David Churchill

A slightly stronger follow up to the first book, a little muddled in places as there are just so many characters. I particularly enjoyed the plotting which was more fictional than based on fact, an adventurous historical romp but more soap opera than fact.

Duke William of Normandy has secured his right to rule and fought off off the major threats to Normandy. He is happily ensconced with his wife Matilda and their growing brood of children. However when the King of England offers the throne to William upon his death, William has the opportunity for so much more. The nobles of England do not feel that this is right, particularly Harold and Tostig of Wessex. However the King sends Harold over to Normandy to make the offer and William demands a show more loyalty pledge from Harold in return. On the death of the King, Harold reneges on his promise and William has only one course of action open to him, he must invade England and settle the matter once and for all.

Covering the twenty years between William's battles with the French King and his victory at Hastings, this is a fictionalised version of events. Whilst I do not feel Churchill is the strongest fiction writer in the world, his prose is clunky at times and the plot jumps all over the place, I do think that he has a way of writing about battle and medieval politics that is to be admired. show less

After the death of his father, young William is named Duke of Normandy but he has a group of nobles who are acting as protectors until he achieves adulthood. Ralph de Gace is a junior member of the council until he manages to kill off his elders but how will he cope as William grows up? In England Harold Harefoot is dead and his half-brother Edward has come to claim the throne but the earls are politicking to control the throne. As William grows into a strong young man he sows the seeds of show more his own dynasty by securing his Dukedom.

The back-story of William the Conqueror (or William the Bastard as he is known here) is fairly sketchy, however the connections between England, Normandy and Denmark are well-known. In this book Churchill has built a historical novel around the known facts, he has embroidered on what is known and developed existing and fictional characters in order to tell a coherent story. The story bounces along at a decent pace with lots of thrilling set pieces and a few interesting characters. However the quality of the writing is a little superficial and it does feel like a series of set pieces vaguely linked together. Enjoyable enough but not with a lot of depth. show less

Finally finished the series and it wasn’t bad, particularly enjoyed the Battle of Stamford Bridge. My only bugbear is how long it took to get to the end, this book is called Conqueror but the actual conquest was the last 20 pages. A good series with a host of great characters but maybe too many side plots slowing it down.