Reading History and loving it!

We had an excellent speaker at our writers' group last month. She talked about writing and researching historical fiction, and it struck me, I've just started writing a story that wasn't even meant to be historical, but it's set in the past because it's a prequel to a story set in the present, and... well, now I'm using Wikipedia to research the history.

I certainly couldn't write historical fiction like the authors of the books I'm reviewing below. I love reading it, but all that research wou...