Jean Plaidy / Philippa Carr

Jean Plaidy is the pen name of a prolific English novelist and author named Eleanor Alice Buford Hibbert, who liked to write historical fiction, romantic fiction, and gothic fiction novels. She was particularly famous for combining facts and imagination for bringing alive history through her books of romance and fiction. Author Plaidy used to publish several books every year in different genres and for each of her genres she used to use a different pseudonym.

The best place to start is the Tudor Saga series, the earliest of Jean Plaidy / Philippa Carr's multi-book series: it opens with Murder Most Royal / King's Pleasure (1949) and runs to 11 books across 1949–1982, ending with Uneasy Lies the Head / To Hold the Crown (1982). Jean Plaidy / Philippa Carr's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Jean Plaidy / Philippa Carr has 196 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1940 and 1995. 104 of them belong to 15 named series — the largest being the Daughters Of England series with 20 books — and 92 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Jean Plaidy / Philippa Carr's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Tudor Saga (1949–1982, 11 books), Catherine De Medici (1952–1958, 3 books) and A Novel of the Stuarts (1955–1972, 7 books), plus 12 more.

This guide splits Jean Plaidy / Philippa Carr's 196 books into 15 named series and 92 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Daughters Of England (20 books, 1972–1995); Plantagenet Saga (14 books, 1976–1982); Georgian Saga (11 books, 1967–1972); Queens Of England (11 books, 1983–1993); Tudor Saga (11 books, 1949–1982), plus 10 further series.