Want to know what books Turtle Bunbury recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Turtle Bunbury's favorite book recommendations of all time.
1
Peter Somerville-Large: | 3.50
For 700 years the Ascendancy dominated Ireland: landlords built their great houses, landscaped their parks and spent wealth gathered from rents, before disappearing in the 20th century. Making use of letters, diaries, memoirs, estate documents, inventories, travellers' tales and family reminiscences, Peter Somerville-Large examines the lifestyle of the so-called rural sovereigns, describing the elegance, discomfort, and danger associated with castle and mansion, and the lives of many famous figures who created or inhabited the great houses. more For 700 years the Ascendancy dominated Ireland: landlords built their great houses, landscaped their parks and spent wealth gathered from rents, before disappearing in the 20th century. Making use of letters, diaries, memoirs, estate documents, inventories, travellers' tales and family reminiscences, Peter Somerville-Large examines the lifestyle of the so-called rural sovereigns, describing the elegance, discomfort, and danger associated with castle and mansion, and the lives of many famous figures who created or inhabited the great houses. less 
Turtle BunburyI really like his writing. He has been a big influence on me. My mother sent me off to meet him when I was a kid, telling me, “He is a writer, you should go and talk to him.” (Source)
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2
Details the descendents of some 500 Irish families, whether living in Ireland or settled abroad. This book includes PDF (on CD-ROM) of the contents of the book along with comprehensive family records from various Burke's Landed Gentry 19th Edition titles - The Kingdom in Scotland, The Ridings of York and The Principality of Wales. more Details the descendents of some 500 Irish families, whether living in Ireland or settled abroad. This book includes PDF (on CD-ROM) of the contents of the book along with comprehensive family records from various Burke's Landed Gentry 19th Edition titles - The Kingdom in Scotland, The Ridings of York and The Principality of Wales. less Turtle BunburyThis is vital for me as a family historian in Ireland, because quite a lot of the families that I write about are landed gentry who ran Ireland from the time of William of Orange to the War of Independence. This series chronicles all these families’ births, marriages and deaths. It has a little bit of anecdote here and there. It will say what regiment they were in and where they were at school. (Source)
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3
Fraser, Georges McDonald, P. Clinquart | 4.39
For starters, Harry Flashman is expelled from school as a drunken bully. After seducing his father's mistress, he begins a secret life that leads from the boudoirs and bordellos of Victorian England to the erotic frontiers of her exotic Empire. Along the way he lies, cheats, steals, fights fixed duels, betrays his country and proves a coward on the battlefield."The refreshingly funny and ribald adventure story told by a rogue who is a cross between Byron's Don Juan and Fielding's Tom Jones." (Best Sellers)
more For starters, Harry Flashman is expelled from school as a drunken bully. After seducing his father's mistress, he begins a secret life that leads from the boudoirs and bordellos of Victorian England to the erotic frontiers of her exotic Empire. Along the way he lies, cheats, steals, fights fixed duels, betrays his country and proves a coward on the battlefield."The refreshingly funny and ribald adventure story told by a rogue who is a cross between Byron's Don Juan and Fielding's Tom Jones." (Best Sellers)
less Turtle BunburyI have always been really interested in the 19th century and these books put a lot of it in context for me. They are brilliantly written and excellently researched. Flashman is a character whom George McDonald Fraser takes on from the moment he is expelled from Tom Brown’s School, creating 12 fictional memories. For me, they really brought history to life. It introduced me to history from all... (Source)
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4
Part of the 'Courtney' series
'Something always dies when the lion feeds and yet there is meat for those that follow him.' The lion is Sean, hero of this tremendous drama of the men who took possession of South Africa in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
Sean and his twin-brother Garrick grew up on their father's farm in Natal. The first part of the book deals with his childhood and youth and his longing to become a successful farmer and hard-hitting fighter like his father.
The tough life of cattle-farming is brusquely interrupted by the Zulu Wars,... more Part of the 'Courtney' series
'Something always dies when the lion feeds and yet there is meat for those that follow him.' The lion is Sean, hero of this tremendous drama of the men who took possession of South Africa in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
Sean and his twin-brother Garrick grew up on their father's farm in Natal. The first part of the book deals with his childhood and youth and his longing to become a successful farmer and hard-hitting fighter like his father.
The tough life of cattle-farming is brusquely interrupted by the Zulu Wars, when Sean and his brother see fighting for the first time. Wilbur Smith vividly recreates the excitement of the war for the young men-their hope of winning their own cattle, the horror of the massacre at Isandhlwana, the heroism of the defence at Rorkes Drift.
'Witwatersrand' is the name of the second part of this book and it tells the story of Sean's fabulous success in the gold rush and his rich life with Duff Charleywood and the beautiful Candy in the new town of Johannesburg, where huge fortunes were made and lost in a morning's dealing on the Exchange.
The atmosphere of this feverish, violent time is brilliantly drawn: the heavy drinking, the elaborate houses, the ruthless abandonment of the failure. Sean and Duff are caught at last in a trap laid by their rival, the sinister and clever Hradsky, and leave Johannesburg for the wilderness to seek their fortunes once more.
And now the book moves to its climax. At last it seems as though Sean will settle to a quiet married life – but fate has other plans for him. They return to Johannesburg and tragedy strikes quickly. Sean finds himself alone once more...
Filled with action scenes in war and the early heady days of the gold rush, and adventure among the vast game herds of the African wilderness, this novel is dominated by the towering compelling personality of Sean, whose life story is continued in The Sound of Thunder and A Sparrow Falls.
Reviews
* 'Plenty of incident and colour' – The Observer, 1966
* 'Pride of place goes to When the Lion Feeds because it is bigger, wider and more full of plot than all the others put together ...'
– The Daily Telegraph, 1966.
* 'Wilbur Smith has built up his wide-screen adventure story with energy and shrewdness.' – Sunday Times, 1966
* 'Mr. Smith is a natural story-teller who moves confidently and often splendidly in his period and sustains a flow of convincing incident without repeating his excitement.' – The Scotsman. 1966
* 'A very impressive book in its wide scope and its descriptive colour.' – Sphere less Turtle BunburyYes, it is the first of the Courtney sagas. Lots of school boys get hooked on Wilbur Smith, and there are of course grown men who love them too, so he seems to go across the board. I started reading him when I was about 14 or 15, and now the series runs to about 12 or 13 books. I thought it was brilliantly clever. It is like a soap opera where every book is the next chapter of the story. (Source)
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5
Gabriel Garcia Marquez | 4.14
The brilliant, bestselling, landmark novel that tells the story of the Buendia family, and chronicles the irreconcilable conflict between the desire for solitude and the need for love—in rich, imaginative prose that has come to define an entire genre known as "magical realism." more The brilliant, bestselling, landmark novel that tells the story of the Buendia family, and chronicles the irreconcilable conflict between the desire for solitude and the need for love—in rich, imaginative prose that has come to define an entire genre known as "magical realism." less 
Barack ObamaWhen asked what books he recommended to his 18-year-old daughter Malia, Obama gave the Times a list that included The Naked and the Dead and One Hundred Years of Solitude. “I think some of them were sort of the usual suspects […] I think she hadn’t read yet. Then there were some books that are not on everybody’s reading list these days, but I remembered as being interesting.” Here’s what he... (Source)
Oprah WinfreyBrace yourselves—One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez is as steamy, dense and sensual as the jungle that surrounds the surreal town of Macondo! (Source)
Richard BransonToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)
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