Reviewed by Louise Maskill
1176 - England
King Henry II reigns over a vast empire that stretches the length of Britain and reaches the foothills of the Pyrenees. But he is aging, and his powerful and ambitious sons are restless.Henry's third son, Richard of Aquitaine, is developing a fearsome reputation for being a ruthless warrior. Arrogant and conceited he earns the name Richard Lionheart for his bravery and brutality on the battlefield.
After the death of his brothers, Richard's impatience to take the throne, and gain the immense power that being King over a vast empire would bring him, leads him to form an alliance with France.
And so, Richard begins his bloody quest to return the Holy Land to Christian rule.
I recently received a copy of Anarchy by Stewart Binns to review but as I've currently got a backlog, and
this style of historical adventure fiction is not one I would normally read, I have decided to offer this as a giveaway prize instead.
Ruthless brutality, greed and ambition: the Anarchy
The year is 1186, the thirty-second year of the reign of Henry II.
Gilbert
Foliot, Bishop of London, has lived through long Henry's reign and that
of his grandfather, Henry I. He has witnessed the terrifying civil war
between Henry II's mother, the Empress Matilda, and her cousin, Stephen;
a time so traumatic it becomes known as the Anarchy.
The
greatest letter writer of the 12th Century, Folio gives an intimate
account of one of England's most troubled eras. Central to his account
is the life of a knight he first met over fifty years earlier, Harold of
Hereford.
