine; The Lute Player, set around Richard the Lionheart and the Third Crusade; The Concubine, her interpretation of Anne Boleyn; The King’s Pleasure, about Catherine of Aragon; and Crown of Aloes, which tells the story of Isabella I of Castile. She also became known for ambitious multi-generational sagas, particularly the Suffolk Trilogy — The Town House, The House at Old Vine and The House at Sunset — which traces successive generations connected with the same house over centuries. Across these novels, Lofts uses individual lives, marriages, families and households to make large historical changes immediate and personal rather than treating history simply as a backdrop.

Periods and events

Angevin Empire1154–1214 CE Captivity and Ransom of Richard I1192–1194 Commonwealth and Protectorate1649–1660 CE Elizabethan Age1558–1603 CE Execution of Charles I1649 CE First English Civil War1642–1646 CE Georgian Era1714–1830 CE Henrician Reformation1530–1547 CE Lancastrian England1399–1461 CE Late Medievalc. 1300–1500 CE Napoleonic Era1792–1815 CE Post-war Britain1945–1963 CE Reconquista711–1492 CE Reign of Henry VII1485–1509 CE Reign of Terror1793–1794 CE Restoration1660–1685 CE Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn1527–1536 Roman Judaea and Second Temple Society4 BCE–66 CE Second Crusade1147–1149 CE Smuggling on the Georgian Coast1714–1830 CE Third Crusade1189–1192 CE Victorian Era1837–1901 CE Viking Age793–1066 CE World War I1914–1918 CE World War II1939–1945 CE Yorkist England1461–1485 CE

Historical fiction

Historical fiction series by Norah Lofts (2 series)

The House Trilogy in Order

by Norah Lofts 3 books 4.2(3,427)

The House Trilogy follows the same Suffolk house and the families bound to it across more than five centuries of English history. The Town House begins with Martin Reed, a runaway serf born in 1381 whose refusal to accept inherited status eventually gives him the means to build…

The Suffolk Trilogy in Order

by Norah Lofts 3 books 4.1(1,016)

The Suffolk Trilogy follows the Tallboys family and their precarious holding at Knight’s Acre in fifteenth-century Suffolk. Knight’s Acre introduces Sir Godfrey Tallboys, a successful knight-errant whose ambitions depend on tournaments, military service and the hope of securing a permanent home for his wife Sybilla. The Homecoming brings…

Historical fiction

Standalone historical fiction by Norah Lofts (11 books)

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Non-fiction

Non-fiction by Norah Lofts (1 book)

Reference works, biographies and other non-fiction are kept separate from the historical fiction above.