“Outlander follows the story of Claire Randall, a married combat nurse from 1945 who is mysteriously swept back in time to 1743, where she is immediately thrown into an unknown world where her life is threatened. When she is forced to marry Jamie, a chivalrous and romantic young Scottish warrior, a passionate affair is ignited that tears Claire’s heart between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.” [Text and image: Starz’s Outlander Website]

Starz’s new series is inspired by Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels:

• Outlander
• Dragonfly in Amber
• Voyager
• Drums of Autumn
• The Fiery Cross
• A Breath of Snow and Ashes
• An Echo in the Bone
• Written in My Own Heart’s Blood

If you’ve read those books but have not yet begun Gabaldon’s Lord John Grey novels, in order, they are:

• Lord John and the Private Matter
  “Lord John is in a difficult spot. His cousin Olivia is engaged to marry the Honorable Joseph Trevelyan, but he has just observed something of a rather personal nature that, if confirmed, might put an end to any talk of marital bliss. Determined to investigate further, Lord John is distracted when the Crown calls for his services. A comrade in arms has been slain, and to complicate matters, the victim may have been a traitor. Now Lord John has not one, but two puzzling mysteries to solve.”
• Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade
• Lord John and the Hand of Devils
• The Scottish Prisoner

I. Just remember “Scot rhymes with Plot”: General Scottish History

• Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Biography of Charles Edward Stuart by Susan Maclean Kybett
• 1745: A Military History of the Last Jacobite Rising by Stuart Reid
• The Flight of Bonnie Prince Charlie by Hugh Douglas
  “The era of the Jacobite wars remains one of the more confusing and fascinating aspects of British history. The wars reached an ignominious conclusion with the flight and escape of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1746 after the Jacobite defeat at the Battle of Colloden. The manhunt for this last Stuart pretender created a legend that still endures in the Scottish Highlands. Douglas is a biographer and social historian, and Stead is a photographer. Together they have provided a thrilling chronicle of a massive pursuit and daring escape, set against the backdrop of a wild, beautiful, but treacherous landscape.”
• The Royal Stuarts: A History of the Family that Shaped Britain by Allan Massie
• Highlanders: A History of the Scottish clans by Fitzroy Maclean
• Scotland: The Story of a nation by Magnus Magnusson
• The Scottish Nation: A History, 1700 -2000 by T.M. Devine
• An Illustrated History of Scotland by Elisabeth Fraser

II. General History of England in the mid-20th century (yeah it’s kind of a bummer)

• How We Lived Then: A History of Everyday Life During the Second World War by Norman Longmate
• Sisters In Arms : British Army Nurses Tell Their Story by Nicola Tyrer
  “The amazing experiences of the Queen Alexandra nurses in the Second World War form one of the greatest adventure stories of modern times, and — incredibly — remain largely untold. Thousands of middle-class girls, barely out of school, were plucked from sheltered backgrounds, subjected to training regimes unimaginable tough by today’s standards, and sent forth to share the harsh conditions of the fighting services. They had to deal with the most appalling suffering, yet most found reserves of inner strength that carried them through episodes of unrelieved horror. Over 400 nurses died, torpedoed in hospital ships, bombed in field hospitals or murdered in Japanese prison camps. Dozens won medals for gallantry. From the beaches of Dunkirk, to Singapore and D-Day, they saw it all.”
• Austerity Britain, 1945-51 by David Kynaston
• Year Zero: A History of 1945 by Ian Buruma.
• Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II by Keith Lowe
  “The end of World War II in Europe is remembered as a time when cheering crowds filled the streets, but the reality was quite different. Across Europe, landscapes had been ravaged, entire cities razed, and more than thirty million people had been killed in the war. The institutions that we now take for granted—such as police, media, transport, and local and national government—were either entirely absent or compromised. Crime rates soared, economies collapsed, and whole populations hovered on the brink of starvation”
• After the War by Werner Bischof

III. Like-minded: Romance Novels & Historical Fiction & Time Travel (Oh, My)

• Into the Wilderness series by Sara Donati:
  Into the Wilderness
  “A judge’s daughter elopes with a white adventurer in Colonial America. Elizabeth arrived from England to marry a doctor, but is smitten by Nathaniel, a man raised by the Mohawks. The doctor, however, refuses to give her up and pursues them.”
  Dawn on a Distant Shore
  Lake in the Clouds
  Fire Along the Sky
  Queen of Swords
  The Endless Forest
• The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
  “Confronted on the one hand by Hitler’s unstoppable war machine, and on the other by a Soviet system determined to crush the human spirit, Tatiana and Alexander are pitted against the very tide of history, at a turning point in the century that made the modern world.”
• Tatiana and Alexander by Paullina Simons (sequel to The Bronze Horseman)
• The Summer Garden by Paullina Simons (conclusion to the trilogy)
• The River of No Return by Bee Ridgeway
  “Waking up in a modern London hospital 200 years after meeting his death on a Napoleonic battlefield, Nick Falcott is indoctrinated into a time-traveling society and returned to the side of a woman he loves to reclaim a vital talisman, a mission that places the fate of the future in his hands.”
• On a Highland Shore by Kathleen Givens
  “When her Scottish highland village is decimated in a Viking raid two weeks before her wedding, Margaret MacDonald and her surviving siblings find shelter in the home of warrior Gannon MacMagnus, who agrees to help Margaret locate her abducted younger brother.”
• Rivals for the Crown by Kathleen Givens (Sequel to On a Highland Shore)
• Kilgannon by Kathleen Givens
• The Wild Rose of Kilgannon by Kathleen Givens (sequel to Kilgannon)
• Rebellion by Nora Roberts
• Kiss of the Highlander by Karen Marie Moning
• Highland Destiny by Hannah Howell
• A Cottage by the Sea by Ciji Ware
• The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley
  “In the year 2008, Carrie McClelland can’t seem to hit the right note for her next novel. An unplanned detour in Scotland with a stop at the castle that inspired Count Dracula, sets her on a different path. This path took her back 300 years to that same castle, and to a rebellion doomed to failure. Alternating between the contemporary setting and the past, The Winter Sea takes us into little known worlds: historical footnotes, a history of Scotland and the Jacobite rebellion of 1708 and the possibility of genetic memory.”
• Lady of the Glen by Jennifer Roberson
• Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
• The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
  “In 16th century Scotland, a rebellious outlaw returns home from distant lands, determined to set in motion his own violent agenda that will upset the balance of power in Europe.”