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Books to read & refer to on Personal Statement

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She publishes too many of them in such a short space of time to be deemed proper academic texts. I'm sure there are the odd person who does like them but you very rarely see her books on reading lists for example.

I would personally avoid them, same goes for Alison Weir. I wouldn't mention historical fiction either as if your PS is being read by a tudor court historian, they'll probably laugh at The Other Boleyn Girl for example. It's ok up to a point and then it just goes off into the wonderful world of fiction (which some argue History is!). It's up to you really.

I don't know of many who mentioned books in thier PS at all and IMHO admissions tutors want to see the reason why you're genuinely interested in studying History rather than mentioning some book you read because you thought it might look good.

Ok thanks

The issue is not what you read, but what you do with what you learn from it. Read around a topic that interests you, and use that to show in your PS that you are aware of the debates and that you have a view about them. Just listing books you have read without any comment or reflection on them is completely useless. While I wouldn't be too purist about it, it is probably fair to say that Philippa Gregory would go down rather less well than John Guy. Some academics are a bit dismissive of Antonia Fraser or Alison Weir, but that shouldn't stop you from reading them if you want to. Better that than nothing at all!